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LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT AND HIS BRAVE SOLDIERS. 



THE PICTORIAL BOOK OF 

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 

OF THE 

WAR OF THE REBELLION, 

EMBRACING THE MOST BRILLIANT AND REMARKABLE ANECDOTICAL EVENTS 

OK THE 

GREAT CONFLICT IN THE UNITED STATES: 

HEROIC, PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, ROMANTIC, HUMOROUS AND TRAGICAL, 

FROM THE TIME OF THE MEMORABLE TOAST OF 

APCBR1W MOKS©Nl-=."THE FEBERAI. UNION; IT MIST RE PRESERVE© t" 

Uttered in 1830, in presence of the original Secession Conspirators, to the Assassination 
of President Lincoln, and the end of the War. 

WITH 

FAMOUS WOKDS AND DEEDS OF WOMAN, 

SANITARY AND HOSPITAL SCENES, PRISON EXPERIENCES, &c. 



By FRAZAR KIRKLAND, 
Author of the " Cyclopedia of Commercial and Business Anecdotes," etc. 



Scaati&lla Illustrate foitjf oto 3M ftngrabht^ 



n * r % 



,e * Washin 

C- PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. 

HARTFORD PUBLISHING CO., HARTFORD, CONN, 

NATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA., AND CINCINNATI, O. 

J. A. STODDARD & CO., CHICAGO, ILL. 

ZEIGLER. MCCURDY & CO., ST. LOUIS, MO. 

1867. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

HUBLBUT, WILLIAMS & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United 
States, for the District of Connecticut. 



£">'•> 






Electrotyped by 
LOCKWOOD & MANDEVILLE, 

HARTFORD, COJiN- 



PREFACE 



PLAN OF THE WORK, 



It is safe to assume that no family — no intelligent man, or woman, indeed, — in the 
sisterhood of States composing our common country, will be willing to forego tlie 
possession of some portraiture of the more lively or personal sayings and doings 
which crowded themselves with such rapidity into each succeeding day of the Great 
Four Years' War: and, to supply that want, in the most fit and attractive form, this 
volume has been prepared, and is now offered, — in confident assurance of its value and 
popular reception, — to the American People. 

Not only would it be a difficult task to find that man or Avoman whose mind has 
not been thus enlisted to the most intense degree of interest in the great procession 
of events during the period named, but the attempt would be almost equally futile to 
discover the family circle or individual upon whom those events have not fallen, either 
directly or indirectly, with a shock which memory will never efface nor time obliviate. 
And whilst, of these latter, it may be said the number is well nigh past enumeration, 
who have spilled their blood, sundered the nearest and dearest ties, endured weari- 
some and relentless persecution, and been brought to irretrievable penury and desola- 
tion ; on the other hand, multitudes there are, who now find reason to rejoice, as 
surviving participants in the grand and triumphant, though bloody and appalling train 
of events, which, under an overruling Providence, have doomed forever this and all 
future similar attempts to destroy a Government founded in the blood and prayers of 
earth's wisest and best, and upon which the hopes of the world are centred. 

Great Company of Heroic Martyrs ! The Nation's acclaim of gratitude hails 
and blesses you, and the Song of Jubilee which you have put into the hearts of the 
people — yea, of thrice ten millions ! — shall be taken up by coming generations, and 
in far distant lands now awaking to political consciousness, until every voice shall sing- 
responsive to the Universal Anthem of Manhood Vindicated, Justice Regenerated, and 
Liberty Enthroned. 

To exhibit and commemorate the course of events thus inaugurated in crimeful 
ambition and sectional heresy, and culminating in a New Birth, and in a larger, stronger, 
and more enduring Life to the Nation thus sought to be destroyed, the historian has 
gathered together and woven into thoughtful chapters the documentary materials and 
official details of the Struggle ; the poet's genius has lent its inspiration to the charm 
of glowing and melodious rhyme ; and the pen of romance has indited its most touch- 
ing story of mingled pathos and horror, of principle tested, and suffering crowned 
with victory ! 

All these have their appropriate place, — their peculiar usefulness and adaptation. 
Future generations, scarcely less than the present, will read with absorbing avidity 
the historian's volume ; the poet's ringing verse will not cease to be the keynote to 
warm the sympathies and rouse the heart to greater love of patriotism, freedom and 
justice. ; and the more gushing sensibilities will find food in the well-wrought tale ot 
heart-trials not simply " founded " on fact, but the delineation of gaunt fact itself, in 
its relation to individual cases innumerable. 



o PREFACE. 

The character of the present work, — The Book of Anecdotes and Incidents 
of the War of the Rebellion, — is distinctive alike from that of the sober Histoiy, 
the connected Narrative, and the impassioned Story. Whilst embracing all that is 
striking and marvellous, touching, witty and pathetic, in the scenes from which the 
latter have been produced, its object is not to weave together any individual theory, 
philosophy, or methodical detail of affairs, but to present, in attractive form and classifi- 
cation, a volume of the most thrilling, racy and wonderful incidents in the Nation's 
four years' experience of War, culminating in the assassination of Lincoln, the Beloved 
Chief Magistrate, and in the ignominious doom of the Arch- Conspirators ! 

It may be remarked, in a word, that, equally to the Army, the Navy, and to the 
Civilian, — one and the same in their glorious consecration to the great cause of 
National Existence, — are the pages of this work devoted. 

Nor is this collection confined to any particular State, Section, Corps, or Depart- 
ment, but embraces them all. The States loyal, and those in rebellion, are here por- 
trayed, in the scenes, incidents and episodes, which transpired in them respectively. 
The Army of the Potomac, of the Cumberland, of Virginia, of the Southwest, of the 
James, and every other, of whatever name, is alike and copiously represented. Gen- 
erals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Thomas, Butler, Fre- 
mont, — Admirals Farragut, Foote, Porter, Rodgers, Dahlgren, Dupont, and the rest 
of the great host of Chief Commanders on the Land and on the Sea, — their grand 
armies, corps, divisions, brigades, fleets, squadrons, etc., and the brave men under their 
lead, — are here duly commemorated. 

The stirring deeds of the Armies and Fleets en masse, and of their officers and 
men individually, — those momentous days and hours, those transcendent acts and move- 
ments, the memory of which will live in letters of blood before the eyes and burn like 
fire in the hearts of those who participated in them ; these, sifted like gold, are here 
spread out in all their varied attractiveness. Thus it is, that the rank and file, as well 
as the superior officers, are made illustrious in these pages, by the valor, skill or 
achievement, which distinguished them, — and such instances may be said, without any 
strain of truth, to have characterized every regiment and crew, without exception, in 
the Grand Army and Navy of the Union ! 

A glance at the General Contents of this work will furthermore show that they 
comprise Anecdotes of Scenes and Events relating to several hundred battles, skir- 
mishes and collisions, on land and sea, including every engagement of note during the 
prolonged Conflict ; that the vessels from whose mast-head the gallant ensign waved 
memorably in the nation's service, have here their annals of fame and honor ; and 
that not a single general officer, of historic fame, in either arm of the country's 
defence, has been lost sight of, in giving completeness to the volume as a repository 
of whatever is piquant, racy, marvellous, pathetic, or grand, in the different depart- 
ments and fields of military operation. 

The most famous sayings and doings in political circles, bearing upon Secession in 
its public and private aspects ; camp, picket, spy, scout and battle-field adventures ; 
the brilliant tactics, ruses, strategy, etc., which have made this war so remarkable even 
in the eyes of European military governments ; thrilling feats of bravery among the 
tarpaulins and blue-jackets ; " hard-tack " and mule beef legends ; recruiting, con- 
scripting and substituting oddities ; female soldiers ; the harrowing sights and experi- 
ences of the hospital and prison ; and all the inner-life happenings, humors and 
drolleries of an army ; — these cover the broad pages of this richly filled volume, and, it 
is believed, render it, above all other Avorks which the war has called forth, the one 
in especial which, for the spare hours of home reading, every soldier, seaman, citizen 
and family, will desire to possess. 

But, in addition to the above brief summary of contents, it may be claimed for this 
work that it is, almost exclusively, the one specially planned for a choice and discrimi- 
nating exhibition of Woman's Career in the Scenes and Events of the War ! Per- 
haps no other fact could give such peculiar value to these pages, or secure for them 
such ready acceptance on the part of the reading public. 



PREFACE. 9 

The separate volume, originally contemplated by the editor, to be devoted entirely 
to that deeply interesting record, has been merged with this, into one, thus adding to 
its departments a most attractive feature — rich, unique, and surpassing romance in its 
resume of startling facts and strange developments of the Perils, Valor, Amours and 
Devotedness specially pertaining to that sex, the wheat being carefully sifted from the 
chaff. The wonderful character of Woman's Career, North and South, during a four 
years' fratricidal war which reached all classes and penetrated every element and 
interest of society, and in which she herself was summoned to bear such variety and 
burden of experience, has no counterpart Avhatsoever in the history of mankind ; a 
fact Avhich, indeed, could not have been otherwise, when it is considered that never 
before, in the ages of the world, was such a contest waged, and that at no previous 
period was Avoman's social and intellectual equality with the other sex so generally 
admitted, or her influence so powerful and wide-spread, — thus necessarily bringing her, 
by a coincidence truly memorable, in active identity with public affairs, in the greatest 
of human crises ! 

The part which the sex enacted, under these unparalleled circumstances, is here 
most amply illustrated, — excluding, of course, much that was of inferior interest, and 
the record will at least be adjudged a Brilliant, Romantic and Inviting one, on glanc- 
ing at the Index of subjects comprised in this volume, those relating to Woman being 
there printed in Italics. 

Not only in respect to the specialty just remarked upon, but equally with reference 
to all the other topical divisions of the volume, it may be asserted that no trouble, 
labor, travel, nor consideration of time or cost, has been allowed to stand in the way 
of their most complete preparation. Familiar intercourse with officials and privates, 
attendance at the Departments in Washington, personal observation and correspond- 
ence, all the official documents, the teeming issues of the newspaper press, in their 
vast and prolific range, — of all these, the editor has painstakingly and freely availed 
himself, during the last five years, in order to produce a work, if not absolutely perfect, 
yet certainly not excelled, in the quality of readableness, by any Book of the War. 
Of the many thousand anecdotes which have passed under his inspection, in the immense 
accumulation of materials named, — common to all and special to none, — the contents 
of this volume comprise those which were found to have called forth the greatest 
interest and admiration on the part of the public, and which were thought to most 
aptly exhibit the lights and shades of the Avar. This Avas the aim and object kept in 
vieAV. 

A conscientious care Avas justly called for, and duly exercised, in excluding those 
productions concerning the Avar, to which the pens that gave them birth affixed a 
retaining claim ; and a faithful comparison, in that respect, of what is here brought 
together, Avith the contents of other collections, is freely invited. It Avas nevertheless 
found inherently impossible, in a vast number of instances, (out of more than seven 
thousand memorabilia in hand,) owing to the rapid and wide-spread publication in so 
many issues of the press, interchangeably, of the same anecdotes or performances, to 
trace out and authenticate their paternity or first source ; — a difficulty still further 
increased by the citation, in frequent cases, of different authorities or sources for the 
same narration, incident, poem, etc., etc. This lack and confusion of identity, so com- 
mon, and perhaps unavoidable, in the making up of anecdotical columns, selections of 
miscellany, poetry, and extracts from current books, for the press, did not, hoAvever, inter- 
pose any barrier to their use in a work like this. But if, arising from this circumstance, 
anything has thus unconsciously been appropriated for these pages which encroaches 
upon any exclusive and verified proprietorship, or upon any repository of avoAved and 
genuine originality, such matter "will as readily and cheerfully be eliminated from the 
text as it Avas there giAen a place. 

With reference to those passages which inA'ol\ T e the heated language of personal 
colloquy or combat, it seemed not always possible, howeA T er much to be desired, to 
divest them of all their excited, and eA r en irreverent expletives, and at the same time 
preserve the animus of the occurrence as it actually transpired. Nor, indeed, is it a 



10 



PREFACE. 



question in ethics, readily to be answered in the affirmative, whether the recital of 
those ghastly scenes of blood and death, which necessarily constitute the substance of 
every war and of all war literature, and which are read of with such avidity, can be 
considered any more congenial to a correct taste and moral sensibility, than the merely 
verbal attestations, however imprecatory, by which they were accompanied. 

As showing the extent and variety of matter contained in this volume, the simple 
statement will suffice, that the accompanying list of Battles, Engagements, Collisions, 
etc., etc., consulted in the preparation of these anecdotes, numbers several thousand ; 
— of Generals and Naval Commanders, and of Public Vessels, many hundred ; — each 
list reflecting a multitude of pleasing, spicy, unique, and startling events. Besides 
these, there is presented a classified outline of the topical contents or special subjects 
pertaining to each of the Eight Parts, and a most copious Index to the leading anec- 
dotes is placed at the close. 

Of the mechanical appearance of this book, the names, enterprise and liberality, 
of the eminent Publishers, will at once be accepted as vouchers that nothing in the 
typographical and illustrative art has been omitted by them, to gratify the eye, and to 
render the publication one in every way deserving universal patronage. • 

The numerous Illustrative Engravings, executed in the highest style of beauty 
and without regard to cost, by the most skillful artists in the country, which are here 
presented, constitute a feature of embellishment in no other instance attempted in 
books of this kind. They are of themselves alone worth the full price of the volume. 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PLATES, PORTRAITS, AND DESCRIPTIVE EMBELLISHMENTS. 

Designed.and Engraved Expressly for this Work, by N. Orr & Co., New York. 



1. LIEUT.-GEN. GRANT AND HIS BRAVE SOLDIERS, 

2. EMBLEMATIC TITLE-PAGE,— Battle and Corps' Flags,— Printed in Colors, 

3. Dedicatory Vignette, ..:.... 

4. ILLUSTRATIVE PLATE FOR PART I.— The American Flag Triumphant! 

5. Illuminated Initial Letter, ....... 

6. Portrait of John C. Calhoun, 

7. Afraid of the Girl's Eye, 

8. According to their Sympathies, 

9. Vindication of the Flag Abroad, 

10. Portrait of Edwin M. Stanton, 

11. Portrait of Joseph Holt, 

12. Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 

13. Homage to the Flag by an Eagle, 

14. Front-Door Confabulations, 

15. Portrait of Fernando Wood, 

16. Portrait of C. L. Vallandigham, 

17. Carolina Unionist, 

18. Portrait of Stephen A. Douglas, 

19. Portrait of William H Seward, 

20. And the Brother shall Deliver up the Brother to Death, 

21. Hard Shell Brethren, .... 

22. Portrait of Gen. Robert Anderson, 

23. Portrait of Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott, 

24. Minute Men of Massachusetts, 

25. Portrait of Col. R. Barnwell Rhett, 

26. Portrait of John Tyler, 

27. Portrait of Preston S. Brooks, 

28. The Boy Father to the Man, 

29. Presidential Fayor for Everybody, 

30. Portrait of Howell Cobb, . 

31. Which Side? 

32. Portrait of Mrs. Lincoln, 

33. Romantic Adventure, . , 

34. Portrait of Edmund Ruffin, 

35. Refusing to Volunteer, 

36. Portrait of Andrew Jackson, 

37. Swear Him, &c, 

38. Witnessing and Dying for the Truth, 

39. Portrait of Edward Everett, 

40. Portrait of J. C. Breckinridge, 

41. Stating the Exact Alternative, 

42. Portrait of Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas, 

43. Portrait of Charles J. Faulkner, 



PAGE. 

Frontispiece. 



12 



LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS. 



44. Interceding for her Father, 

45. God's Flag, .... 

46. Portrait of R. M. T. Hunter, 

47. Portrait of Gen. Philip Sheridan, 

48. Length of the War, 

49. • Accommodating Himself to Circumstances, 

50. ILLUSTRATIVE PLATE FOR PART II.— Ho! for the War, 

51. Illuminated Initial Letter, 

52. How does he grow 'em? 

53. Love and Patriotism, . 

54. Ira's Wife and his Breeches, 

55. Fate of a Coward, 

56. Fannnie and Nellie; 

57. Career of Frank Henderson, . 

58. Portrait of Lieut.-Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 

59. Hopeful Tackett, 

60. Portrait of John Letcher, 

61. Effect of Crinoline, 

62. Portrait of " Stonewall " Jackson, 

63. Portrait of Col. Billy Wilson, 

64. Quite the Youngest Recruit, 
65* Drafting Scene, 

66. Equal to the Emergency, 

67. Fightin' ober a Bone, 

68. Bounty Jumper Captured by a Dog, 

69. Tender in Years, but Patriotic, 

70. Snaked Away and Drummed In, 

71. Tenderness of the President, 

72. ILLUSTRATIVE PLATE FOR PART III.— Bombardment of Fort Sumter, 

73. Illuminated Initial Letter, 

74. Rallying around the Flag, 

75. Portrait of Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, 

76. Young America, 

77. Is the Colonel at Home? 

78. War and Navy Buildings, 

79. Old Capitol Prison, Washington, 

80. California Joe, 

81. Portrait of Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, 

82. Portrait of Gen. John C. Fremont, 

83. Going in Quest of Satisfaction, 

84. Portrait of Gen. Humphrey Marshall, 

85. General Meade's Head-quarters, 

86. Well Done for a Youth, . 

87. Portrait of Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, 

88. Good Samaritan, 

89. Portrait of Gen. Wm. W Ayerill, 

90. Too Big Not to be a Soldier, 

91. Portrait of Judah P. Benjamin, 

92. Lieut. Davis's Task, 

93. Portrait of Major Zagonyi, 

94. Mrs. Brownell, the Heroine, 

95. Portrait of Gen. Pope, 

96. Portrait of Gen. Saxton, - 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 



13 



97. Courtesies of Picket Life, 

98. Portrait of Gen. A. Sidney Johnston, 

99. Won his Wager, 

100. Portrait of Gen. Longstreet, . 

101. Uncomfortably Warm Place, 

102. Head-quarters of Lee, Gettysburg, 

103. Preferred to Die in the Field, 

104. Characteristic Pluck, 

105. Ragged Texans, 

106. Remember Fort Pillow, 

107. Use for a Shell, 

108. Portrait of Gen. Jeff. Thompson, 

109. Fate of Two Germans, 

110. Owning Up, 

111. Portrait of Gen. Philip Kearny, 

112. Negro Rifleman, 

113. Portrait of Gen. E. D. Baker, 

114. Fairfax Court House, . . - 

115. Portrait of Col. Ellsworth, 

116. Bull Run Battlefield, 

117. Neutral Cornfield, 

118. Portrait of Gen. J. E. Johnston, 

119. Climbing the Mountains, 

120. Union Bushwhackers and Rebel Cavalry 

121. Portrait of Maj.-Gen. McPherson, 

122. Portrait of Gen. Barksdale, . 

123. Portrait of Gen. Dayid Hunter, 

124. Union and Rebel Pickets, 

125. Portrait of Gen. A. E. Burnside, 

126. Soldiers Captured by a Boy, . 

127. Portrait of Albert Pike, . 

128. Intrepid Conduct, 

129. Bob, the Spunky Drummer Boy, 

130. Portrait of Gen. H. W. Slocum, 

131. Portrait of Gov. H. A. Wise, 

132. Capt. Tilden's Lucky Escape, . 

133. As Good as a Captured Gun, 

134. Portrait of Gen. J. C. Pemberton, 

135. Portrait of Gen. L. Polk, 

136. Ahead of his Troops, . 

137. Surrender of Gen. Lee, 

138. Portrait of Gen. G. A. Custer, 

139. ILLUSTRATIVE PLATE FOR PART IV 

140. Illuminated Initial Letter, 

141. Raking a Traitor, . 

142. Naval Peacemaker, 

143. Portrait of Lieut. Worden, 

144. " Charge ! Chester, Charge J " 

145. Portrait of Admiral Dupont, 

146. Half-hour's Visit at Island No. 10, 

147. Light-House at Fort Morgan, 

148. Portrait of Admiral Porter, . 

149. Before Vicksburg, 



Naval Scenes and Exploits, 



-Varieties of the War, 



14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

150. Pleasant Hoax all Round, .... 

151. Wreck of the Monitor, 

152. Portrait of Capt. J. A. Winslow, 

153. Portrait of Admiral A. H. Foote, 

154. Blue-Jacket on his Mule, 

155. Lieut. Cushing's Great Exploit, 

156. Another Cassabianca, . 

157. • Pictorial Humors of the War, 

158. Portrait of Secretary Welles, 

159. Portrait of Com. Bailey, . 

160. Portrait of Capt. Semmes, 

161. Buchanan's Sword Yielded, 

162. ■ River Devils for Carrying on War, . 

163. The Merrimac, 

164. Gunboat Fight at Fort Pillow, 

165. Fleet of Gunboats in the James River, 

166. Farragut lashed <to the Mast, 

167. Gunboat Kansas, 

168. Willing to part with his other Leg, 

169. ILLUSTRATIVE PLATE FOR PART V., 

170. Illuminated Initial Letter, 

171. "Mark Time," 

172. Portrait of Gen. Sherman, 

173. Sentry's Encounter with a Regular, 

174. Halting Effect of the Ardent, 

175. Portrait of Secretary Chase, 

176. Col. Owen's Squad Drill, 

177. Portrait of Gen. McClellan, 

178. Portrait of Gen. Rosecrans, . 

179. Portrait of Gen. J. C. Davis, 

180. Encounter between Nelson and Davis, 

181. Portrait of Gen. Nelson, . 

182. Portrait of Gen. McCook, 

183. Col. Gazley doing Guard Duty, 

184. Portrait of J. C. Ely, . 

185. Caught in his own Trap, 

186. Portrait of Gen. Hardee, 

187. Gen. Butler's Head-quarters, 

188. Whar's dat Nigger, 

189. Belligerent Work, 

190. Military Etiquette, 

191. Orders on the Battlefield, 

192. Portrait of Gen. N. P. Banks, 

193. ILLUSTRATED PLATE FOR PART VI.,— Colored Soldiers, 
194.. Illuminated Initial Letter, 

195. Swamp Angel, 

196. Sanitary Commission, . 

197. Wicked Joke upon a Postmaster, . 

198. Relay House 

199. Army Kitchen, 

200. Swearing in a Cook, 

201. Milking the Cow, . 

202. Sergeant Davis's Tender Beef, 



Page. 
363 



LIST OP ILLUSTKATIONS. 

203. Portrait of Gen. Terry, 

204. Portrait of Gen. Halleck, 

205. Portrait of Gen. Wadsworth, 

206. Peddler and Gen. Nelson, 

207. Pumpkin Pie for Wickford, 

208. Fresh Pork for the Eighth Illinois, . 

209. Affecting Appeal to a Commissary, 

210. Conference of Newspaper Correspondents, 

211. Portrait of Gen. Hooker, 

212. Telegraph Station, 

213. Lieut. 's Perfumed Breath 

214. Prompt Settlement of a Claim, 

215. Field Carriages dispensed with, 

216. Question in Infantry Practice, 

217. Portrait of John H. Morgan, . 

218. No Business wid a Gun, 

219. Portrait of Gen. Beauregard, 

220. Writing Home, 

221. Signalling, 

222. Nellie, the brave Battle Horse, 

223. Indian Mound, Chattanooga, 

224. Flight from the Shenandoah, 

225. Aunt Charlotte, the Old Cook, 

226. Bridge across Platte Creek, 

227. Inflating the Pontoon, 

228. Four Legged Messenger proved Disloyal, 

229. Saddling to suit the Route, 

230. ILLUSTRATIVE PLATE FOR PART VII.,— Christian and 

231. Illuminated Initial Letter, 

232. Portrait of Miss Brownlow, 

233. Beautiful, but Dead, . 

234. That is my Brother, 

235. Tracts versus Pound Cake, 

236. Portrait of Alex. H. Stephens, 

237. Elizabeth Comstock with Dying Soldiers, 

238. Dalliance and Treachery, 

239. Portrait of Gov. Morgan, N. Y., 

240. Amours and Fancies of the Camp, . 

241. Sweet Seventeen overhauling Secessionists, 

242. Castle Thunder, .... 

243. Embalming-Building before Richmond, 

244. Court House and Hospital, 

245. Sergeant's Prophecy Fulfilled, 

246. Incident in the Battle of Fredericksburg, 

247. Portrait of Pauline Cushman, 

248. Libby Prison, .... 

249. Loyalty in Virginia, . 

250. Portrait of Mrs. Gen. Grant, 

251. Portrait of Gen. Tilghman, .. 

252. Gen. Lander and his Bible, 

253. Mistook the Guns, 

254. Portrait of Gen. R. E. Lee, 

255. Bodies Laid Out, 



Sanitary Commissions, 



15 

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16 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



256. Head-Quarters of Gen. Burnside, . 

257. Monument at Stone River, 

258. Proof against Federal Gallantry, 

259. Old Hannah, .... 

260. Familiar Soldier Scenes, (Housekeeping,) 

261. Burns, the Gettysburg Hero, . 

262. Mose Bryan, .... 

263. Soldiers' Grates, 

264. Military Prison at Salisbury, 

265. Miss Lee and the Yankee Corporal, . 

266. Portrait of Gkn. Lyon, 

267. Watch kept by a Dog, . 

268. Sherman's Absence of Mind, . * 

269. Portrait of Gen. Ben. McCulloch, 

270. Jerry and Gen. Thomas' Spy Glass, 

271. Portrait of Gen. Meade, 

272. Carving his own Head-board, 

273. Wickedness of Woman, 

274. Portrait of Bell Boyd, 

275. Old Ladies Conversing about Gkn. Bragg, 

276. Gen. Butler as a Young Lawyer, . 

277. Railroad Depot, Atlanta, Ga., 

278. Alas, Poor Soldier! 

279. Portrait of Gov. Andrew, Mass., 

280. Enjoying Negro Hospitality, 

281. Frankie Bragg, 

282. A Young Woman Shoots a Guerrilla, 

283. Major B. en route with the Widow, . 

284. Portrait of Gov. Curtin, Pa., 

285. A Soldier Mustered Out, 

286. Portrait of Gen. Howard, . 

287. ILLUSTRATIVE PLATE FOR PART VIII.— Early Home 

288. Illuminated Initial Letter, 

289. Portrait of Chas. Sumner, 

290. Death of the Assassin, 

291. Portrait of Secretary Fessenden, 

292. Patience tried too far, 

293. Portrait of Jeff. Davis, 

294. Portrait of President Johnson, 

295. Andrew Johnson's Tailor Shop, 

296. Portrait of Mrs. Jeff. Davis, 

297. Jeff.'s Capture by the Yanks, . 

298. Familiar Talk with Mr. Lincoln, . 

299. Jeff, and the Blacksmith, 

300. Portrait of Geo. N. Sanders, 

301. Grand Finale — "To whom it may Concern!" 



and En 



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599 


. 605 


607 


. 608 


609 


. 611 


613 


. 614 


617 


. 624 


628 


. 629 


630 


d of Pres. Lincoln, 632 


633 


. 636 


639 


. 640 


641 


. 642 


643 


. 646 


649 


. 650 


652 


. 656 


657 


. 660 



GENERAL CONTENTS. 



Page. 

7 



Preface, and Plan of the Work, - 

List of Plates, Portraits, and Descriptive .Embellishments, - 11 

PART FIRST. 

PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ADMINISTRATIVE, ETC. 

Pages 23-154. 

Memorable Annals and Reminiscences of Men and Measures Identified 
with the Great" Struggle ; Heroic Devotion to the Star-Spangled 
Banner, — Valorous Defence of and Dying Blessings upon It ; Dark 
and Troublous Experiences of Unionists and Conspirators ; Tests and 
Trials of Loyalty, North and South; Famous Legal and Judicial Inci- 
dents; Peculiar Instances of Administering and Taking the Oath- 
Allegiance under Stress of Circumstances; Disposal of Knotty Cases- 
Logic and Lessons for Secessionists; Amusing Colloquies; Flashes of 
Rhetoric ; Official Gravities, Jokes, Raillery, Blunders, Retorts, Bur- 
lesques, Witticisms ; &c, &c. 



PART SECOND. 

VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, COMMUTING, SUBSTITUTING, DESERTING, ETC. 

Pages 15*7-218. 

Noble Instances of Rallying to the Ranks, and of Enlistment among the 
Aged and Young; Hearings, Ludicrous and Perplexing, before the 
Commissioners ; Raw Recruits and Eccentric Characters ; Applicants 
for Exemption; Ruses and Quibbles to Escape Duty — Strange Phe- 
nomena of Nativity, Age and Infirmities; Bewildered Surgeons; Luck- 
less Conscripts; Rare Brokerage and Bounty Dealings; Flush Purses; 
Hardships and Miseries ; Side-Shaking Gaieties, Jests, Puns ; &c, &c. 



18 CONTENTS. 

PART THIRD. 

GREAT CONFLICTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ARMY, AND ILLUSTRIOUS 
EXAMPLES OF INDIVIDUAL HEROISM IN THE RANK AND FILE, ETC. 

Pages 221-348. 

Brilliant Battle Scenes ; Military Characteristics op the Leading Gen- 
erals, — their Appearance, Conversations, Orders, Tactics and Bravery, 
when Confronting the Enemy ; Martyrs on the Gory Field ; Unparal- 
leled Fortitude and Endurance; Coolness and Intrepidity in Danger; 
Bold Movements of Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry; Splendid 
Charges; Desperate Hand-to-Hand Encounters; Extraordinary Sharp- 
shooting ; Memorials of Youthful Courage ; Dealings with Bush- 
whackers and Guerrillas ; Celebrities and Adventures of Camp, Picket, 
Spy, Scout and Staff ; Peril, Terror, Panic, and Disaster ; Mirth-Pro- 
voking Sights, Scenes, Whims, Squibs, Oddities ; &c., &c. 

PART FOURTH. 

NAVAL AND COMMERCIAL; SQUADRON, FLEET, STEAMER, GUNBOAT, 

TRANSPORT AND PRIVATEER; THEIR CRUISES, OFFICERS, 

PERFORMANCES, ETC. 

Pages 351-398. 

Terrible Engagements ; Suffering and Death for the Flag ; Havoc and 
Horrors of Modern Bombardment ; Blockade Exploits ; Feats of Sea- 
manship ; Furious Personal Combats ; Long and Exciting Chases ; 
Escapes, Rescues, Prizes ; Thrilling Catastrophes and Tragedies, Cap- 
tures, Sinkings and Surrenders ; Awkward Landsmen, Raw Marines, 
Jolly Veterans, and Treacherous Pilots ; Jack Afloat and Ashore ; 
Freaks, Drolleries, Haps and Mishaps, among the Loyal Tarpaulins 
and Blue Jackets ; &c, &c. 

PART FIFTH. 

MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT, DISCIPLINE AND DRILL, 

PARADE, REVEILLE, REVIEWS, ORDNANCE, PAROLES, PASSES, 

FURLOUGHS, COUNTERSIGNS, FUGITIVE HUNTS, ETC. 

Pages 401-440. 

Mustering-in ; Splendid Specimens of Soldierly Movement; Dexterous 
Handling of Arms ; Evolutions, Comical and Piquant; Queer Dilemmas ; 
Uncouth Subjects and Verdant Victims, White and Black ; Grotesque 
Performances; Novel Terms and Phraseology; Bivouac Sights; Tasks 
and Pleasantries; Mistakes, Jocularities, Facetije; &c, &c. 



CONTENTS. 19 

PART SIXTH. 

COMMISSARY AND RATIONS, FINANCE AND CURRENCY, THE PRESS, THE 
MAILS, THE TELEGRAPH, ETC. 

Pages 443-514. 

Uncle Sam's Supplies; Subsistence under Difficulties; 'Hard-Tack' and 
Mule Beef Legends ; Foraging Raids ; Disloyal Fowls and Contra- 
band Dainties; Impromptu Confiscations in a Small Way; Dialogues 
with the Quartermaster; Shameful Impositions; Scrip and Currency 
Varieties ; Unique Banking Operations ; Collection Excursions at the 
South, Chivalric Repudiation ; Tricks, Artifice, and Accomplishments 
of Editors, Reporters and Correspondents ; Incidents of the Mail ; 
Telegraphic Odds and Ends, Miscellanies, Novelties, Finesse; &c, &c. 



PART SEVENTH. 

DOMESTIC, MORAL, WOMANLY, SANITARY, AFFECTIONAL, MATRIMONIAL, 

ROMANTIC, ETC. 

Pages 517-630. 

Exhibition of Personal Traits, — Benevolence, Generosity, Courtesy, 
Magnanimity, &c; Illustrations of the Home Affections and House- 
hold Attachments ; Female Soldiers ; Regimental Pets ; Marriages in 
Camp; Noble Words and Deeds of Loyal Women; Rancor and Crimi- 
nalities of Female Secessionists ; Hospital Patients ; Ministrations to 
the Sick and Wounded ; Bogus Invalids ; Partings, Reunions, Bereave- 
ments, and Burials; Touching Death-bed Scenes, — Last Words, Memen- 
toes, Keepsakes and Souvenirs ; Prison Contacts, Companions, and Hor- 
rors ; Sayings and Doings of Chaplains ; Genialities, Carricatures, 
Pathos, Fancies and Realities; &c, &c. 



PART EIGHTH. 

FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA ; ASSASSINATION OF 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN; IGNOMINIOUS DOOM OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, ETC. 

Pages 633-660. 

The Most Striking Occurrences relating to the Assassination Conspir- 
acy, the Tragedy, the Actors and their Doom ; Remarkable Passages 
and Conversations in Mr. Lincoln's Presidential Life, — Memorial Inci- 
dents of his Death and of a Nation's Mourning ; Capture and Custody 
of Jefferson Davis, — his Sayings and Doings, Personal Bearing among 
his Captors, and Ignominious Fate; Interesting Reminiscences in the 
Career of Andrew Johnson ; &c, &c. 



20 CONTENTS. 

Page. 
List of Battles, Engagements, Collisions, Captures, Surrenders, Sur- 
prises, etc., on Land and Sea, during the Rebellion, — consulted 
in the Preparation of these Anecdotes, - - 661 

List of the Public Vessels employed in the War, and consulted 
in the Preparation of these Anecdotes, - 681 

Names of the Generals and Chief Naval Officers, under whose 
Command, or in whose Departments, the Anecdotical Incidents, 
etc., here given occurred, ----- 685 

Index to the Leading Anecdotes, - 691 










PART I.— AMERICAN EAGLE TRIUMPHANT. 



PART FIRST. 



ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION— PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, 
CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ADMINISTRATIVE, ETC. 

Memorable Annals and Reminiscences ok Men and Measures identified with the Great 
Struggle ; Heroic Devotion to the Star-Spangled Banner — Valorous Defence of anl i 
Dying Blessings upon it; Dark and Troublous Experiences of Unionists and Conspira- 
tors ; Tests and Trials of Loyalty, North and South ; Famous Legal and Judicial Inci- 
dents ; Peculiar Instances of Administering and Taking the Oath ; Allegiance undeb 
Stress of Circumstances ; Disposal of Knotty Cases ; Logic and Lessons for Secessionists ; 
Amusing Colloquies; Flashes of Rhetoric; Official Gravities, Jokes, Raillery, Per- 
plexities, Blunders, Retorts ; Burlesques, Witticisms, &c, &c. 



"Once to every man and nation, conies the moment to decide 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil sids." 
" Keep step with the music of Union, 

The music our ancestors sung, 
When states, like a jubilant chorus, 
To beautiful sisterhood sprung.'' 

Can either of you to-day name one single act of wroug. deliberately and purposely done by the government at 
Washington, of which the South has aright to complain? I challenge an answer. — Alexander II. Stephens, before 
the Georgia Secessionists' Convention. 



Andrew Jackson's Famous Union Toast. 

the 13th of April, 
1830, there was a 
remarkable dinner 
party in the national 
metropolis. It was 
^/ylthe birthday of 
Thomas Jefferson, 
and those who at- 
tended the party did 
so avowedly for the 
purpose of honoring the memory of the 
author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Such was the tenor of the 
invitation. Andrew Jackson, the Presi- 
dent of the United States, was there. So 
was John C. Calhoun, the Vice President. 
Three of the cabinet ministers, namely, 
Van Buren, Eaton, and Branch w r ere 
there ; and members of Congress and citi- 
zens not a few. 

2 




It soon became manifest to the more 
sagacious ones that this dinner party and 
the day were to be made the occasion for 
inaugurating the new doctrine of nullifica- 
tion, and to fix the paternity of it on Mr. 
Jefferson, the great Apostle of Democracy 
in America. Many gentlemen present, 
perceiving the drift of the whole perform- 
ance, withdrew in disgust before sum- 
moned to the table ; but the sturdy old 
President, perfectly informed, remained. 

When the dinner was over and the 
cloth removed, a call was made for the 
regular toasts. These were twenty-four 
in number, eighteen of which, it is alleged, 
were written by Mr. Calhoun. These, in 
multifarious forms, shadowed forth, now 
dimly, now clearly, the new doctrine. 
They were all received and honored in 
various degrees, when volunteer toasts 
were announced as in order. 

The President was of course first called 



24 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



upon for a sentiment. His tall form rose j 
majestically, and with that sternness ap- 
propriate to the peculiar occasion, he cast j 
that appalling bomb-shell of words into the 
camp of conspirators, which will forever be 
a theme for the commendation of the pat- I 
riot and the historian — " The Federal 
Union : it must be preserved !" He | 
was followed by the Vice President, who 




J. C. Calhoun. 

gave as his sentiment — '■'•Hie Union: next 
to our Liberty t/te most dear: may we all 
remember that it can only be presented by 
respecting the rights of the States, and dis- 
tributing equally the benefit and burden of 
the Union /" Those who before doubted 
the intentions of Calhoun and his South 
Carolina friends, and were at a loss to 
understand the exact meaning of the dinner 
party to which they were bidden, were no 
longer embarrassed by ignorance. In that 
toast was presented the issue — liberty 
before Union — supreme State sovereignty 
— false complaints of inequality of benefits 
and burdens — our rights as Ave choose to 
define them, or disunion. 

From that hour the vigilant old Presi- 
dent watched the South Carolina conspira- 
tor, his lieutenant, with the searching eyes 
of unslumbering suspicion. The con- 
tents OF THIS BOOK FORM THE SEQUEL 
TO THAT TOAST. 



Some Mistake in the Card. 
A ball was to be given in Toronto, C. W., 



in honor of Lord Money, and a secessionist 
from Windsor visited a member of the Cab- 
inet hoping thereby to obtain an invitation 
to the ball. He presented his card — " Mr. 
, Southern Confederacy." The gen- 
tleman took it, examined it curiously, and 

remarked dryly, " Mr. , of the S-o-u- 

t-h-e-r-n C-o-n-f-e-d-e-r-a-c-y, eh! "Well, 
Sir, our Government is not aware of the 
existence of such an ' institution.' There 
must be some mistake, Sir," and the seces- 
sioirist Avas courteously boAved out. It 
Avould have done honor to that Cabinet had 
the example of rebuff thus set in the early 
stage of the rebellion, toAvards its abettors, 
been carried out consistently to the end. 
But, if there Avere others similarly boiced 
out, there were certainly a much larger 
number who Avere bowed in, and to Avhom 
the doors of proA'incial favor opened on 
golden hinges. 



Not "Jeff," but "Geoffrey" Davis. 

Among the "gentlemen" furnished with 
lodgings for the night, at the Union street 

station house in , was an Irishman. 

He had a large amount of masonry in his 
hat — in other AA^ords he was unmistakably 
tipsy. When such persons are brought to 
the- station house the first process is to 
search them. This process is intended 
entirely for the benefit of the prisoner, 
and prevents him from being robbed by 
other gentlemen or ladies Avho may be 
placed in the same cell. 

The prisoner is next asked concerning 
his name, occupation and nativity. These 
points are recorded, and reported to the 
mayor next morning. If the prisoner is 
too drunk to answer questions, the expla- 
nation is made Avhen he pays his fine, or 
goes to jail. The Irishman in question 
proA r ed to be a character in his Avay, as 
the folloAving will sIioav : 

" What's your name ?" asked the turn- 
key, as he Avas brought in. 

" My name's DaA'is, an' it's as good a 
one as yours any day in the year." 

" Very Avell ; What's your first name ?" 



PATEIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



25 



The Milesian told it ; and the turnkey 
recorded it on his slate, "Jeff Davis." 

Though decidedly drunk, the Irishman 
was anything hut an ignoramus. lie 
looked at the turnkey's memorandum, and 
saw the name " Jeff Davis." 

"What the divil's that?" he sharply 
asked, with forefinger pointing to the slate. 

'• "Why, it's the name you told me was 
yours." 

" /toold you so?" 

" Of course you did. Didn't you say 
your name was Jeff Davis ?" 

The Irishman looked at him in silence 
for a moment. Then clenching his list he 
brandished it menacingly over the turn- 
key's hat, saying — 

" Av'" it warrent for yer gray hairs or 
yer ignorance, one or the other, I'd mash 
the nose ov ye till ye couldn't tell it from 
a turnip. " 

'•And for what?" asked the turnkey, 
looking up in surprise. 

'" For writin' down me name like the 
name of the black hearted Judas ov a 
Jefferson Davis." 

" Didn't you say that was yom* name ?" 

" I did not. Overhaul your dictionary 
ye ould omadhoun. It's ignorance, that's 
all that ails ye. Rub out that Jefferson. 
Instead of* a J put a G, and then spell out 
mc name Geoffrey Davis. Bedad, if me 
name was Jefferson I'd change it to Peter, 
so I would!" 

With this remark the speaker disap- 
peared into the cell, whose door the officer 
was holding open for him. Two minutes 
afterwards his snoring resounded through 
the whole building. He didn't mind the 
degradation of the lock-up, but hadn't 
quite descended to the level of the patri- 
cide whose name he was supposed to 
wear. 



President Lincoln Treating the Richmond 
Commissioners to a Little Story. 

After the formal interview between 
President Lincoln and the three Confed- 
erate Commissioners was over — in Febru- 



ary, 18 Go — there was a lengthy general 
conversation held. It seems that it was 
during this informal talk that the Confed- 
erate embassadors first heard of the pas- 
sage of the constitutional amendment by 
the House of Representatives, prohibiting 
slavery. One of the number remarked 
that this action might complicate affairs a 
little with the South, the heavy planters 
insisting upon maintaining that institution 
and defending it, — and President Lincoln 
was asked if he thought he could get 
around that fact. Old Abe, true as steel 
to his forte, was ready for them with one 
of his parables or stories, and said : — 

There was an old farmer out in Illinois 
who had made his arrangements to raise 
a large herd of hogs ; he informed his 
neighbors that he had found a way to 
raise cheap pork. This excited the curi- 
osity of his neighbors, and they asked him 
how he was going to do it. The old 
farmer replied that he should plant a 
large field of potatoes, and when they had 
got then* growth would turn the hogs in 
and let them dig and eat, thus saving the 
expense of digging the potatoes and feed- 
ing them. 

" Put," said his neighbors, " the frost 
will come before they are fattened, and in 
all probability the ground will be frozen a 
foot deep. How do you propose to get 
around that ?" 

" Oh," replied the farmer, "they will root 
somewhere anyway, and may as well root 
away there, even if it is hard work." 



Reception of the Rebel Commissioners in 
London by Mr. Bates. 

While the Commissioners from the 
Rebel States were in England, they were 
formally introduced to Mr. Bates, the head 
of the house of Baring Brothers, the great 
financier, who told them to proceed. 
They commenced with a most elaborate 
and glowing description of the resources 
and wealth of the Rebel States. After a 
pause : — 

Mr. Bates. Have you finished ? 



26 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



Commissioners. Not quite. (Then a 
speech from Commissioner No. 2, and a 
pause.) 

Mr. Bates. Have you finished ? 

Commissioners. Almost. (Then a 
speech from Commissioner No. 3, and a 
pause.) 

Mr. Bates. Are you through ? 

Commissioners. Yes, sir ; you have 
our case. 

Mr. Bates. What States did you say 
composed your Confederacy ? 

Commissioners. Mississippi, South Car- 
olina, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, 
and Louisiana. 

Mr. Bates. And Mr. Jefferson Davis 
is your President ? 

Commissioners. He is. We are proud 
of him. 

Mr. Bates. We know Mr. Davis -well 
by reputation. He is the same gentleman 
who stumped his State for two years in 
favor of repudiation, and justified the con- 
duct of Mississippi in the United States 
Senate. We know the gentleman ;• and 
although we have no reason to be proud 
of him or his antecedents, I think I may 
safely say, that if you have brought with 
you to London the necessary funds to pay 
off, principal and interest, the repudiated 
millions owing to our people by your 
States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Flor- 
ida, there is a reasonable prospect of your 
raising a small amount in this market ! 
Our Mr. Sturgis will be happy to dine you 
at 8 o'clock to-morrow evening ! 

Exeunt viniu-s. 



Afraid of the Girl's Eye. 

The house of the celebrated, bold- 
hearted and out-spoken Parson Brownlow, 
was, at one time, the only one in Knox- 
ville over which the Stars and Stripes 
were floating. According to arrangement, 
two armed secessionists went at six o'clock 
one morning to summarily haul down said 
stars and stripes. Miss Brownlow, a 
brilliant young lady of twenty- three, saw 



them on the piazza, and stepped out and 
demanded their business. They replied : 

" We have come to take down them 
Stars and Stripes." 

She instantly drew a revolver from her 
side, and presenting it, said — 

"Go on ! I'm good for one of you, and 
I think for both !" 

"By the look of that girfs er,e she'll 
shoot," one remarked: "I think we'd bet- 




Afraid of the Girl"s Eye 

ter not try it ; we'll go back and get more 
men," said the other. 

"Go and get more men," said the noble 
lady ; " get more men and come and take it 
down, if you dare !" 

They returned with a company of ninety 
armed men, and demanded that the flag 
should be hauled down. But on discover- 
ing that the house was filled with gallant 
men, armed to their teeth, who would 
rather die as dearly as possible than see 
their coi;ntry's flag dishonored, the seces- 
sionists retired, much after the fashion of 
cur-dogs sideling along with their tails 
between their hind-less. 



Dramatic Scene in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet. 
The manner in which John B. Floyd 
was forced to resign his place as Secretary 
of War under President Buchanan, which 
he had used to further the ends of treason, 
forms a memorable incident in the political 
history of the rebellion. 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



27 



In February, 1861, Major Anderson, 
commanding at Fort Moultrie, Charleston 
harbor, rinding his position endangered, 
passed his garrison, by a prompt and bril- 
liant movement, over to the stronger for- 
tress of Sumter. Immediately on the re- 
ception of this intelligence, Mr. Floyd, 
Secretary of War, much excited, called 
upon the President to say that Major 
Anderson had violated express orders, 
and thereby seriously compromised him 
(Floyd), and that unless the Major was 
at once remanded to Fort Moultrie, he 
should resign the War Office. 

The Cabinet was assembled directly. 
Mr. Buchanan, explaining the embarrass- 
ment of the Secretary of War, remarked 
that the act of Major Anderson would oc- 
casion exaspex-ation in the South ; he had 
told Mr. Floyd that, as the Government 
was strong, forbearance toward erring 
brethren might win them back to their al- 
legiance, and that that officer might be or- 
dered back. After an ominous silence, 
fno President inquired how the suggestion 
struck the Cabinet ? 

I Ir. Stanton, subsequently called to the 
War Department, but then Attorney Gen- 
eral, answered : 

"That course, Mr. President, ought 
certainly to be regarded as most liberal 
towards 'erring brethren;' but while one 
member of your Cabinet has fraudulent 
acceptances for millions of dollars afloat, 
and while the confidential clerk of an- 
other — himself in California teaching re- 
bellion — has just stolen nine hundred 
thousand dollars from the Indian Trust 
Fund, the experiment of ordering Major 
Anderson back to Fort Moultrie would be 
dangerous. But if you do intend to try it, 
before it is done, I beg that you will ac- 
cept my resignation." 

'And mine," added the Secretary of 
State, Mr. Black — 

"And mine, also," said the Post-Master 
General, Mr. Holt — 

"And mine, too," followed the Secretary 
of the Treasury, General Dix 



This, of course, opened the bleared eyes 
of the President, and the meeting resulted 
in the acceptance of Mr. Floyd's resigna- 
tion. 



Treating- Them According- to their Sympa- 
thies. 

During one of the raids of John Mor- 
gan, an interesting incident occurred at 
Salem, Indiana. Some of his men pro- 
ceeded out west of the town to burn the 
bridges and water-tank on the railroad. 
On the way out they captured a couple of 
persons living in the country, one of whom 
was a Quaker. The Quaker strongly ob- 
jected to being made a prisoner. Secesh 
wanted to know if he was not sti-ongly 
opposed to the South ? " Thee is right," 
said the Quaker, " I am." " Well, did you 
vote for Lincoln?" "Thee is right; I did 
vote for Abraham," was the calm reply. 




According to their Sympathies. 

"Well, what are you?" 

"Thee may naturally suppose that I 
am a Union man. Cannot thee let me go 
to my home ?" 

" Yes, yes ; go and take care of the old 
woman," was the welcome answer. 

The other prisoner was trotted along 
with them, but not relishing the summary 
maimer in which the Quaker was disposed 
of, he said: 

"What do you let him go for? He is 
a black abolitionist. Now, look here; I 
voted for Breckinridge, and have always 



28 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



been opposed to the war. I am opposed 
to fighting the South, decidedly." 

"You are," said Secesh; "you are what 
they call around here a Copperhead, an't 
you? 

"Yes, yes," said the Butternut, pro- 
pitiatingly ; " that's what all my neighbors 
call me, and they know I ain't with them." 

"Come here Dave!" hallooed Secesh. 
" Here's a Butternut. Just come and look 
at him. Look here, old man, where do 
you live? We want what horses you 
have got to spare, and if you have got any 
greenbacks, just shell 'em out!" and they 
took all he had. 



Calumnious Charge of Loyalty against John 
Hawkins. 

Holt's drinking saloon was one of the 
most fashionable in New Orleans. The 
proprietor, a son of the famous New York 
hotel keeper of that name, kept fast horses, 
a fashionable private residence, and re- 
ceived his income by the hundred dollars 
a day. In an evil hour secession seized 
upon the land, and Holt was induced to 
issue shinplasters. His reputation for 
wealth and business profits made them 
popular, and inducements were held out 
for immense issues. Gradually, however, 
business fell off, and Holt, when General 
Butler ordered that personal paper money 
should be redeemed by bank-notes, found 
it impossible to comply with the procla- 
mation, and this inability was increased 
by the fact that he had taken the oath of 
allegiance, and his regular customers re- 
fused, therefore, to be comforted at his 
house. The finale was that Holt Avas sold 
out, and his establishment, repainted and 
restocked, opened under the auspices of 
one John Hawkins. To give the place 
the due amount of eclat, Captain Clark, 
of the Delta, knowing that it was against 
the law for any one to sell liquor in the 
city, unless by a person who had taken 
the oath of allegiance and obtained a li- 
cense, caused it to be published that at 
last the citizens were blessed with a ' Union 



drinking saloon,' and at the sfttne time in- 
vited all persons who loved the Stars and 
Stripes to patronize the new establish- 
ment. 

This flattering notice fell upon John 
Hawkins as a thunderbolt; he frantically 
rushed over to the newspaper office and 
protested that he was a rebel, and that he 
relied upon his secession friends for pat- 
ronage — he declared that he was a ruined 
man unless something was done to im- 
mediately purge his fair fame of any taint 
of loyalty to his native land. Captain 
Clark, who fully appreciated the unfortu- 
nate publican's feelings, and with the 
spirit and liberality of a chivalrous editor, 
offered his columns for an explanation; 
which offer resulted in the publication of 
a card by Mr. Hawkins, in which he pro- 
nounced the editorial statement that he 
had taken the oath of allegiance, "a fabri- 
cation." 

Secession was delighted. John's friends 
crowded his precincts all day, and drank to 
John's health, and at John's expense. The 
dawn of the following morning promised a 
brilliant future; but, alas! Deputy Pro- 
vost-Marshal, Colonel Stafford, whose bus- 
iness it was to see that public drinking- 
house keepers had taken said oath of alle- 
giance, sent after Mr. Hawkins, and asked 
him what right he had to keep a shop open 
without license, and farther inquired if 
John did not know that he could not get 
a license unless he took oath to be a good 
citizen under the national government. 
That he was permitted to carry on his 
business without taking the oath will be 
believed by all who do not know the man 
with whom he had to deal at head-quarters. 



"Voting for a Candidate on Principle. 
"Gentlemen," said a Virginia planter, 
trembling with passion, in a conversation 
between half a dozen persons in the parlor 
of a New York insurance office, before the 
Republican nomination had been made, 
"gentlemen, if you elect Mr. Seward 
President, we shall break up this Union." 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



29 



"I think not, Sir," calmly replied the 
man to whom he seemed more particularly 
to address himself. 

"You'll see, Sir, — you'll see; we will 
surely do it." 

"Then, Sir," said the other, as quietly 
as before, but looking him steadily in the 
face, "we shall nominate Mr. Seward. 
Mr. Seward is not my man, for I am a 
free trader and an old Democrat. But if 
Virginia, or any other state or states shall 
declare that, upon the constitutional elec- 
tion of any citizen of the United States 
to any office, the Union shall be broken 
up, then I nominate that man and vote for 
him on principle." 

And all present, with a single excep- 
tion, uttered a hearty "Ay!" 



Scene in the President's Room the Evening 
preceding the First Proclamation for Troops. 

Hon. George Ashmun, a distinguished 
politician of Massachusetts, has given an 
interesting account of an interview which 
took place between himself and Senator 
Douglas, and subsequently between the 
two and President Lincoln, on the night 
preceding the issue of the first call for 
troops to put down the rebellion. Mr. 
Ashmun had gone to Mr. Douglas's house 
to induce him — he being looked upon as 
the senatorial leader of the opposition to 
Mr. Lincoln — to take a public stand in sup- 
port of the Administration in entering upon 
the war. Mr. Douglas was at first disin- 
clined to such a step, but yielded to the rep- 
resentations made to him, — his wife, who 
came into the room during the interview, 
giving the whole weight of her influence 
towards the result which was reached. 
The discussion continued for some time, 
and resulted in his emphatic declaration 
that he woidd go with Mr. Ashmun to the 
President and offer a cordial and earnest 
support. Mr. Ashmun's carriage was wait- 
ing at the door, and it was almost dark 
when they started for the President's house. 
They fortunately found Mr. Lincoln at 
home and alone, and upon Mr. Ashmun 



stating the errand on which they had come, 
the President was most cordial in his Avel- 
come, and immediately prepared the way 
for the conversation which followed, by 
taking from his drawer and reading to them 
the draft of the proclamation which he had 
decided to issue, and which was given to 
the country the next morning. As soon 
as the reading was ended, Mr. Douglas 
rose from his chair and said — 

"Mr. President, I coi'dially concur in 
every word of that document, except, that 
instead of a call for 75,000 men, I would 
make it 200,000. You do not know the 
dishonest purposes of those men (the 
rebels) so well as I do." 

Mr. Douglas then asked them to look 
with him at the map which hung at the 
end of the President's room, where in 
much detail he pointed out the principal 
strategic points which should be at once 
strengthened. Among the most prominent 
were Fortress Monroe, Washington, Har- 
per's Ferry and Cairo. He enlarged at 
length, and with his accustomed power of 
demonstration, upon the firm, Avarlike foot- 
ing which ought to be pursued, and found 
in Mr. Lincoln an earnest and gratified 
listener; indeed, no two men in the Uni- 
ted States parted that night with a more 
cordial feeling of a united, friendly and 
patriotic purpose than these two irrecon- 
cilable political opponents during the past, 
Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas. 

After leaving, and while on their way 
homeward, Mr. Ashmun said to Mr. 
Douglas — 

" You have done justice to your own 
reputation and to the President, and the 
country must know it. The proclamation 
will go by telegraph all over the country 
in the morning, and the account of this 
interview must go with it. I shall send 
it, either in my own language or yours. 
I prefer that you should give your own 
version." 

" Drive to your room at Willard's," said 
Mr. Douglas at once, "and I will give it 
shape." 



30 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



This they did, and Mr. Douglas wrote 
the following, an exact copy of which was 
given to the agent of the associated press, 
and on the next morning it was read all 
over the North, in company with the 
President's proclamation, to the great 
gratification of his friends and the friends 
of the government. The original draft, in 
Mr. Douglas's handwriting, is still pre- 
served as cherished evidence that, who- 
ever else may have fallen by the wayside, 
in the hour of the nation's peril from ' false 
brethren,' Mr. Douglas was not of them. 
Below is a copy of the memorable dispatch 
to the press, Sunday evening, April 14, 
1861:— 

"Mr. Douglas called on the President 
this evening and had an interesting con- 
versation on the present condition of the 
country. The substance of the conversa- 
tion was that while Mr. D. was unalterably 
opposed to the administration on all its 
political issues, he was prepared to sustain 
the President in the exercise of all his con- 
stitutional functions to preserve the Union 
and maintain the government and defend 
the federal capital. A firm policy and 
prompt action was necessary. The capi- 
tal of our country was in danger, and must 
be defended at all hazards, and at any ex- 
pense of men or money. He spoke of the 
present and future without reference to 
the past." 



Gallant Vindication of the Flag 1 Abroad. 

Captain C. Lee Moses, of Saco, Maine, 
formerly United States astronomer, etc., 
was a party to a singular and not unro- 
mantic affair of honor, which was fought 
on the Seine, near Paris, in August, 1861, 
the particulars of this affair being as fol- 
lows : 

Captain Moses, although a South Car- 
olinian by birth, remained a strong and 
devoted adherent to the cause of the Union, 
and during his journey through France 
made no hesitation in expressing his sym- 
pathies and feelings for the United States 



Government, and his abhorrence of the 
southern traitors and rebels who were en- 
gaged in destroying the most enlightened, 
best administered and most prosperous 
Government on the face of the globe. 




Vindication of the Flag Abroad. 

Hon. F. G. Farquar, of Virginia, meet- 
ing the Captain at a hotel in Paris, and 
knowing his parentage, reproached him in 
opprobious terms as a renegade from his 
native State. He charged him with being 
a traitor to the South, and a man of no 
honor because he abandoned her when she 
needed the services of all her sons, partic- 
ularly her seamen and navigators. He 
took occasion also in his vituperation, to 
cast imputations upon the character of 
Northern ladies, which, as the Captain 
had married a New England wife, was re- 
sented on the spot by a tremendous blow, 
entirely doubling up the chivalric Virgin- 
ian, and laying him in ordinary for the 
balance of the evening. 

Farquar was taken charge of by his 
friends, and when he had gathered his 
scattered faculties, he sent a challenge to 
the Captain by the hands of his friend, 
Mons. Stephani. The challenge received 
a prompt response, and not twenty-four 
hours from the first meeting of the com- 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



01 
ox 



batants, they stood on the hanks of the 
Seine, prepared to take each other's lives. 
The weapons selected were Derringer 
pistols, the distance ten paces, the com- 
batants being ordered to wheel and fire at 
the given signal. Farqnar was boastful 
and coarse in his remarks and manners. 
The Captain was calm, though determined. 
All being ready, Captain Moses handed 
two letters to his second, one addressed to 
the American consul at Liverpool, and the 
other to his wife at Saco, Me., to be deliv- 
ered in case he fell. He then removed 
his coat, bandaged back the hair from his 
eyes, and took his position. The Avord 
Avas then giA r en, and Avith a simultaneous 
report of both pistols the combatants fell 
to the ground. Both Avere shot through 
the head. Farquar received a mortal 
avoiuhI, with which he lingered several 
days, finally dying at a hamlet a feAv miles 
from Paris, Avhere he had been removed 
to avoid the noise of the city. Before 
dying, he solicited an intervieAV Avith Cap- 
tain Moses, made an acknoAvledgment of 
his base conduct, and solicited the latter's 
forgiveness, Avhich Avas freely granted. 
The Captain, escaping from the French 
police, took refuge at Liverpool, AA T here he 
was concealed by the American shippers 
of that city and sent on to NeAV York, 
Avhere he arrived in a very critical condi- 
tion, the ball of his adversary having 
passed just under the ear, causing a severe 
concussion of the brain. 



Solemn Scene at IHidnig-ht. 

The following from a Knoxville (Tenn.) 
rebel journal, describing a secret meeting 
of thirty or forty Unionists, called together 
by a Avell known patriot, David Fry, ad- 
mirably illustrates the ' idolatrous love for 
the Stars and Stripes,' — according to seces- 
sion phraseology — and suggests a subject 
Avorthy the highest inspiration of the his- 
torical painter: 

Fry dreAV forth a United States flag, 
and spreading it upon a table in the centre 
of the room, called upon his followers to 



surround that emblem of the Union, and 
take with him the oath of allegiance. 
This Avas late in the night; and after the 
AAiiole plot had been fully understood, the 
loyalists surrounded the table in groups, 
and, by direction of the leader, placed 
their left hands upon the folds of the flag, 
raising aloft their right hands, and swear- 
ing to support the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States, to sustain the flag there spread 
before them, and to do that night what- 
ever might be impressed upon them by 
their chief. The oath Avas taken by all 
except tAvo or three, in solemn earnest- 
ness and in silence — the darkness relieved 
alone by the dim and flickering light of a 
solitary candle. 

The scene Avas impressive — the occasion 
Avas full of moment — and everything con- 
spired to fill the hearts of the loyalists 
with a fixed determination. That deter- 
mination they abundantly fulfilled by their 
deeds. 



More Brains, Lord!" 

Rev. Dr. Sunderland, on accepting the 
pastorship of an American church in Paris, 
offered his farewell prayer as Chaplain of 
the United States Senate, a short time 
after. On this occasion he made some 
peculiar home-thrusts at the honorable 
gentlemen for whom, during four months 
previous, he had been daily interceding at 
the Throne of Grace. He uttered the fol- 
lowing supplication very audibly : 

" We pray Thee, O Lord ! to give to 
the councillors and statesmen of America 
more brains ! More brains, Lord ! More 
brains ! " 

On hearing this very Avell-timed en- 
treaty, but rather harsh criticism, Mr. 
Sumner dropped his head upon his breast 
quite feelingly, Jim Lane rolled his eyes 
piously, Garrett Davis evinced signs of 
emotion, and a gentleman in the reporters' 
gallery uttered an emphatic " Amen ! " by 
Avay of response. 

Many of the honorable secretaries 
dropped their heads upon their desks to 



S2 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



conceal a smile at the Chaplain's supplica- 
tion, which smile extended to the dimen- 
sions of a broad grin, as the " Amen " was 
heard to proceed from the reporters' gal- 
lery. The worthy Sergeant-at-Arms, who 
whs standing in his usual deeply reveren- 
tial attitude, (with solemn countenance on 
religious thoughts intent.) turned the white 
of one of his official eyes in the direction 
of the self-constituted clerk in the gallery, 
but he evidently could not discover a coun- 
tenance which did not exhibit the utmost 
decorum of expression. 



Literal Interpretation of Northern " Sym- 
pathy" by a Rebel General. 

When the rebel force appeared in front 
of Hagerstown, on its Northern raid and 
invasion, one. of the principal citizens of 
that town undertook a measure to which 
he looked for the preservation of his pro- 
perty. He farmed about two hundred 
acres of land. His barns were full of 
grain, his pastures were dotted with sheep 
and cattle, and forty well-fed swine were 
gathered in the rear of his corn cribs. He 
was emphatically a man of plenty and sub- 
stance. When the rebels came he walked 
out to their lines, with a damask linen 
napkin — (white nag) affixed to his walking 
cane. The first rebel soldier he encoun- 
tered he requested to show him to the com- 
manding officer. lie was passed under 
guard to the object of his search. 

" General," said he, " I am a warm sym- 
pathizer with the South. I heartily wish 
success to this invasion and your forces. 
My object in seeking you out is to ask that 
you and as many of your staff as will accept 
the invitation Avill make my house your 
head-quarters during your stay here. My 
house is yonder upon that hill" — pointing to 
a fine old-fashioned mansion, with modern 
additions, and with a long row of hay-ricks 
in the background. 

" You sympathize with the South, did 
you say ? " queried the General blandly. 

" Very earnestly, sir, and always have 
done so." 



The rebel General beckoned to a ser- 
geant Avho stood near him. " Bring a mus- 
ket for this man," said he, "and take him 
into the ranks." 

The ' sympathizer' opened wide his eyes, 
but stood mute with horror. He 'couldn't 
see it' in that light. He stammered out at 
last, " Oh, I didn't mean that, General. 1 
don't want to fight. I want to entertain 
you and your staff while you remain here, 
and to show you that I am your friend." 

The rebel General contemptuously in- 
formed him that they interpreted sympathy 
only in its literal sense. He had claimed 
to sympathize with them, and they intended 
to avail themselves of his good will. A 
string of wagons was at once trotted out, 
driven to the sympathizer's premises, and 
in the same afternoon he was stripped of 
everything. The rebels carried off all his 
cattle, sheep, hogs, and smaller live stock, 
removed all his hay and wheat crop, leav- 
ing his barns utterly empty. The cavalry 
horses were turned into his growing oats, 
and his corn was cut and made excellent 
fodder for the stock Avhile on the march. 
The ' sympathizer ' was detained until all 
was done, and was then released with 
thanks for the sympathy he had so promptly 
and kindly manifested. 



Ben Butler in Council with the Secession 
Conspirators. 

In December, 1860, after the election 
of Mr. Lincoln, General Butler, who had 
supported Breckinridge for President, in 
preference to either Douglas, Bell, or Lin- 
coln, went to Washington, where he had 
many and serious conversations with his 
Southern brethren. According to the in- 
teresting account of these interviews given 
by Barton, those Southern brethren were 
determined on secession, and asked Butler 
to go with them. There was room in the 
South, they said, for such as he. He told 
them the North would fight against seces- 
sion, and they laughed at him. He told 
them, "if the South fights, there is an end 
of slavery," and they laughed again. They 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



33 



asked him "if he would fight in such a 
cause," and he replied, "Most certainly." 

When the South Carolina ' ambassadors' 
came to Washington, Butler proposed to 
the Attorney- General to try them for trea- 
son. " You say," said he to the Attorney, 
"that the Government cannot use its army 
and navy to coerce South Carolina. * Very 
well. I do not agree with you; but let 
the proposition be granted. Now, seces- 
sion is either a right, or it is treason. If 
it is a right, the sooner we know it the 
better. If it is treason, then the present- 
ing of the ordinance of secession is an overt 
act of treason. These men are coming to 
the White House to present the ordinance 
to the President. Admit them. Let them 
present the ordinance. Let the President 
say to them — 'Gentlemen, you go hence in 
the custody of a Marshal of the United 
States, as prisoners of state, charged with 
treason against your country.' Summon 
a grand jury here in Washington. Indict 
the commissioners. If any of your officers 
are backward in acting, you have the ap- 
pointing power — replace them with men 
who feel as men should at a time like this. 
Try the commissioners before the Supreme 
Court, with all the imposing forms and 
stately ceremonials which marked the trial 
of Aaron Burr. I have some reputation 
at home as a criminal lawyer, and I will 
stay here to help the District Attorney 
through the trial without fee or reward. 
If they are acquitted, you will have done 
something toward leaving a clear path for 
the incoming administration. Time will 
have been gained ; but the great advantage 
will be, that both sides will pause to watch 
this high and dignified proceeding; the 
passions of men will cool ; the great point 
at issue will become clear to all parties ; 
the mind of the country will be active, 
while passion and prejudice are allayed. 
Meanwhile, if you cannot use our army 
and navy in Charleston harbor, you can 
certainly employ them in keeping order 
here." 



This advice was not heeded. The ' com- 
missioners ' or ' ambassadors ' heard of it. 

"Why, you woidd not hang us?" said 
Mr. Orr, one of them, to Butler. 

" Oh, no," was the reply, "not unless you 
were found guilty." 

He had one last, long interview with the 
Southern leaders, at which the whole sub- 
ject was gone over. For three hours he 
reasoned with them, demonstrating the 
folly of their course, and warning them of 
final and disastrous failure. The conver- 
sation was friendly, though warm and 
earnest on both sides. Again he was in- 
vited to join them, and was offered a share 
in their enterprise, and a place in that 
'sound and homogeneous government' 
which they meant to establish. He left 
no room to doubt that he took sides with 
his country, and that all he had and all he 
was should be freely risked hi that coun- 
try's cause. Late at night they separated, 
to know one another no more except as 
mortal foes. 



Advice from the "Disbanded Volunteer." 

President Lincoln, in the perplexities 
surrounding him, sent to " A Disbanded 
Volunteer" for counsel and sympathy. 
" D. V." describes this interview as fol- 
lows : — 

He (the President) was standin on the 
front door steps when I arrove at the 
White House, pullin on his left whiser as 
his wont when his will is disregarded, and 
conducted me at wonst to his sanktum. 
He said he was worried amazingly by the 
dogged obstancy of the War Department, 
upon which I axed if he wanted a piece 
of an honest man's mind. 

" Spit it out, Old Fidelity," ses he, his 
fetters lighten up with a hole-soled smile. 

" Wal," ses I, " wat I hev to say in the 
fust place is this. It's not so easy to lick 
anyboddy as it is to lick noboddy,is it?" 

He remained for a few minits absorbed 
in deep thort and then shook his lied. 

" But," I continued, " It's easier to lick 



St 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



a considabul than to lick the same bodcly 
when it's twiste as considabul, isn't it ? " 

After a brief interval for renexin he 
concurd. 

" And," ses I resoomin agin, " it's easier 
— isn't it — to smash horseteal boddies wen 
we air able, than it is when they air able 
to raze Cain with ns ? " 

" D. V.," he, rejoined, smildin compleas- 
antly, " you borrord that silly gism from a 
remark of mine in the Missidge, and I am 
proud to say the logic is correck." 

" Ef so," ses I, " why in thunder don't 
you tell Burnside to go in and win, afore 
the rebils sets ther arthworkt, and rifle pits 
and mast batteries a twixt him and Rich- 
mond, thicker'n mink traps in a Western 
Swomp ?" 

" My noble and esteemabul friend," lie 
responded, wipin his nose with visabul 
emoshin, "your sentimens does honor to 
your hed and hart; but I've gin the 
Seckatry of War discresennary powers." 

" I'me right glad to larn it," I remarkt 
sneeringly, " for it's the gineral ophiyim 
that he hesn't enny of his own." 

You should have seen the Honabul Al le 
lay back and shake his honest sides. Jt 
dun me good to look at him. 



Hurrahs for Jeff. Davis in the Wrong Place. 
One morning, as a returned soldier 
named Thompson, residing in Washington, 
was engaged in conversation with some 
parties at a public house in Peoria, Illinois, 
an individual entered, and as he passed 
the soldier, shouted, " Hurrah for Jeff. 
Davis !" In an instant the soldier turned 
and asked, " Did you shout for Jeff. Davis ?" 
The individual surveyed Thompson for a 
moment, and, seeing that he meant mis- 
chief, replied that it was not he. " Well," 
said the soldier, " I believe that you did, 
and if I was sure of it I would give you 
cause to remember it." He again declared 
that he had not done so, when at this 
juncture one of the men Thompson had 
been conversing with, and who had always 
acted with the Democratic party, stepped 



up, saying to the soldier, " I am a Demo- 
crat, but I can't stand that ; he did hurrah 
for Jeff. Davis, and now pitch into him." 
The veteran hesitated not a moment, and, 
though by far the smaller of the two, he 
went at the Jeff. Davis sympathizer and 
administered a spirited and most thorough 
drubbing, concluding the performance by 
compelling him to shout twice, as loud as 
he was able, for Abe Lincoln. Then, 
allowing the fellow to get on his feet, he 
cautioned him never to repeat that opera- 
tion again hi his presence, saying — 

" I have fought rebels three years, and 
Had a brother killed by just such men as 
you are, and Avhenever a traitor shouts for 
Jeff. Davis in my hearing I will whip him 
or kill him." 



Stanton's First Meeting with Cabinet 
Traitors. 

When General Cass — grieved and in- 
dignant — left Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, Mr. 
Attorney-General Black was transferred 
to the portfolio of State, and Mr. Stanton, 
then absent from Washington, was fixed 




Stanton. 

upon as Attorney-General. The same 
night he arrived at a late hour, and learned 
from his family of his appointment. Know- 
ing the character of the bold, bad men, then 
in the ascendency in the Cabinet, he deter- 
mined at once to decline ; but when, the 
next day, he announced his resolution at 
the White House, the entreaties of the dis- 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



35 



tressed and helpless President, and the 
arguments of Mr. Black, moved him to 
accept. 

At the first meeting of the Cabinet which 
he attended, the condition of the seceded 
States and the course to be pursued with 
the garrison at Fort Sumter, were dis- 
cussed, Floyd and Thompson dwelling upon 
'•the irritation of the Southern heart," and 
the folly of "continuing a useless garrison 
to increase the irritation." No one for- 
mally proposed any course of action, but 
the designs of the conspirators were plain 
to the new Attorney-General. He went 
home troubled. He had intended, coming- 
in at so late a day, to remain a epiiet mem- 
ber of this discordant council. But it was 
not in his nature to sit quiet longer under 
such utterances. 

The next meeting was a long and stormy 
one, Mr. Holt, feebly seconded by the 
President, urging the immediate reinforce- 
ment of Sumter, while Thompson, Floyd 
and Thomas contended that a quasi-treaty 
had been made by the officers of the Gov- 
ernment with the leaders of the rebellion, 
tor offer no resistance to their violations of 
law and seizures of Government property. 
Floyd, especially, blazed with indignation 
at what he termed the " violation of honor." 
At last, Mr. Thompson formally moved 
that an imperative- order be issued to 
Major Anderson to retire from Sumter to 
Fort Moultrie — abandoning Sumter to the 
enemy, and proceeding to a post where he 
must at once surrender. Stanton could 
sit still no longer, and rising, he said with 
all the earnestness that could be expressed 
in his bold and resolute features : 

"Mr. President, it is my duty as your 
legal adviser to say that you have no right 
to give up the property of the Govern- 
ment, or abandon the soldiers of the United 
States to its enemies ; and the course pro- 
posed by the Secretary of the Interior, if 
followed, is treason, and will involve you 
and all concerned in treason !" 

Such language had never before been 



heard in Buchanan's Cabinet, and the men 
who had so long ruled and bullied the 
President were surprised and enraged to 
be thus rebuked. Floyd and Thompson 
sprang to their feet with fierce, menacing 
gestures, seeming about to assault Stanton. 
Mr. Holt took a step forward to the side 




Holt. 

of the Attorney-General. The President 
implored them piteously to take their seats. 
After a tew more bitter words the meeting 
broke up. That was the last Cabinet 
meeting on that exciting question in which 
Floyd participated. Before another was 
called all Washington was startled with 
the rumor of those gigantic frauds which 
soon made his name so infamous. At first 
he tried to brazen it out with his customary 
blustering manner, but the next day the 
Cabinet waited long for his appearance. 
At last he came ; the door opened — his 
resignation was thrust into the room, and 
Floyd disappeared from Washington, with 
a brand of infamy upon him, which only 
ceased to increase in blackness till the 
time when he was called to his final ac- 
count. 

Such teas the end of Floyd and the begin- 
ning of Stanton. Stanton and Holt were 
noble co-laborers in that dark period of the 
country's political travail, and nobly did 
they sustain themselves through the four 
years' conflict. 



36 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Hiding 1 the Flag— Female Artifice. 
The Federal commander at Camp Her- 
ron, Missouri, having learned that a certain 
very fine secession flag that waved defiantly 
from a flagstaff in the village of Manches- 
ter, twenty miles distant from the camp, 
(until the successes of the Union forces 
caused its supporters to conclude that, for 
the present, " discretion would be the better 
part of valor,") was still being very care- 
fully preserved, its possessors boasting that 
they would soon be enabled to re-hoist it ; 
determined upon its summary capture. 

On the 15th of November, 1861, First 
Lieutenant Bull, of Company C, Ninth 
Iowa regiment, was directed to take charge 
of this little expedition, and to detail fif- 
teen good men for the purpose, which detail 
the Lieutenant made from Company C. 

They left camp by the cars at half-past 
five o'clock in the afternoon, landing at 
Merrimac, three miles from Manchester, 
proceeding from thence to Manchester on 
foot, and surrounded the house of Squire 
B., who had been foremost in the seces- 
sion movement of that strong secession 
town, and was reported to be in possession 
of the flag in question. 

But the 'Squire protested against the 
imputation, declaring that the flag was not 
iu his possession, and that he knew not of 
its whereabouts. His lady acknowledged 
that she had for a time kept it secreted in 
a box in the garden, but as it was likely 
to become injured, she took it out, dried 
it in the sun, when it was taken away by 
some ladies who lived a long distance 
in the country, whose names she refused 
to give. Finally, after a thorough but 
fruitless search of the house, after the 
Lieutenant had put her husband under 
arrest, and he was being started off to 
head-quarters, the lady, probably hoping it 
would save her husband, acknowledged 
that it was takeu by a Mrs. S., Avho re- 
sided a mile and a half in the country, — 
not such a terribly long distance, after all. 
Her husband was then sent to Merrimac, 
escorted by four soldiers, and the remain- 



der, conducted by the gallant Lieutenant, 
started to visit the residence of Mrs. S., 
in search of the flag. 

The distance to the lady's residence 
was soon traveled, the house surrounded, 
and the flag demanded of Mrs. S., who 
proved to be a very intelligent lady, and 
had around her quite an interesting fam- 
ily. The lady replied to the demand, that 
she would like to see the person who stated 
that she took the flag from Esqiure B — 's ; 
that as to its whereabouts she had nothing 
to say ; that the Lieutenant could search 
her house, and if he could find any thing 
that looked like a flag, he was welcome to 
it. Accordingly, a thorough search was 
made, in which the lady and her daughter 
aided, but no flag was to be found. The 
lady then thanked the officer for the gen- 
tlemanly manner in which the search had 
been conducted, and added that she trusted 
he was satisfied. He replied that he was 
quite satisfied that she had the flag, and 
that it would have been far better for her 
to have yielded it ; but as she did not, as 
unpleasant as the task was, he should ar- 
rest her and take her to head-quarters at 
Pacific City. 

Two men were then dispatched for a 
carriage Avith which to convey the lady to 
Merrimac," and from thence the lady was 
informed that she would be sent by rail- 
road. She accordingly made preparation 
to go, but after an hour had elapsed in 
waiting for the carriage, the lady again 
demanded the name of the informants, 
and when told that it was Mrs. B., and 
that Esquire B. was already in custody, 
she then asked whether any indignity 
would have been offered to her had the 
flag been found in her possession. To 
this the courteous Lieutenant replied: 

" Certainly not, Madam ; our object 
with Esquire B. was his arrest and the 
capture of the flag ; but with you, our 
object was the flag." 

" Will you pledge your honor," said she, 
" that if I surrender the flag I shall not 
j be arrested, nor my family disturbed. 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



37 



"You will not be arrested, nor your 
family disturbed." 

" I wish you to understand, Sir, that no 
fear of arrest or trouble would ever have 
made me surrender that flag ; but 'Squire 
B.'s family induced me to take that nag to 
save them from trouble, saying that it 
should be a sacred trust, known only to 
ourselves, and I consequently surrender 
it." 

She then went to a bed that had been 
fruitlessly searched, took from it a quilt, 
and with the aid of her daughters, pro- 
ceeded to open the edges of the quilt, and 
cut the stitches through the body of it, 
and pulled off the top, when, behold ! there 
lay the mammoth flag next to the cotton, 
being carefully stitched twice and nearly 
a half across the quilt. AVhen taken out 
and spread, it proved to be a magnificent 
flag, over twenty-one feet in length, and 
nearly nine feet in width, with fifteen 
stars to represent the prospective South- 
ern Confederacy. 

" Recollect," said the lady to Lieuten- 
ant Bull," that you did not find it your- 
self, and when you wish detectives you 
had better employ ladies." 

She also added, that she gave up the 
flag unwillingly. The daughter remarked 
that she had slept under it, and that she 
loved it, and that fifteen stars were not so 
terribly disunion — in her estimation — af- 
ter all. 

An Alabama Planter and the Anti-Slavery 
Leaders Together. 

About the time of the breaking out of 
the rebellion, John G. Whittier, the Mas- 
sachusetts anti-slavery Quaker and poet, 
met with an Alabama planter in Boston, 
who expressed a desire to converse with 
him, and an interview took place, during 
which there was a free interchange of 
views and opinions concerning the events 
of the day. The planter frankly acknowl- 
edged that there was in the South a strong 
feeling of hate toward the North and 
Northern men, and they were determined 



to fight. He explained how this feeling 
was fostered by the politicians of the 
South, and how the feelings of the North 
were represented there, and stated that 
almost his sole object in coming to Boston 
was to ascertain for himself whether the 
facts were as they had been represented. 
He was evidently surprised to find the 
anti-slavery poet " so mild a mannered 
man," and confessed that, generally, he 
did not perceive that the feeling of the 
North toward the South was so bitter and 
unfriendly as he had been led to expect 
He had received nothing but civility and 
courtesy, and admitted that Southerners 
generally received the same treatment. 

Finally, Whittier, after attending him 
to some of the places of resort interesting 
to a stranger, told him that, as he was now 
here, he might as well see the worst of the 
anti-slavery phase of Northern fanaticism 
— as the fashionable phrase was, — and 
proposed to visit Garrison. The planter 
consented, and so they turned their steps 
to the Liberator office, where they found 
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Fred. 
Douglass, and there they enjoyed a " pre- 
cious season of conversation." Would it 
not have been a sight worth seeing — that 
conclave in the Liberator office, with Gar- 
rison, Whittier, Phillips, Douglass, and the 
Alabama planter, in the foreground ? The 
planter went to his home a wiser, and per- 
haps a sadder man, than he came, for, af- 
ter hearing all that was said, he protested 
that all he could do, while mourning for 
the condition of the country, was to pray 
over it. 



Hoisting- the American Flag- on Independ- 
ence Hall by President Lincoln. 

On the twenty-second of February, 
1861, — the anniversary of Washington's 
birthday, — the interesting ceremony of 
raising the glorious flag of the American 
Union was performed in Philadelphia, op- 
posite Independence Hall, by President 
Lincoln, then on his way to be inaugurated 
at Washington. 



3S 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Just in front of the main entrance to 
the State House, and but a few feet from 
the sacred hall of liberty, a large platform 
had been erected for the President-elect 
to stand upon 'before the people, while he 
raised the starry banner of the republic. 
The elevation, nearly six feet, enabled a 
vast multitude to observe everything en- 
acted thereon. The front and sides of the 
stage were wrapped around with an Amer- 
ican flag, while lesser flags floated from 
the stanchions. 

Before the flag was raised prayer was 
offered, and in reply to words of welcome 
addressed to Mr. Lincoln on behalf of the 
city, through its chosen orator, the Presi- 
dent spoke as follows : 




Lincoln. 

"Fellow Citizens, — I am invited and 
called before you to participate in raising 
above Independence Hall the flag of our 
country, with an additional star upon it. 
I propose now, in advance of performing 
this very pleasant and complimentary duty, 
to say a few words. I propose to say that 
when that flag was originally raised here, 
it had but thirteen stars. I wish to call 
your attention to the fact that, under the 
blessing of God, each additional star ad- 
ded to that flag has given additional pros- 
perity and happiness to this country, until 
it has advanced to its present condition ; 
and its welfare in the future, as well as in 
the past, is in your hands. Cultivating 
the spirit that animated our fathers, who 



gave renown and celebrity to this Hall, 
cherishing that fraternal feeling which has 
so long characterized us as a nation, ex- 
cluding passion, ill-temper, and precipitate 
action on all occasions, I think we may 
promise ourselves that not only the new 
star placed upon that flag shall be permit- 
ted to remain there to our permanent pros- 
perity for years to come, but additional 
ones shall from time to time be placed 
there, until we shall number, as was anti- 
cipated by the great historian, five hun- 
dred millions of happy and prosperous 
people. With these remarks, I proceed 
to the very agreeable duty assigned me." 
The excitement was of a fearful char- 
acter when the President-elect seized the 
rope to hoist the flag of the country to the 
crest of the staff over the State House. 
The souls of all seemed starting from 
their eyes, and every throat was wide. 
The shouts of the people were like the 
roar of waves which do not cease to break- 
For full three minutes the cheers contin- 
ued. The expression of the President- 
elect was that of silent solemnity. His 
long arms were extended. Each hand 
alternately pulled at the halyards, and a 
bundle of bunting, tri-colored, which had 
never been kissed by the wind before, 
slowly rose and unfurled itself gracefully 
aloft. If the shouting had been fearful 
and tumultuous before, it became abso- 
lutely maniacal now. From the smallest 
urchin to the tall form which rivaled the 
President's in compass of chest and length 
of limb, there rose a wild cry, — remind- 
ing one of some of the storied shouts 
which rang among the Scottish hills in the 
days of clans and clansmen. Suddenly, 
when the broad bunting had reached the 
summit of the mast, it unrolled at once in 
all its amplitude, and blazed magnificently 
in the sunlight which then spread so 
brightly upon its gorgeous folds. At the 
same moment the band struck up the 
' Star Spangled Banner,' and a cannon 
ranged in the square sent up peal after 
peal. Mr. Lincoln was then escorted to 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



39 



his hotel, and in a short time the crowd 
had melted away. 



Homage to the Flag by an Eagle. 
While they were hoisting the Stars and 
Stripes over the officers' headquarters at 
Camp Curtin, near Harrisburgh, Penn., in 
the spring of 1861, and just as the men 
nad seized the halyards, a large eagle, 
that came from no one knew where, hov- 
ered over the flag, and sailed majestically 
over the encampment, while the flag was 
run up. Thousands of eyes were up- 




Homage to the Flag by an Eagle. 



turned in a moment, and as the noble bird 
looked down, the cheers of three thousand 
men rent the air! Never was such ova- 
tion paid the "Imperial Bird of Jove." 
It lingered for a few moments, apparently 
not a particle frightened at the terrific 
noise, then, cleaving the air with its pin- 
ions, disappeared in the horizon. 

Strange Blotch on Calhoun's Eight Hand. 
Notwithstanding the long period — some 
thirty years — which has elapsed since the 
following political narrative was given to 
the world, it has still a fresh interest, and 
all the more striking in view of events 
which have come upon the American na- 
tion in these later years. The 'unob- 
served spectator ' whose pen made record 
of the scene here described, was a verita- 
ble eye-witness of the same: 
3* 



The other morning, at the breakfast 
table, when I, an unobserved spectator, 
happened to be present, Calhoun Avas ob- 
served to gaze frequently at his right hand, 
and brush it with his left, in a hurried 
and nervous manner. He did this so 
often that it excited attention. At length 
one of the persons composing the break- 
fast party — his name I think is Toombs, 
and he is a member of Congress from 
Georgia — took upon himself to ask the 
occasion of Mr. Calhoun's disquietude. 
" Does your hand pain you ? " he asked of 
Mr. Calhoun. To this Mr. Calhoun re- 
plied, in rather a hurried maimer. 

" Pshaw ! it is nothing but a dream I 
had last night, and which makes me see 
perpetually a large black spot, like an ink 
blotch, upon the back of my right hand ; 
an optical illusion, I suppose." 

Of course these words excited the curi- 
osity of the company, but no one ventured 
to beg the details of this singular dream, 
until Toombs asked quietly : 

" What was your dream like ? I am 
not very superstitious about dreams ; but 
sometimes they have a great deal of truth 
in them." 

" But this was such a peculiarly absurd 
dream," said Mr. Calhoun, — again brush- 
ing the back of his right hand ; " howev- 
er, if it does not intrude too much on the 
time of our friends, I will relate it to 
you." 

Of course the company were profuse in 
their expressions of anxiety to know all 
about the dream, and Mr. Calhoun related 
it: 

"At a late hour last night, as I was sit- 
ting in my room, engaged in writing, I 
was astonished by the entrance of a vis- 
itor who, without a word, took a seat op- 
posite me at my table. This surprised me, 
as I had given particular orders to the ser- 
vant that I should on no account be dis- 
turbed. The manner in which the intru- 
der entered, so perfectly self-possessed, 
taking his seat opposite me without a word, 
as though my room and all within it be- 



40 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



longed to him, excited in me as much sur- 
prise as indignation. As I raised my head 
to look into his features, over the top of 
my shaded lamp, I discovered that he was 
wrapped in a thin cloak, which effectually 
concealed his face and features from my 
view ; and as I raised my head, he spoke, 
' What are you writing, senator from South 
Carolina?' I did not think of his imper- 
tinence at first, hut answered him volun- 
tarily, ' I am writing a plan for the disso- 
lution of the American Union.' (You 
know, gentlemen, that I am expected to 
produce a plan of dissolution in the event 
of certain contingencies.) To this the in- 
truder replied in the coolest manner possi- 
ble, ' Senator from South Carolina, will 
you allow me to look at your hand, your 
right hand ? ' He rose, the cloak fell, and 
I beheld his face. Gentlemen, the sight 
of that face struck me like a thunder clap. 
It was the face of a dead man, whom ex- 
traordinary events had called back to life. 
The features were those of General 
George Washington. He was dressed 
in the Revolutionary costume, such as you 
see in the Patent office." 

Here Mr. Calhoun paused, apparently 
agitated. His agitation, I need not tell 
you, was shared by the company. Toombs 
at length broke the embarrassing pause^ 

" Well what was the issue of this 
scene ? " 

Mr. Calhoun resumed : 

" The intruder, as I have said, rose and 
asked to look at my right hand, as though 
I had not the power to refuse. I extend- 
ed it. The truth is, I felt a strange thrill 
pervade me at his touch ; he grasped it 
and held it near the light, thus affording 
full time to examine every feature. It 
was the face of Washington ! After 
holding my hand for a moment, he looked 
at me steadily, and said in a quiet way, 
'And with this right hand, senator from 
South Carolina, you would sign your name 
to a paper declaring the Union dissolved ? ' 
I answered in the affirmative. ' Yes,' I 
said, ' if a certain contingency arises, I 



will sign my name to the Declaration of 
Dissolution.' But at that moment a black 
blotch appeared on the back of my hand, 
which I seem to see now. ' What is that ? ' 
said I, alarmed, I know not why, at the 
blotch on my hand. ' That,' said he, 
dropping my hand, ' is the mark by which 
Benedict Arnold is known in the next 
world.' He said no more, gentlemen, but 
drew from beneath his cloak an object 
which he laid upon the table — laid upon 
the very paper on which I was writing. 
This object, gentlemen, was a skeleton. 
' There,' said he, ' there are the bones of 
Isaac Hayne before you — he was a South 
Carolinian, and so are you. But there 
was no blotch on his right hand.' With 
these words the intruder left the room. I 
started back from the contact with the 
dead man's bones and — awoke. Over- 
come by labor, I had fallen asleep, and 
had been dreaming. Was it not a singu- 
lar dream ? " 

All the company answered in the affirm- 
ative, and Toombs muttered, " Singular, 
very singular," and at the same time look- 
ed curiously at the back of his right hand, 
while Mr. Calhoun placed his head be- 
tween his hands and seemed buried in 
thought. 

Firm Devotion of a Loyal Southern Woman 
to the Colors. 

A finely independent and successful 
stand was taken by a woman in New 
Orleans, on behalf of the Union, in the 
dawning days of rebellion. She and her 
husband, a Mississippi steamboat captain, 
occupied the middle front room of the 
lowest range of sleeping apartments in 
the St. Charles Hotel, at the time when 
the city was to be illuminated in honor 
of secession. She refused to allow the 
illuminating candles to be fixed in the 
windows of her room, and the proprietors 
remonstrated in vain — she finally ordering 
them to leave the room, of which she 
claimed, while its occupant, to have the 
entire control. 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



41 



The secessionists, however, determined 
not to be outdone in a matter of such 
grave importance, proceeded to find and 
appeal to the captain, — who Avas not in 
the room at the time of the above pro- 
ceedings. He heard their case ; said his 
wife had reported him correctly on the 
Union question, nevertheless he would go 
with them to the room, and see if the 
matter could be amicably arranged. 

But the captain's disposition to yield 
was not seconded, amicably nor otherwise, 
by his better half. The proprietors there- 
upon next proposed to vacate the best 
chamber in her favor, in some other part 
of the house, if that would be satisfac- 
tory ; but the lady's " No !" was still as 
peremptory as ever. Her point was 
gained, and the St. Charles was doomed 
to have a dark front chamber. Pleased 

with this triumph, Mrs. devised the 

following manoeuvre to make the most of 
her victory. Summoning a servant, she 
sent him out to procure for her an Ameri- 
can flag* which, at dusk, she suspended 
from her window. When evening came, 
the streets, animated by a merry throng 
were illuminated, but, alas ! the St. Charles 
was disfigured by its sombre chamber — 
when, suddenly, a succession of lamps, 
suspended on both sides of the flag, reveal- 
ing the Stars and Stripes, were lit up, and 
the ensign of the Union waved from the 
centre of a hotel illuminated in honor of 
its overthrow ! The effect was, to give 
the impression that the whole house was 
thus paying homage to the American flag; 
and, what was a more significant fact still, 
the old flag was greeted by the passing 
crowd with vociferous applause. So 
much for the firmness of a loyal-hearted, 
true American woman. 



Provisional Government of Kentucky on an 
Excursion. 

The notorious George N. Sanders found 
himself one day, dilapidated and hungry, 
under the hospitable roof of Colonel Wm, 
II. Polk, of Tennessee, — George being 



well known, even in his own partizan cir- 
cle, as a sort of political black sheep. 
After having partaken liberally of the 
viands set before him by his old friend, 
George signified by numerous signs, and 
finally by words, that he wished the serv- 
ants to leave the room. He then said : 

" Polk, I knew you were a man with a 
heart in your bosom ; I told 'em so. I 
said that no better man than Bill Polk 
could be found. I told 'em so. 

" Told who so ?" asked Mr. Polk, rather 
surprised at the sudden and mysterious 
language, accompanied by the removal of 
the servants. 

"Mr. Polk," said George, "I want your 
horses and carriage for a time." 

" Certainly, Mr. Sanders, if you wish 
them." 

"Mr. Polk," said Sanders, "I do not 
appear before you in any ordinary charac- 
ter to-day ; I am clothed with higher au- 
thority ; I am an emissary." 

The tone and manner indicated some- 
thing serious — perhaps to arrest his host. 

" I am an emissary," repeated Mr. San- 
ders, speaking in very large capitals, " from 
the State op Kentucky, and hope to 
be received as such. The fact is," con- 
tinued he, coming down to the level of 
familiar conversation, " I left the Provi- 
sional Government of Kentucky a mile or 
so back, on foot, finding its way south- 
wardly, and I demand your horses and 
carriage in the name of that noble State." 

Of course the carriages and horses were 
harnessed up at once, and Mr. Sanders 
proceeded to bring the Provisional Govern- 
ment to Mr. Polk's house. 

How shall this scene be described ? 
Hon. George W. Johnson, as much a Clay 
man as the sacred soil of Tennessee could 
afford, but still preserving his light and 
active step ; McKee, late of the Courier, 
following ; "Walter N. Haldeman, Avith all 
his industry and perseverance, trying to 
keep up with his associates ; and Willis 
B. Machen, vigorous, active, slightly sul- 
len, but in earnest, with every boot he 



42 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



drew out of the snowy, muddy soil, giving 
a groan of fatigue. Imagine this peripa- 
tetic " Government " safely ensconced at 
Mr. Polk's, on their road south ! 

" Mr. Sanders," said the ' Governor,' 
with dignified suavity, after the walnuts 
and wine, " claimed to be an acquaintance 
of yours, and we were very glad to send 
him forward." 

The Hon. Governor maintained through- 
out, that easy, self-possessed manner, which 
characterizes the gentleman. 

The emissary shortly after suggested to 
the Provisional Government that he was 
"broke," and wished to represent the 
Seventh Congressional District of Ken- 
tucky — that is, the Louisville District ; 
" for," said he, in his persuasive, confiden- 
tial tones, •' that is the only way I know 
of for a man without money to get to 
Richmond." 

A session was at once held of the " State 
Council," the result of its deliberations 
being that Mr. Sanders was authorized to 
proceed to Richmond and there represent 
the interests of Louisville in the rebel 
Congress, vice H. W. Bruce. 



Presidential Prospects. 

One of the visitors, at the "White House 
took it upon himself to congratulate the 
President on the almost certain purpose 
on the part of the people to re-elect " Old 
Abe" for another term of four years. 
Mr. Lincoln replied that he had been, told 
this frequently before of late, and that 
when it was first mentioned to him he was 
reminded of a farmer in Illinois who de- 
termined to try his own hand at blasting. 
After successfully boring and filling in 
with powder, he failed in the effort to 
make the powder go off, and after discuss- 
ing with a looker-on the cause for this, 
and failing to detect anything wrong in 
the powder, the farmer suddenly came to 
the conclusion that it would not go off be- 
cause it had been shot before. 



Minister Cameron and his German Afri- 
canus. 

General Cameron, the American Minis- 
ter, for a time, at the court of St. Peters- 
burg, traveled extensively in the various 
countries of Europe, that he might ac- 
quaint himself with their manners and 
customs. One incident which he relates, 
as occurring during this tour, is, to say 
the least, not very complimentary to " the 
great American Republic as it ivas." 

Arriving at a small German town on 
the evening of Whitsuntide — which is a 
famous and favorite holiday with the Lu- 
therans — the General was struck with 
the decent and comfortable appearance of 
the people who crowded the streets; but 
what just at that time interested him most, 
was a tall, stout, and impressive negro, far 
blacker than Othello, even before he was 
represented as a highly colored gentleman. 
Supposing him to be an American negro, 
Mr. Cameron went up to him and said: 
" How are you, my friend ?" — using the 
Pennsylvania German, in which the Gen- 
eral was an adept — when, to his infinite 
horror, the colored gentleman thus ad- 
dressed turned upon him and said, in good 
guttural Dutch, " I am no American, I do 
not want to talk to you. I won't talk to 
any man who comes from a country pro- 
fessing to be free, but in which human 
beings are held as slaves." And this was 
said by the honest fellow with a magiste- 
rial and indignant air that would have 
been irresistibly severe, if it had not been 
irresistibly comic. 

Minister Cameron made his escape with 
the best possible grace from his stalwart 
and sable antagonist, and supposed he 
had got rid of him ; but on passing into 
an adjoining saloon with his secretary, 
Bayard Taylor, to take a glass of lager 
beer, he was again confronted by his Ger- 
man Africanus, who re-opened his vials 
of wrath, and concluded by turning to the 
General and asking him in broad German, 
"Sagh, bin ich recht, or bin ich unrecht V 
which means : 



VATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



43 



Say, am I right, or am I wrong? An- 



swer me ! 

Minister Cameron made inquiry as to 
the negro, and ascertained that one of the 
nobility in the neighborhood, who had 
spent some years in Africa in a scientific 
and hunting tour, brought back with him 
to Germany a very handsome native, who, 
in course of time, developed into the indi- 
vidual that sought the opportunity to ad- 
minister a rebuke to an American who 
lived in a country professing to be free, 
but in which human beings are held as 
slaves. 



Old Abe Hard-up for a Joke for Once. 

During a conversation which took place 
in the summer of 1864, between President 
Lincoln and a distinguished Western Sen- 
ator, the various legislative nominations 
for the Presidency then being made were 
incidently referred to. " Yes," said Mr. 
Lincoln, moving his leg with evident grati- 
fication — " yes, Senator, the current seems 
to be setting all one way ! " " It does, 
really, seem to be setting all one way," 
was the answer of the Senator, " but, Mr. 
Lincoln, as you have told me several good 
stories since I have been here, permit me, 
if you please, to tell you one : — 

" It has always been observed that the 
Atlantic Ocean at the Straits of Gibraltar, 
constantly pours into the Mediterranean, 
witli a tremendous volume. The Bospho- 
rus empties into it, at its other end, and 
rivei'S are seen contributing to its waters 
all along the coast. It was for many years 
the constant puzzle of geographers, why 
the Mediterranean, under all these acces- 
sions, never got full and overran its banks. 
After a Avhile, however, a curious fellow 
took the notion of dropping a plummet in 
the centre of the Straits, when, lo ! he 
discovered that, though the tremendous 
body of water on the surface was rushing 
inward from the ocean, a still more power- 
ful body was passing outward, in a counter 
current, at some twenty feet below ! " 

" Oh, ah ! " said Old Abe, seriously, and 



evidently nonplussed for the first time in 
i his life ; " that does not ' remind ' me of 
any story I ever heard before ! " 

Front-Door Confabulations in Arkansas. 

A Union man who was visiting Little 
I 
Rock, Arkansas, under the protecting folds 

of the Stars and Stripes, which had then 
taken the place of the Confederate ensign, 
sat down one evening at the front door of 
a secession friend, and engaged in a hearty 
talk about the war, the latter claiming, 
of course, that the South couldn't be whip- 
ped, and the former arguing that that 
■ thing was a good deal more than hah 1 done 
already. While thus conversing, a mid- 
dle aged negro came along, leading a horse 




Front Door Confabulations in Arkansas. 

that did not seem able to stand without 
artificial support. Upon nearing them he 
politely bowed, and said to the secession 
gentleman, 

" Good ebenin' massa." 

" Good evening, Joe," was the kind 
response ; and Joe began moving otf. Just 
at this moment " Massa " appeared to think 
of something else to say, and he remarked, 

"Joe, did you hear that Roberts had 
gone to Texas?" 

" Yes, massa. I knew de day he lef." 

" He took all his ' boys,' I believe." 



-£4: 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



'• Yes, massa, he took 'em all : what he 
go to Texas for?" 

" I suppose he went to keep out of the 
way of the Yankees." 

These words had no sooner left " mas- 
sa's " mouth than a singular change seemed 
to come over Joe. Before their utterance 
■lie was altogether undemonstrative in his 
manner ; but when he caught their fidl 
meaning, his countenance evinced pleasure 
aiiH surprise in about equal proportions. 
In a moment he began to laugh, but 
checked himself suddenly, and said : 

" Could'nt help laughin', massa. My 
missus tole me de Yankees could'nt git 
Memphis ; but dei/re dere now. Den she 
said dere was'nt enough of 'em lef to 
come furder down de riber ; but dey loent 
all de way doivn. Den missus say dey 
can't come up de White, no how; but 
dey did come — and dey went to de Rock 
(Little Rock), an' dey stayed dar; an' I 
jes' b'lieve dey mean to stay eberywhar ; 
an' before massa Roberts sees anoder buf- 
falo gnat dey'll be all ober Texas, an' he 
won't hab enough niggas lef to drive de 
cow home." 

The italicised part of Joe's brief oration 
was spoken with deep emphasis, and the 
effect of the words was greatly increased 
by the appropriate gestures which accom- 
panied them. lie did not wait for any 
mark of approval or censure, but made 
his adieus rather hurriedly. 

" That's a pretty sharp darkie,. I should 
say," remarked Union. 

" He is that," was the reply ; " he's got 
any quantity of hard sense ; and he's a 
right good fellow, too — I never heard any- 
thing bad of him." 

" In case the war were brought to a 
close on condition that the rebellious States 
should send Senators and Representatives 
to Congress, and the Emancipation Pro- 
clamation were withdrawn, would it be a 
passible thing to keep the slaves under 
the same subjection as before the begin- 
ning of the war?" 

" Certaiidy not. The slaves understand 



that they are, or soon will be, free. Rut 
let them be made to believe that the 
United States government intends to break 
the solemn promise which it made to them 
on the first of last January — let them once 
understand that their anticipations of free- 
dom are not to be realized in the manner 
which they expected — and they will make 
a second San Domingo of every Southern 
State." 

" Your ideas agree pretty well with 
those of the Abolitionists of New Eng* 
land." 

" I can't help that," said the secession- 
ist ; " I hate an Abolitionist worse than 1 
ever hated a snake, but I believe just 
what I say, and if the Abolition- 
ists where you came from agree with me, 
I am not to blame." 



Discussion- between Major Downing - and Mr. 
Linkin. 

In a letter from the Federal capital, by 
Major Jack Downing, to the Editors of the 
Cawcashin, the Major thus delivers him- 
self in regard to the great question growing 
out of the war. The Major says, and 
even those who venture to differ from his 
weighty opinions, rarely fail to be inferested 
in his expression of them : 

Surs : — I've been kinder sick senceT 
writ you last. The truth is, this clymate 
in the spring is raely very weaknin to the 
constitushin. Linkin, too, has been terri- 
bully anxus about war noose, and the nigh 
approach of hot Aveather. But the great 
subjeck which the Kernel and I have been 
considerin, is the " eontrybands." What 
is to be done with 'em ? That's the quest- 
shin, and Linkin ses he would like to see 
the feller that can tell him. One night 
Linkin got a big map, an he sot down, and 
" Now," ses he, " Major, let's take a look 
at all creashin, an see ef ther aint sum 
place whar we kin send these pesky kinky 
heds, and get rid of 'em." " Wal," ses I, 
" Kernel, I'm agreed." So we went at 
it. First Linkin put his finger on Haty. 
" Now," ses he, " ther's an iland that jest 
suits the nigger const itushin. Suppose 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



45 



they go ther ? " " But," ses I, " Kernel, 
they won't go, an ef they did, they wouldn't 
do nothin." " Wal," ses he, " no matter, 
ef they won't trouble us here enny longer." 
u But," ses I, " ther's one more resin. 
The iland aint large enufF to hold all the 
niggers — four millions or thereabouts." 
" Wal," ses he, " ther's Centril Ameriky — 
what do you think of that spot ? " " Wal," 
ses I, " Kernel, that's a line country, nater- 
ally. The Creator fixed it up on a grand 
scale, but you can't make a treaty with it, 
enny more than you can count the spots 
on a little pig, when he keeps runin about 
the hull time. The truth is, you can't tell 
who'll be President of it from one mornin 
to the next, and the niggers you send ther 
might all get their throats cut jest as soon 
as they landed." " Wal," ses Linkin, 
"that's a slight objectshin. But let's turn 
over to Afriky. Ther's Libery ; how 
would that do, Major?" "Wal," ses I, 
" Kernel, that country is about the biggest 
humbug of the hull lot. Fust off, sum 
raely good peopul thought after it was goin 
to amount to sumthin, but arter forty years 
of spendin money on it, ther aint enny 
more chanst of civilizin Afriky in that way 
than ther is of makin a rifled cannon out 
of a bass wood log. A few dominys, who 
can't get enny boddy willin to hear 'em 
preach, hev got hold of it, an are makin a 
good thing out of it. As for sendin our 
niggers ther, why, it would take all the 
shippin of the world, and more money than 
Chase could print by steam in a year.'' 
" Wal," ses Linkin, " whar on arth kin we 
send 'em ? " 

" Now," ses I, " Kernel, I've got an idee 
of my own about that matter. I think 
they are best off whar they are an jest as 
they are, but ef you must get rid of 'em, I 
would send 'em all to Massa-chews-its ! 
Peopul who are so anxus to hev other 
folks overrun with free niggers, ought to 
be willin to share sum of the blessins them- 
selves. So let all that are here in Wash- 
ington be sent rite off to Boston." "Yes, 
that might do," says Linkin. " But," ses 



I, "sum States won't have 'em at all, and 
they can't go ther. So what's to be done?'* 
" Wal," ses Linkin, " I tell you what it is. 
Major, this is an almighty tuff subjeck. I 
know sumthin about splittin rails, and 
what hard work is ginerally, but tliis nigger 
questshin has puzzled me more than enny 
thing I ever got hold of before." " Wal," 
ses I. Kernel, I can explain the reason 
why." " Wal," ses I, " Kernel, whar do 
you kerry your pocket book?" Ses he. 
"What on arth has that to do with the 
subjeck ?" Ses I, " Hold on, you'll see." 
" Wal," ses he, " I always kerry it right 
ther, in my left hand trowsers pocket."' 
Ses I, " Didn't you ever hev a hole in 
that pocket for a day or two, an hev to 
put your pocket book in sum other ?" Ses 
he, " Major, I hev." Ses I, " What did 
you do with it then ? " " Wal," ses he, " I 
put it in my right hand pocket, but it 
kinder chafed my leg ther cause it warn't 
used to it, an it also felt mity onhandy. 
So I put it in my side coat pocket, but 
every tune I stooped over it would drop 
out. Then I put it in my coat tail pocket, 
but I was kept all the time on the qui 
vivers, afeerd sum pickpocket would stead 
it. At last, in order to make it safe an 
sure, I put it in the top of my hat, under 
sum papers, but the hat was top heavy, an 
over it went spillin everything. I tell you 
I was glad when my pocket was fixed, an 
I got it back in the old spot." 

"Now," ses I, "Kernel, that's jest the 
case with the niggers. The minit you get 
'em out of ther place, you don't know what 
on arth to do with 'em. Now, we've been 
here all the evenin sarchin over the map 
to see ef we can't find sum place to put 
'em. But it is all no manner of use. 
You've got to do with 'em jest as you did 
with your pocket book. Put 'em whar 
they belong, an then you won't have enny 
more trubbil." 

Linkin didn't see eggzactly how I was 
gwin to apply the story, an wen he did, he 
looked kinder struck up. Wen I saw that 
I had made a hit on him, I follered it up. 



46 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Ses I, " Kernel, this government ain't out 
of order, as Seward and Chase kontend. 
They are only tryin to run it the rong way 
— that's what makes all the trubbil. I 
once had a thrashin machine, an I sold it 
to old Jim Dumbutter, an arter he got it 
he sed it warn't good for nothin — that it 
wouldn't run, &c. So I went over to see 
it, an I vow ef he didn't hev the machine 
all rong eend foremist. I went to work 
at it, an, arter a little wile, it went off like 
grease, jest as slick as a whistle. You 
see, old Dumbutter didn't understand the 
machine, an, tharfore, he couldn't make it go. 
Now," ses I, " Kernel, our Constitushin is 
a Dimmycratic machine, and its got to.be 
run as a Dimmycratic machine, or it won't 
run at all! Now, you see, Seward is tryin 
to run it on his ' higher law ' principle, but it 
warn't made for that, an the consekence is, 
the thing is pretty nigh' smashed up." 

" Wal," ses Linkin, " things do look 
kinder dark. I don't know whar Ave will 
cum out, but I guess I'll issoo a proclama- 
shin for the ministers to pray for us. 
Perhaps they will do sum good." Ses 
I, " Kernel, that reminds me of old Elder 
Doolittle, who cum along the road one 
day rite whar old Sol Hopkins, a very 
wicked old sinner, was hocin corn. The 
season was late, and the corn was mity 
slim. Ses the Elder: 'Mister Hopkins, 
your corn is not very forrard this year.' 
' No, its monstrous poor,' ses Hopkins, 
'an I guess I shan't have half a crop.' 
'Wal,' ses the Elder, 'Mister Hopkins, you 
ought to pray to the Lord for good crops, 
perhaps he will hear you.' ' Wal, perhaps 
he will, and perhaps he won't,' ses old Sol, 
k but I'll be darned ef I don't believe that 
this corn needs manure a tarnel sight more 
than it does prayin for.' Now," ses I, 
" Linkin, I think this country is something 
like old Hopkinses corn. It needs states- 
manship good deal more than prayin for." 
Linkin didn't seem to like that observation 
of mine much, for he turned the subjeck, 
an he ain't axed me what it was best to do 
with the ni<rjr 'r senu;- 



Bad for the Cow. 

In the following little story, which is 
certainly unique in its way, it will not 
require a great stretch of imagination to 
consider the Federal Government as rep- 
resenting the locomotive, and the seceding 
States the cow: 

When George Stephenson, the cele- 
brated Scotch engineer, had completed his 
model of a locomotive, he presented him- 
self before the British parliament, and 
asked the attention and support of that 
body. The grave M. P.'s, looking sneer- 
ingly at the great mechanic's invention, 
asked, — 

" So you have made a carriage to run 
only by steam, have you ? " 

" Yes, my lords." 

" And you expect your carriage to run 
on parallel rails, so that it can't go off, do 
you?" 

" Yes, my lords." 

" Well now, Mr. Stephenson, let us show 
you how absurd your claim is. Suppose 
when your carriage is running upon these 
rails at the rate of twenty or thirty miles 
per hour, if you're extravagant enough to 
even suppose such a thing is possible, a 
cow should get in its way. You can't 
turn out for her — what then ? " 

" Then 'twill be bad for the cow, my 
lords!" 



Advised to Stick to his Business. 
If, through a multitude of counsellors 
there is safety, President Lincohi may be 
said never to have run any great risk of 
not carrying the ship of state securely 
through all its perils. Their number in 
his case was always legion. Among these, 
in the early part of the war, was a West- 
ern fanner, who sought the President day 
after day, until at last he procured the 
much desired special audience. Like many 
other visitors at the executive mansion, he, 
too, had a plan for the successful prosecu- 
tion of the war, to which Mr. Lincoln lis- 
tined as patiently as he could. When he 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



47 



was through, he asked the opinion of the 
President upon his plan. 

" Well," said Mr. Lincoln, " I'll answer 
by telling you a story. You have heard 
of Mr. Blank, of Chicago? He was an 
immense loafer in his way — in fact, never 
did anything in his life. One day he got 
crazy over a great rise in the price of 
wheat, upon which many speculators gained 
large fortunes. Blank started off one 
morning to one of the most successful of 
the speculators, and with much enthusiasm 
laid before him a plan by which he, the 
said Blank, Avas certain of becoming inde- 
pendently rich. When he had finished, he 
asked the opinion of his hearer upon his 
plan of operations. The reply came as 
follows : ' My advice is that you stick to 
your business ! ' But,' asked Blank, ' what 
is my business ? ' 'I don't know what it 
is,* said the merchant, 'but, whatever it is, 
I advise you to stick to it.' And now," 
said Mr. Lincoln, " I mean nothing offen- 
sive, for I know you mean well, but I 
tliink you had better stick to your business, 
and leave the war to those who have the 
responsibility of managing it." 



Burlesque on Peace Propositions. 

Concerning a certain peace proposition 
then on the tapis at Washington, Mr. Ken* 
— his prenomen Orpheus C, — thus dis- 
courseth : — 

The Confederacy hastily put on a pair 
of white cotton gloves, and says he : 

" Am I addressing the Democratic Or- 
ganization ? " 

" You address the large Kentucky 
branch," says the Conservative chap, pull- 
ing out his ruffles. 

" Then," says the Confederacy, " I am 
prepared to make an indirect proposition 
for peace. My name is Mr. Lamb, by 
which title the democratic organization has 
always known the injured Confederacy, and 
I propose the following terms : Hostilities 
shall at once cease, and the two armies be 
consolidated under the title of the Confed- 
erate State forces. The war debts of the 



North and South shall be so united that 
the North may be able to pay them with- 
out confusion. 

"An election for a new President shall 
at once be held, everybody voting save 
those who have shown animosity to the 
sunny South. France shall be driven out 
of Mexico by the consolidated armies, the 
expense being so managed that the North 
may pay it without further trouble. Upon 
these terms the Confederacy will become 
a peaceful fellow man." 




Fernando Wood. 

" Hem ! " says the Kentucky chap. 
" What you ask is perfectly reasonable, 
I will consider the matter after the man- 
ner of a dispassionate democrat, and return 
you my answer in a few days." 

Here I hastily stepped up, and says I, 
'' But are you not going to consult the 
President at all about it, my Jupiter 
Tonans ? " 

"The President? the President?" says 
the Conservative Kentucky chap, with a 
vague look — " Hem ! " says he, " I really 
forgot all about the President." 

" The democratic organization," (adds 
Kerr, with said prenomen,) " my boy, in 
its zeal to benefit its distracted country, is 
occasionally like that eminent fire company 
in the Sixth Ward, which nobly usurped 
with its hose the terrible business of put- 
ting out a large conflagration, and never 
remembered until its beautiful machine 
was all in position, that another company 



48 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



of fellow firemen had exclusive possession 
of all the water works." 

The same sparkling and trenchant pen 
would find some other peace propositions, 
emanating from organizations not exactly 
Democratic or Conservative, first rate ma- 
terial for his side-shaking irony and wit ; 
or, should he lack the necessary material, 
Mr. Fernando Wood, the "Apostle of 
Peace," might he ahle to supply the de- 
ficiency. 



Ohio Toll-gate Keeper's Talk -with Vallan- 
digiiam. 

As Messrs. Vallandigham and Pendle- 
ton, the Pro-Southern or Anti-War mem- 
bers of Congress, from Ohio, were going 
in a carriage, in the spring of 18G3, from 
Batavia, to fill an appointment at some 
place in Brown County, they drew up at 
a toll-gate. 




Vallandigham- 

Mr. Pendleton, with that amiable famil- 
iarity characterizing his intercourse with 
the poor and lowly voters, asked the ven- 
erable gate-keeper how he stood on politics, 
and Avas answered: "I am a Democrat; 
have voted the ticket all my life, and ex- 
pect to as long as I live." 

" That's right, my good man ! I am glad 
to find you all right on politics; now, as 
an old Democrat, what do you think of the 
Hon. Mr. Vallandigham for our next Gov- 
ernor? — Vallandigham for our next Gov- 
ernor, eh?" 



"Vallandigham is the traitor 

north of Mason and Dixon's line, and I 
wouldn't help elect him dog pelter!" 

"But stop, man, this gentleman with 
me is Mr. V." 

" I don't care who he is ; I am a Jack- 
son Democrat, not a Vallandighamcrat." 

The worthy pair now drove on, not par- 
ticularly elated or refreshed in their polit- 
ical feelings by the conversation they 
themselves had provoked. 



Gov. Andy Johnson's Supplement to one cf 
Lorenzo Dow's Stories. 

Governor Andy Johnson — now our 
President, — at one of the Loyal League 
meetings in New York, hit the secession 
sympathizers with the following story. 
Great complaint, (said the Governor) has 
been made about the suspension of the 
writ of habeas corpus. Is there any man 
who has no treason lurking in his bosom 
that is apprehensive of an arrest? Why 
are certain persons so nervous in this re- 
gard? Because treason is lurking in their 
bosoms ! 

Lorenzo Dow, when he was on his way, 
upon one occasion, to attend an appoint- 
ment, met a man who complained that his 
axe had been stolen. 

"I will settle that matter for you," said 
Dow. 

Before reaching the meeting house he 
picked up a large stone, weighing about a 
pound and a half. After he had concluded 
his sermon in his peculiar way, looking 
over the audience, turning the stone over 
in his hand, he said: 

"I have been informed by one of your 
neighbors that he had his axe stolen last 
night, and I intend with this stone to knock 
the man down who did it." 

Poising the stone in his hand, as if about 
to throw it, there was one man who im- 
mediately dodged behind his seat, and 
Dow pointed him out to the audience as 
the thief. And so I say (continued Gov. 
Johnson,) if you want to find out traitors, 
just look around and shake the suspended 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



49 



writ of habeas corpus at them, and you 
will see them dodge, shrink and complain. 



Napoleon on French Youngsters in the Fed- 
eral Army. 

Archbishop Hughes, on his way to Rome, 
had an interview with the Emperor Napo- 
leon. After a few commonplaces on the 
horrors of civil Avar, pronounced in the 
slow and monotonous tone of voice pe- 
culiar to him, Louis Napoleon abruptly 
altered his manner. His glassy counte- 
nance lit up, his voice rose, and he pro- 
ceeded with marked accentuation: "But 
who then advised your President, Mr. 
Lincoln. What induced him to receive 
those two youngsters (ces deuz jeunes hom- 
ines — king Louis Philippe's sons,) into his 
army? He might have perceived that it 
is not to his credit to encourage preten- 
sions like theirs by giving them an oppor- 
tunity of getting themselves talked of. 
The cause of the Orleans is not a cause 
which can be avowed. I found the throne 
vacant. I took it. But they! they stole 
the crown of their relative!" 



That Card from "Willard's Hotel. 

An anecdote was told at an out door 
political meeting, in Washington, one night, 
by the Hon. Mr. Chittenden, of Vermont, 
the well known Register of the United 
States Treasury. It shows what was go- 
ing on among certain high political char- 
acters, to prevent the will of the people 
from being executed in the inauguration 
of Mr. Lincoln and to overthrow and usurp 
the constitutional Government. 

Mr. Chittenden remarked that he would 
state one fact in connection with his expe- 
rience in Washington, which he believed 
had never yet been made public: His 
first visit to the national capital was per- 
haps an unfortunate one. He was a del- 
egate from the State of Vermont to the 
peace convention, or conference, which 
met in that city, in the month of Febru- 
ary, 1861, upon the invitation of the Gov- 
ernor of Virginia. In that convention he 



happened to form the acquaintance of 

James B. Clay, of Kentucky, William A. 
Seddon, of Virginia (afterwards the Con- 
federate Secretary of War), Governor 
Morehead, of Kentucky, (who became a 
fugitive from the flag that had always pro- 
tected him,) and others of a similar polit- 
ical stripe. His seat was near those gen- 
tlemen. One day, Avhile sitting with them, 
a servant from Willard's Hotel entered 
and handed a card to Mr. Seddon, who sat 
near Mr. Chittenden. He did not know 
what was on the card, but it was passed 
around from one to the other in such a 
maimer that he could not help but see 
what was written upon it. On the card 
was written these words: ' Lincoln is in 
Washington !' He never saw such con- 
fusion made by a small piece of card be- 
fore. They looked at each other with 
amazement. At last, Waldo P. Johnson, 
afterwards a Senator from Missouri, Avho 
could control himself no longer, exclaimed 
with vehemence and chagrin, " How the 
devil did he get through Baltimore ?" 

It Avas a part of the secession plot that 
the bludgeon-mongers of Baltimore should 
see to it that Mr. Lincoln did not pass 
through that city alive, on his Avay to as- 
sume the charge of the Government — a 
graphic account of which will he found on 
another page of this volume. 



Secret of the Unanimous Vote in the Senate. 
The passage of a bill by Congress en- 
larging the poAver of the President of the 
United States in order for him to more 
effectually meet the necessities, civil and 
military, of the country, was in the highest 
degree expedient. But how the bill ever 
passed the Senate by an unanimous vote, 
Avhile it received so bitter an opposition in 
the House, Avas a point Avhich partook 
largely of the mysterious, in the vieAV of 
outsiders. A Democratic Senator, how- 
ever, — one of those Avho took their novi- 
tiate for senatorial honors in the cells of 
Fort Lafayette — (Wall, of NeAV Jersey,)— 
gave a solution of the mystery, one day, and 



GO 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



so terse and true as to deserve repetition. 
"Four of our men" — and he named them, 
but of course one couldn't be guilty of 
such disrespect to American Senators as 
to print them — " four of our men were so 
drunk they couldn't leave their rooms; 
and the others, not knowing how drunk 
these men were, had gone off to Count 
Mercier's party." That is the whole story, 
— and a similar tale might be told in con- 
nection with many other Congressional 
bills and measures. It is hardly neces- 
sary to add, that more than one section 
was represented in the drunken quartette 
in question. 



Price of Chivalry in Hard Cash. 
When the Federal troops occupied Win- 
chester, Virginia, a young lady was seen 
ripping up a Union flag, to turn into a 
" Secesh streamer." . An officer made her 
give it up. It was repaired and raised over 
the sidewalk of the surgeon's house, where 
it was a great trouble to the Winchester 
ladies, who crossed the street rather than 
Avalk under it. One day the Maine Tenth 
seeing one of them coming down the pave- 
ment, placed a bright silver Union " quar- 
ter" directly under the flag. Miss Secesh 
came up and stepped off the curb as usual 
to go round the " dirty rag," but on seeing 
the piece of money she retraced her steps, 
and while she Avas stooping to pick it up 
she was greeted by a tremendous shout of 
laughter. So the price of chivalry was 
found to be not more than twenty-five 
cents — certain ! 



" Spiritual " Revelations en the Conduct of 
the War. 

President Lincoln was induced by some 
of his friends to hold a "spiritual soiree," 
one evening, in the crimson room in the 
White House, to test the alleged wonderful 
supernatural powers of Mr. Charles E. 
Shockle. The party consisted of the Pres- 
ident, Mrs. Lincoln, Secretaries Welles 
and Stanton, Mr. D. of New York, Mr. 
F. of Philadelphia, and Mr. Shockle, ac- 



companied by a friend. They took their 
seats hi the circle about eight o'clock, but 
the President was called away shortly 
after the manifestations commenced, and 
the spirits which had apparently assembled 
to convince him of their power, gave vis- 
ible tokens of their displeasure at the 
President's absence, by pinching Mr. Stan- 
ton's ears and twitching Mr. Welles's 
beard. He soon returned, but it was some 
time before harmony was restored, for the 
mishaps to the secretaries caused such 
bursts of laughter that the influence was 
very unpropitious. For some half-hour 
the demonstrations were of a physical char- 
acter — tables were moved, and the picture 
of Henry Clay, which hangs on the wall, 
was swayed more than a foot, and two 
candelebras, presented by the Dey of Al- 
giers to President Adams, Avere tAvice 
raised nearly to the ceiling. 

It AA r as nearly nine o'clock before Shoc- 
kle Avas fully under spiritual influence, and 
so poAverful A\ T ere the subsequent manifest- 
ations, that tAvice during the evening re- 
storatives Avere applied, for he Avas much 
Aveakened. The following account of Avhat 
took place is believed to be as correct as 
possible. 

Loud rappings, about nine o'clock, Avere 
heard directly beneath the President's feet, 
and Mr. Shockle stated that an Indian de- 
sired to communicate. 

"Well, Sir," said the President, "I 
should be happy to hear what his Indian 
majesty has to say. We have recently 
had a visitation from our red brethren, and 
it Avas the only delegation, black, white, or 
blue, which did not \-olunteer some advice 
about the conduct of the Avar." 

The medium then called for pencil and 
paper, and they Avere laid upon the table 
in sight of all. A handkerchief Avas then 
taken from Mr. Stanton, and the materials 
were carefully concealed from sight. In 
a shov* time, knocks Avere heard and the 
paper Avas uncovered. To the surprise of 
all present it read as folloAvs : 

" Haste makes Avaste, but delays cause 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



51 



vexations. Give vitality by energy. Use 
every means to subdue. Proclamations 
are useless; make a bold front and fight 
the enemy; leave traitors at home to the 
care of loyal men. Less note of prepara- 
tion, less parade and policy talk, and more 
action. Henry Knox." 

" That is not Indian talk, Mr. Shockle," 
said the President; who is 'Henry Knox?' 

It was suggested to the medium to ask 
who General Knox was, and before the 
words were fully uttered, the medium 
spoke in a strange voice, "The first Secre- 
tary of War." 

"Oh! yes, General Knox," said the 
President; who, turning to the Secretary, 
said: "Stanton, that message is for you; 
it is from your predecessor." 

Mr. Stanton made no reply. 

"I should like to ask General Knox," 
said the President, "if it is within the 
scope of his ability, to tell us when this 
rebellion will be put down." 

In the same maimer as before, this mes- 
sage was received: 

" Washington, Lafayette, Franklin, Wil- 
berfoi'ce, Napoleon, and myself have held 
frequent consultation on this point. There 
is something which our spiritual eyes can- 
not detect which appears well formed. 
Evil has come at times by removal of men 
from high positions, and there are those in 
retirement whose abilities should be made 
useful to hasten the end. Napoleon says, 
concentrate your forces upon one point: 
Lafayette thinks that the rebellion will die 
of exhaustion; Franklin sees the end ap- 
proaching, as the South must give up for 
want of mechanical ability to compete 
against Northern mechanics. "Wilberforce 
sees hope oidy in a negro army. — Knox." 

"Well," exclaimed the President, "opin- 
ions differ among the saints as well as 
among the sinners. They don't seem to 
understand running the machines among 
the celestials much better than we do. 
Their talk and advice sound very much 
like the talk of my cabinet — don't you 
think so, Mr. Welles?" 



" Well, I don't know — I will think the 
matter over, and see what conclusion to 
arrive at." 

Heavy raps were heard, and the alpha- 
bet was called for, when "That's what's 
the matter," was spelt out. 

There was a shout of laughter, and Mr. 
Welles stroked his beard. 

"That means, Mr. Welles," said the 
President, " that you are apt to be long- 
winded, and think the nearest way home 
is the longest way round. Short cuts in 
Avar times. I wish the spirits would tell 
us how to catch the Alabama." 

The lights, which had been partially 
lowered, almost instantaneously became so 
dim as to make it difficult to distinguish 
the features of any one in the room, and 
on the large mirror over the mantel-piece 
there appeared the most beautiful though 
supernatural picture ever beheld. It 
represented a sea view, the Alabama with 
all steam up flying from the pursuit of an- 
other large steamer. Two merchantmen 
in the distance were seen, partially de- 
stroyed by fire. The picture changed, 
and the Alabama was seen at anchor iin- 
der the shadow of an English fort — from 
which an English flag was waving. The 
Alabama was floating idly, not a soul on 
board, and no signs of life visible about her. 
The picture vanished, and in letters of 
purple appeared: "The English people 
demand this of England's aristocracy." 

" So England is to seize the Alabama 
finally ? " said Mr. Lincoln : " It may be 
possible ; but, Mr. Welles, don't let one 
gunboat or monitor less be built." 

The spirits called for the alphabet, and 
again " That's what's the matter," was 
spelt out. 

" I see, I see," said the President : 
"Mother England thinks that what's sauce 
for the goose may be sauce for the gander. 
It may be tit, tat, too, hereafter. But it 
is not very complimentary to our navy, 
anyhow." 

"We've done our best, Mr. President," 
said Mr. Welles ; " I'm maturing a plan 



52 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



which, when perfected, I think, if it works 
well, will be a perfect trap for the Ala- 
bama." 

"Well, Mr. Shockle," remarked the 
President, " I have seen strange things and 
heard rather odd remarks ; but nothing 
which convinces me, except the pictures, 
that there is anything very heavenly about 
all this. I should like, if possible, to hear 
what Judge Douglas says about this Avar." 

" I'll try to get his spirit," said Mr. 
Shockle ; " but it sometimes happens, as it 
did to-night in the case of the Indian, that 
though first impressed by one spirit, I yield 
to another more powerful. If perfect 
silence is maintained, I will see if we can- 
not induce General Knox to send for Mr. 
Douglas." 

Three raps were given, signifying assent 
to the proposition. Perfect silence was 
maintained, and after an interval of per- 
haps three minutes, Mr. Shockle rose quick- 
ly from his chair and stood up behind it, 
resting his left arm on the back, his right 
thrust into his bosom. In a voice such as 
no one could mistake who had ever heard 
Mr. Douglas, he spoke. The language 
was eloquent and choice. He urged the 
President to throw aside all advisers Avho 
hesitate about the policy to be pursued, 
and to listen to the wishes of the people, 
who would sustain him at all points if his 
aim was, as he believed it was, to restore 
the Union. He said that there were 
Burrs and Blennerhassetts living, but that 
they would wither before the popular ap- 
proval which would follow one or two vic- 
tories, such as he thought must take place 
ere long. The turning-point in this Avar will 
be the proper use of these victories. If 
wicked men in the first hours of success 
think it time to devote their attention to 
party, the Avar Avill be prolonged ; but if 
victory is folloAved up by energetic action, 
all will be Avell. 

"I believe that," said the President, 
" AAdiether it comes from spirit or human." 

Here closed the interview, at Mrs. Lin- 
coln's request, Mr. Shockle being much 



prostrated. The account here given is 
from one Avho Avas present ; and, though 
evidently by no one unfriendly to the me- 
dium, there has been no denial of the gen- 
eral correctness of the proceedings. 



Putting 1 'Em Through a Course of Sprouts. 
One lively spring day, four young men 
of the city of Frederick, Maryland, Avent 
to the good old toAvn of Liberty, and Avhilst 
passing the Stars and Stripes which floated 
from a pole at the Avest end of the toAvn, 
took the idea into their empty heads to 
curse that time-honored emblem with con- 
siderable liberality and posit iveness, and 
to even say something about taking it 
down. Hearing, hoAvever, that they Avoiild 
be called to account for such rebellioiis 
acts, they loaded their pistols before leaA-- 
ing the hotel, and roisterly declared Avhat 
they wxmld do if attacked. The " fun" 
came at last. About five o'clock, a car- 
riage Avas seen coming xip the hill, and 
when nearly opposite the nag, two citizens 
walked out into the middle of the street 
and gave the command, " Halt" Avhich Avas 
promptly obeyed. The next command 
Avas — " Salute that flag ! " After an ex- 
cuse or tAVO about a ' bad cold,' and ' Iioav 
salute it? ' they gave a Aveak cheer. The 
ansAver to this was, " That Avon't do ; a 
little louder!" The second time their 
A r oices raised considerable ; but " louder 
yet ! " Avas commanded, and the third time 
they gave mighty good proof of pulmona- 
ry health. They Avere then ordered to 
"Curse secession," and they did so. After 
having thus passed successfully their ex- 
ercise on the various points of the political 
decalogue, they Avere alloAved to move on 
— Aviser and better posted men. 



Carolinian Unionist ShoAving the Track. 
Captain Grant, of the Nineteenth Wis- 
consin regiment, had the good fortune to 
escape from the Confederate prison at 
Columbia, South Carolina, to the Union 
lines. When he had been tAventy days 
out, and had just crossed the line betAveen 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



North and South Carolina, he was startled 
about the middle of the night by hearing 
voices in the middle of the road and ap- 
proaching. Stepping aside and listening 
closely, he was reassured by the discovery 
that one of the voices was that of a negro, 
and supposed, of course, the other was a 
negro also. He called them, and enquired 
the road to a town not far distant, which 
was in the direction he wished to go. To 
this interrogatory, a white man's voice re- 
plied : — 




Carolina Unionist. 

" Men of your stamp don't want to go 
to that town — you must flank it." 

"What do you mean by men of my 
stamp ? " was the reponse. 

" Why," said the Carolinian, " I mean 
that you don't want to go there, that's all ; 
but you must flank it." 

" But what do you suspect me of be- 
ing?" Captain Grant enquired. 

" You are a Yankee," replied the Caro- 
linian 3 " if you go there you will be made 
a prisoner." 

"And if I am a Yankee," said the Cap- 
tain, " and wanted to flank the town, is 
there anybody about here who could 
show me how to do it? — is there such a 
man ? " 

" That I be," was the reply, and the 
Carolinian parted from his negro compan- 
ion, who turned out to be a woman, and 
took Captain Grant to his house, and call- 



ed up his wife and had her get supper for 
the stranger. Here Captain Grant got 
his first insight of the faithfulness, earn- 
estness and hopefulness of the real Union 
party of North Carolina. His host told 
him where and how to find Union men, 
and marked out the most favorable roads 
for him to take, giving many directions, all 
of which were proven to have been given 
in good faith. 



Sentiments of a Dying- Soldier. 

At a public meeting in Boston, Mr. 
Gough said : " Not I0112; ago I was in a 
hospital, and saw a young man, twenty-six 
years of age, pale and emaciated, with his 
shattered arm resting upon an oil-silk pil- 
low, and there he had been many long and 
weary weeks, waiting for sufficient strength 
for an amputation. I knelt by his side 
and said, " Will you answer me one ques- 
tion ? " " Yes sir," was his reply. " Sup- 
pose then you "were well, at home, in good 
health, and knew all this would come to 
you, if you enlisted, would you enlist ?" 
" Yes, Sir," he answered in a whisper ; 
" I woidd in a minute ! What is my arm 
or my life compared with the safety of 
the country ? " 

That was patriotism of the genuine 
brand. 



Banks's Morning: Call at Marshal Kane's 
Door. 

General Banks, on assuming command 
in Maryland, took his first step in the work 
of throttling treason by arresting George 
P. Kane, marshal of the police of Balti- 
more, who had publicly declared that that 
city was " red with blood," and boastingly 
adding, with reference to the Northern 
troops, "We will fight them, and whip 
them, or die." Banks accordingly deter- 
mined to arrest the marshal. Eighteen 
hundred men marched from Fort McIIen- 
ry into Baltimore with loaded muskets and 
fixed bayonets, just before daybreak, for it 
was well known that the marshal had arms 
secreted at the head-quarters and the ste- 



54 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



tions of the police, and it seemed that he 
was only waiting a favorable opportunity 
to rise with his whole force and begin an 
insurrection to wrest Baltimore from Fed- 
eral authority. 

The men wore their cartridge boxes, in 
which were a few rounds, but no knap- 
sacks. They had marched a square, when 
a policeman, in his cool summer uniform, 
and swinging his long baton, was observed 
crossing the street ahead. Instantly the 
head of the column opened, the body 
swept on, and the policeman, riveted to the 
ground in astonishment at this manoeuvre, 
unknown to the tactics of either Matsell 
or Vidocq, found himself swallowed up and 
borne along in the resistless advance. 
Two squares ahead another policeman was 
discovered — again the column opened and 
he was engulfed. By the time the column 
reached the residence of the marshal, not 
less than fifty-seven of the vigilant guard- 
ians of the night had been thus swallowed 
up ; but when they found that their cap- 
tors had halted at the door of the mar- 
shal's house, they began to smefl a rat of 
the largest possible dimensions. An offi- 
cer now rang the bell. After some delay, 
a night-capped head popped out of the 
window, and the well-known voice of 
Marshal Kane inquired, in a rather gruff 
tone, — 

" What is wanted ? " 

The officer blandly replied that he him- 
self was the article just then in demand. 

" Hum, hum," said the marshal, never 
at a loss for a joke, " I'll supply that de- 
mand." 

Did the vision of escape cross the mar- 
shal's mind ? Possibly. It is certain that 
he skipped with agility to a back window, 
raised the curtain and looked out. Alas ! 
the moonbeams played upon five hundred 
glittering bayonets in the yard below. 
The game was up, and the marshal knew 
he must submit to his inevitable fate. He 
descended the stairs and opened the front 
door. 

" Good God !" he exclaimed to the offi- 



cer in command, " Why did you not bring 
five or six more regiments and some artil- 
lery ? If you had sent me a note and a 
carriage, I would have come without all 
this fuss." 

It was even then day-break ; the column 
moved briskly forward, and the marshal 
enjoyed the rare sight of sunrise from the 
ramparts of Fort McHenry. 



Prospective Value of the "War. 

An officer from Louisville led one of 
Rosecrans' regiments into battle, his supe- 
rior having been called to other duty. In 
the advance this man's son fell by a rebel 
bullet. The father saw him fall, but could 
not stop to care for him. Narrating the 
circumstances, the bereaved father said, 
with the tears fast falling from his eyes : 

" My boy, you know, is gone. I was in 
temporary command of the regiment, and 
as we were pressing on I saw my boy 
fall. I could not turn back to him, so I 
said to a soldier, ' Look to Johnny,' and 
went on, and we did the work we went to 
do." 

" Do you still hold to .the idea you ex- 
pressed when you and I talked over the 
questions of this war before ? Do you 
feel now as you did then ? 

" Certainly ; I feel we are doing this 
work for ourselves and children, and for 
those who are to come after us. Of 
course, I am very sad, but the cause is 
just the same as before — only more sacred 
than ever" 



Comedy of Cabinet Errors. 

The following jaunty account is told of 
an interview with the Cabinet chiefs, just 
after the Baltimore Republican Nomina- 
ting Convention : 

Immediately upon the adjournment of 
the Convention, a prominent Republican 
gentleman paid his respects to Mr. Sew- 
ard ; found him in a pleasant state of mind, 
with one thumb in vest pocket, and twirl- 
ing his spectacles with the other hand. 

" Ha ! ha ! Mr. — ," said the secretary 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



Cso 



to his visitor, " I see that poor Blair and 
Chase have been invited to leave the Cab- 
inet by the Baltimore Convention ! " 

The gentleman was astonished, as he 
had supposed that this resolution referred 
to Mr. Seward as much, at least, as to any 
other member of the Cabinet, and after a 
few common-place remarks, retired. Im- 
mediately after, he paid his respects to Mr. 
Welles, whom he found awake, and who 
immediately notified his visitor that he 
had heard or dreamt that some people, 
who had recently assembled in Baltimore, 
had invited Mr. Seward to leave the Cab- 
inet. The next Secretary visited was Mr. 
Blair, and he was found to be laboring 
under the delusion that the resolution of 
the Convention was meant for Mr. Chase, 
his particular ' friend.' And finally it was 
discovered, in this amusing Comedy of 
Cabinet Errors, that every individual mem- 
ber of Old Abe's confidential advisers 
supposed that he was exempted, while all 
the others were censured lor their part in 
the conduct of the war. 



Political Courtesies at the White House. 
One of the most significanfof the many 
political groupings at one of President Lin- 
coln's 'receptions' during the Avar, was 
that in which the President, Mrs. Lincoln, 
General and Mrs. McClellan, and General 
and Mrs. Fremont, were parties. The two 
latter were waiting in the reception room 
until their carriage should arrive, when 
the President came up and asked General 
Fremont if he would be presented to Gen- 
eral McClellan. " With pleasure," replied 
he, " but we are about leaving." " Never 
mind that," said the President, "I've 
got him in a corner in the other room, 
and he's waiting for you." Of course 
General Fremont did not refuse, so, fol- 
lowed by Senator Sumner and Mrs. Fre- 
mont, he walked with Mr. Lincoln the en- 
tire length of the East Room, the observed 
of all the guests, who cheerfully ' gav 
place.' The introduction was, of course, 
the ordinary simple ceremony, and after a 



few moments conversation with General 
and Mrs. McClellan, the parties retired as 
they had advanced. Such an occurrence 
of ceremonial courtesy between two op- 
posed military and political chieftains did 
not fail to impress the hundreds of look- 
ers on. 



Forgetting his Usual Courtesy. 

The instances are rare in which Presi- 
dent Lincoln's temper is known to have 
given way, under the annoyance of per- 
sons boring him with their " views" of se- 
cession, war, emancipation, &c. One such 
instance is thus narrated : 

A good lady of Ward Beecher's church, 
doubtless inspired by her pastor's free ex- 
hortations about politics, thought she had 
discovered a sure means of aiding the 
cause, and became so engrossed Avith it 
that, — woman-like — she persuaded her 
husband to take her to Washington that 
she might be the first to whisper it in the 
ear of the President, and so become the 
honored instrument of the nation's salva- 
tion. The patriotic couple called at the 
White House, and were told that the 
President was engaged on important busi- 
ness and could not be seen. But the lady 
thought her mission of too much import- 
ance to be postponed for a single day, and 
sent word back to the President that her 
business was of the greatest consequence. 

Unwilling to send away a lady, and sup- 
posing that she had come to ask a per- 
sonal favor, perhaps in reference to some 
relative in the army, the President left his 
conference on State matters, and went 
down to listen to his lady visitor. He sat 
patiently while she opened her plan of mil- 
itary and moral strategy for the suppress- 
ion of the rebellion, and then rising to his 
full hight, which was some, said, with ab- 
ruptness and impatience — 

" Madam, all this has been thought of a 
hundred times before ! " 

Saying which, he hastened out of the 
room, forgetting his usual courtesy to the 
other sex. 



5Q 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



Political Rendering- of Hamlet. 

Hon. John Cochrane is ' some ' at sen- ! 
sation making, He got off something in 
this line, in one of his speeches during the j 
war, which — at one point at least — seemed j 
to ' bring down the house,' friends and op- l 
ponents alike included. With character- 
istic vivaciousness of manner and expres- j 
sion, Mr. C. said : 

Upon yonder lines, at Windsor Pass, 
Vallandigham and his friend Horatio — I 
see the friend of Horatio grasping his j 
cloak about him to screen him from the \ 
northern blast ; and I also behold Marcel- 
lus Wood. It is the peace platform on 
the Canadian line. They tread the stage 
and remind me of that scene conceived in 
the mind of nature's poet, composed un- 
doubtedly with reference to events now 
transpiring. It was the melancholy Ham- 
let — Vallandigham — his friend Horatio, 
and the officer Marcellus Wood, that occu- 
pied, upon a dreary night, a brief hour 
upon the peace platform at Elsinore. 
[Hisses and applause.] 

Hamlet — (Vallandigham) — the air bites 
shrewdly ; it is very cold. 

Horatio — it is indeed, an unhappy and 
an eager air. 

Hamlet — What hour now ? 

Horatio — Methinks it lacks of twelve. 

Marcellus Wood — No, it has struck. 

Horatio — Indeed ! I heard it not. 

Heard it not, Horatio ? Heard you not 
Rhode Island, one ? two, Vermont ? three, 
Massachusetts ? four, New Hampshire ? 
five, Maine? six, California? seven, Wis- 
consin ? eight, Illinois ? nine, Pennsylva- 
nia? ten, Ohio? eleven, Maryland? and 
New York, twelve? [Uproarous ap- 
plause, which lasted for some time, the 
audience rising to their feet and cheering 
en masse.~] And there struck the last syl- 
lable of recorded time. If, Horatio, your 
auricular nerve was dead to that, it must 
be the dull, cold ear of death with which 
you are struck. The dead heard it, looked 
up and wondered at the miracle. The liv- 
ing heard it and rejoiced, and as our army 



stood shoulder to shoulder in the front, the 
people were standing shoulder to shoulder 
in the rear. 



Cheers instead of a Speech. 

A very cheerful little speech was given 
by President Lincoln, one afternoon, while 
a very large concourse of people was as- 
sembled on the grounds of the presidential 
mansion, listening to the charming music 
of the Marine Band. 

The President, in the midst of the mu- 
sical entertainment, made his appearance 
on the balcony of the White House, and 
after conversing with a few friends, stood 
up and looked very much like a man who 
was going to make a speech. The people 
took the cue from Abraham's countenance, 
and instantly there was a general rush to 
the spot where he stood. Mr. Lincoln 
smiled on the crowd gathered around him, 
and understanding very well what they 
wanted, made a low bow and proceeded : 

" Ladies and gentlemen, I suppose you 
want a speech, don't you ? " 

" Yes, yes ! " was the response on all 
sides. 

" Well," said the President, " I propose 
in lieu of it to give three cheers for Gen- 
eral Grant and the army under him." 

The cheers Avere given with a right 
good will, after which the crowd dispersed, 
thinking that old Abe had played a joke 
in pretending that he was going to make 
a speech. The little episode put every- 
body into the best of humor. The Presi- 
dent knew well how to lead off with " three 
and a tiger." 



Stirring- Scene at the Polls. 
At a town meeting held in Newton, 
Massachusetts, a very black freedman who 
came from Virginia to the former State 
about a year and a half previously, and 
who, for fourteen months, had been in the 
employ of a gentleman in West Newton, 
appeared at the polls for the purpose of 
voting. He had been assessed, his tax 
was paid, and he was all right on the rec- 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



ord, but he held a War ticket, and the 
presiding member of the board of select- 
men at the time, who entertained opposite 
political views, refused permission for him 
to vote. 

" Upon what grounds ? " asked a gentle- 
man present. " Because," said the officer, 
" he is an escaped slave, and under the 
fugitive slave law he ought to be sent 
back." u But," said the gentleman, " we 
don't live under that dispensation now ; 
the President's Proclamation has settled 
all that, and the man has a right to vote 
and should be allowed to do so." 

" The President had no right to make 
such a Proclamation ; it is unconstitu- 
tional," said the selectman. 

The gentleman replied : " It is for the 
Bond to determine the man's right to 
vote, and I appeal to them ; " and with 
the exception above stated all concurred 
that the freedman had the right to vote, 
and he accordingly deposited his first bal- 
lot with a grin of delight which was pleas- 
ant to witness. 

As he was doing this, however, a little 
Irishman entered his protest, on the ground 
that he could not read and write. " I beg 
pardon," said the gentleman who acted the 
part of friend to the voter, " he can read 
and write. Since he came here he has 
been prepared for the duties of a free 
man, and he can read and write as well 
as a white man." " Well," said the little 
Irishman, " I don't care for that ; niggers 
have no right to vote, any way," and so 
the matter ended. 



" are making an effort to draw in the 
border States to their schemes of secession, 
and I am too fearful they will succeed. 
If they do succeed, there will be the most 
terrible civil war the world has ever seen, 
lasting for years. Virginia will become a 
charnel house ; but the end will be the 
triumph of the Union cause. One of their 
first efforts will be to take possession of 
this capital, to give them prestige abroad, 
but they will never succeed in taking it ; 




General Stewart and Senator Douglas on the 
" Situation." 

A most remarkable prediction was made 
by Senator Douglas, in January, 1861. 
Mr. Douglas was asked by General C. B. 
Stewart, of New York, who was making a 
New Year's call on the great Illinoisian, — 

" What will be the results of the efforts 
of Jefferson Davis and his associates to 
divide the Union?" 

" The cotton States," Douglas replied, J 



the North will rise en masse to defend it ; 
but it will become a city of hospitals ; the 
churches will be used for the sick and 
wounded, and even the Minnesota block 
(which afterward did become the Douglas 
hospital) may be devoted to that purpose 
before the end of the war." 

" What justification is there for all this? " 
inquired General Stewart. 

"There is," said Douglas, "no justifica- 
tion, nor any pretense of any. If they 
will remain in the Union, I will go as far 
as the Constitution will permit to maintain 
their just rights, and I do not doubt but a 
majority of Congress will do the same. 
But," — and this he said rising on his feet 
and extending his arm, " if the Southern 
States attempt to secede from this Union 
without further cause, I am in favor of their 
having just so many slaves, and just so 
much slave territory, as they can hold at 
the point of the bayonet — and no more !" 



58 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Wilkinson's Veteran Minnesota Regiment. 

One of the richest scenes afforded by 
the United States Senate, during the war, 
was that in which Pitt Fessenden, of 
Maine, and Wilkinson, of Minnesota, were 
the principal actors. Wilkinson — a very 
clever Senator — had been indulging in a 
little abuse of " the East." The East got 
everything, he said, and the West nothing. 
He alluded particularly to a veteran regi- 
ment from Minnesota, which from some 
informality had not yet received its pay, 
and an appeal was taken to Congress, 
which was not successful. From one thing 
to another, the discussion rambled, till at 
last the Senator (AVilkinson) began to 
ridicule the army of the Potomac in " Dunn 
Browne's" best style. He pictured that 
army swinging to and fro between Wash- 
ington and Culpepper, and made eastern 
armies and eastern generals appear in a 
ridiculous aspect. Pitt Fessenden rose to 
defend the East. 

" How is it," asked Fessenden, " about 
the veteran Minnesota regiment, which 
our friend has complimented so highly 
here ? To what army did it belong ? " 

" To the army of the Potomac," replied 
Wilkinson. 

" Indeed," quoth the Maine senator, " is 
it possible 2 Has this Minnesota regiment 
been swinging to and fro between the Po- 
tomac and the Rapidan ? " 

Wilkinson then explained that he did 
not allude to the soldiers of the army of 
the Potomac, but to its leaders. Mr. Fes- 
senden took him up on that point. 

"Who is the General-in-Chief?" asked 
Mr. Fessenden ; " It is General Halleck, a 
western man. Who is the Commander-in- 
Chief, the man responsible for the leader- 
ship of all the armies ? Is he not a western 
man?" 

It was a most amusing colloquial debate, 
Fessenden coming out in his best style, and 
Wilkinson doing extremely well, too, but 
choosing to be in a weak position, he was 
compelled to throw up the sponge. 



Availing' himself of a Joke. 

A representative of one of the five Great 
Powers met Mr. Seward one day, just as 
he was coming out of his room, on his way 
to dinner. Of course the diplomat was 
invited to walk in. He declined, saying : 

" Oh, no, I only called to tell you a good 
joke. One of our Captains has just ar- 
rived, and says that, when he reached 




Charleston and went to my consul's office, 
and inquired for the consul, he was told that 
he was drilling his company. What com- 
pany ? inquired the captain of the ship. 
Why, one of the companies selected to 
march against Washington. The captain 
was greatly surprised, and mentioned the 
fact as evidence of the universal feeling of 
hostility which pervades Charleston." 

Mr. Seward. What is the name of your 
consul at Charleston ? 

Diplomat. . 

Mr. Seward, (opening the door opposite 
where they were standing.) Mr. Assistant 
Secretary, draw up an order recalling the 

exequatur issued in favor of , consul 

at Charleston. There. That business is 
disposed of. 

Diplomat. My Seward! You 

are not in earnest. I only told you the story 
as a good joke. 

Mr. Seward. And I, Mr. , avail 

myself of this "joke," to give you practical 
evidence of the manner in which we intend 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



59 



to deal with every Foreign Power and their 
representatives, whenever they interfere, 
directly or indirectly, between us and the 
traitors in rebellion against our Govern- 
ment. The exequatur of your consul is 
recalled ; and I sincerely hope that no im- 
prudence on the other side of the Atlantic, 
will compel me as summarily to terminate 
the very pleasant relations now existing 
with all the members of the Diplomatic 
Corps. 



"And the brother shall deliver up the brother 
to death." 
A man named C — e, lived in Missouri, 
about fifty miles from the Kansas border. 
His family, originally from the South, had 
settled in southwestern Missouri. "When 
the war broke out his two brothers avowed 
their disloyalty to the Government, joined 




" And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death ." 

the secession army, — and they urged him to 
do so too. But he was true to his allegiance 
to the Union and its starry ensign. Hesi- 
tating, and with the ties of kindred to dis- 
tract him, he remained a passive witness 
of events until all the man that was in him 
at length induced him to take his place in 
the great struggle. A few days after a 
younger brother rode up to his house. At 



the time he was out of his wagon, and had 
been practising with his rifle at a mark, 
and had just loaded. The younger brother 
said : " I'm glad you're thinking about 
your gun. You'd better join a company." 
" I have done so," was the calm reply. 

" Whose?" " Captain 's," naming the 

Captain of a company of Home Guards 
that had been raised in that county. "Ah ! 
that's what you are at, is it ? " cried the 
younger brother — and, drawing a Colt's 
navy, he continued, " I've got something 
for you," and fired. The ball lodged in the 
breast of the elder brother, who staggered 
and fell with the violence or suddenness of 
the shock. Recovering himself, however, 
for a moment, with superhuman energy, he 
got upon his knees, and seizing his rifle, 
pointed it at his murderous brother, who 
turned and fled, but the rifle-ball in his 
spine arrested the course of the rebel for- 
ever. The family of the Union man gath- 
ered a few of their effects hurriedly, and 
fled with him in a wagon — at last reaching: 

O P} 

Kansas, where, though severely wounded. 
he slowly recovered. 



Fanr.ls Traitors making - Ashes of the Glo- 
rious Flag-. 
In the earlier stage of the rebellion, four 
young gentlemen stopping in Alexandria, 
engaged apartments there of a highly re- 
spectable lady living in Prince street, with 
her daughters, the latter aged respectively 
sixteen and eighteen. Although the lady 
and her daughters were avowed secession- 
ists, the former having two sons in the 
rebel army, the new-comers were never- 
theless not quite prepared to hear them 
speak so contemptuously and bitterly of the 
Union. The young gentlemen, it appears, 
took it into their heads to hoist the Stars 
and Stripes on the top of their dwelling, 
one day. The lady and daughters, when 
they discovered it, raised such a storm of 
indignation that the gentlemen were afraid 
to approach them. One of the young ladies 
clambered to the roof of the house, at the 
risk of life and limb, and, with the spirit 



60 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



of a tigress, tore down the flag, trampled 
it beneath her feet, and finally threw the 
fragments in!o the stove. Not content Avith 
this disrespect to the glorious emblem of 
the country which had protected herself 
and family from their birth, this youngtrait- 
ress took the ashes of the burnt flag and 
pitched them contemptuously into the 
street. 



Merited Rebuke of a Secessionist by General 

Dumont 

A good anecdote is told of how a violent 
secessionist at the Tennessee capital got a 
merited rebuke from General Dumont. A 
famous physician's female household de- 
ported themselves so rudely to our soldiers, 
once or twice actually spitting in their 
faces, that the General ordered the house 
to be put under guard, with orders to let 
no one pass in or out. The Doctor, who 
was in the country at the time, was greatly 
incensed on finding his access to his own 
house debarred by a guard of soldiery on 
his return, and forthwith went to head- 
quarters, boiling over with rage. On heal- 
ing the Doctor's representation, the General 
calmly replied that he was not aware of 
giving any order to put the complainant's 
house under guard. The latter insisted, 
however, that the fact was so, and pointed 
to his residence, which was in sight and 
near at hand, as evidence, for the guard 
could be plainly seen. 

" Is that your residence ? " inquired the 
General, blandly. 

" To be sure it is." 

" Why, I took it for granted, from the 
conduct of its female occupants, that it was 
an abode of shameless courtezans, and I 
ordered a guard to be placed around it to 
prevent the visitation of our soldiery." 

Confession of a Rebel Officer to General 
Grant. 

One of the majors in the rebel army at 
Vicksburg had formerly served in the same 
regiment of the United States army with 
General Grant, but was then the latter's 



prisoner of war. Grant treated him kindly, 
invited him to his private apartment, and 
extended to him the courtesies of personal 
friendship. After he left, the General 
gave a little sketch of the rebel's former 
life to the members of his staff. He also 
said, that when the rebel major was in his 
room and he was talking to him about 
being in the Confederate service, the ma- 
jor replied : 

" Grant, I tell you I ain't much of a 
rebel, after all, and when I am paroled, I 
will let the d service go to the mis- 
chief." 



Dr. Cottman in Butler's Hands. 

There is a story of General Butler's ad- 
ministration in New Orleans Avhich does 
not appear in his excellent biography. By 
direction of the President, an election for 
Congressmen was held in the First and 
Second districts. Dr. Cottman engaged 
to be a candidate, and was thereupon sent 
for by General Butler. 

The General, after inquiring whether it 
was really true that the Doctor Avas a can- 
didate with his own consent, and receiving 
an affirmative answer, read the oath which 
he would be required to take before enter- 
ing upon his Congressional duties — a pret- 
ty stringent covenant by the way, declaring 
that the deponent had never given aid or 
comfort to the internal or external enemies 
of the Republic, never held or sought 
office under the pretended government of 
the Confederate States, or in any way 
countenanced the great rebellion. Having 
thus called the attention of the Doctor to 
the terrible ordeal which awaited him, 
the General drew forth a large fac-simile 
of the Ordinance of Secession, and pointed 
to the signature, Thos. E. II. Cottman, 
which appeared thereon in a fair, round, 
schoolmaster-like hand. 

" Now," asked the General, " how can 
you take that oath after having signed that 
treasonable document?" 

" But I did not assent to it. I opposed 
separate secession all through." 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



Gl 



'■'' But you signed the ordinance — and 
the signature looks as though you thought 
it was something to be proud of." 

" I signed it merely as a witness to the 
record !" 

" Signed as witness ! Bosh ! What non- 
sense ! Suppose, Doctor, you really were 
a Member of Congress, and old Jake Bar- 
ker, as the representative of Benjamin 
Franklin, should present a claim for wit- 
ness fees, on the ground that his ancestor 
signed the Declaration of Independence 
only in that capacity — would 3011 vote for 
it?" 

The Doctor appeared to be afflicted with 
a bronchial disorder, which prevented his 
making immediate answer. 

" Now," says the General, " I tell you I 
think it an insult to loyal men that a signer 
of that ordinance should offer to take the 
oath I have read. You know very well 
that the signing of that document was 
made a test of the devotion of members 
of the Convention to the cause of Seces- 
sion. You know very well that it was 
made a test in the case of Mr. Rozier, and 
you know that he did not meet it as you 
did by surrendering to treason." 

" Very well, Sir, I will announce in the 
newspapers that I am ordered by the mili- 
tary commander to withdraw my name 
from the canvass." 

" No you wont — nothing of the sort. I 
have given you no orders ; I shall give 
you none. I have only to say that I think 
it grossly scandalous that you, after having 
signed an ordinance of secession, should 
ask the people of this District to put you 
in a position to take this oath ; and even 
if you can bring your conscience to allow 
you to take that oath, certain it is that no 
House of Representatives would allow you 
to take it in its presence ! " 

So the Doctor went his way, and an- 
nounced in the newspapers that unforeseen 
circumstances commanded his withdrawal 
from the canvass. 



Accidents Will Happen. 
General Garfield had a bad egg thrown 
at him by some treason sympathizer while 
speaking at Chestertown — the same place 
where, he said, a few weeks since he was 
face to face 'with the companions of the 
miscreant on the field of battle. " They 
carried more dangerous weapons," said the 
General, " but as I did not run there, it is 
not probable that I shall run now ; and as 
I fought then, if necessaiy, I can fight 
now !" The mob were intensely gratified 
by this plucky speech, and proceeded to 
inflict summary justice upon the egg- 
thrower, which they did, unfortunately, by 
administering a tremendous beating to the 
wrong man ! If a true patriot, however, 
he doubtless forgave the accident, and was 
willing thus to suffer vicariously in so good 
a cause. 



Disturbing an Orator. 

When the Union lines advanced towards 
Corinth, in the summer of 18(32, a battery 
was planted on an eminence commanding 
a considerable portion of the country, but 
completely shrouded from view, by a dense 
thicket. Scouts were sent out to discover 
the exact position of the rebels, and when 
they were but a short distance in advance, 
to give a signal as to the direction to fire, 
if any were discovered. 

One of the rebel commanders, unaware 
of such presence, called around him a 
brigade, and commenced addressing them 
in something like the following strain : 
" Sons of the South ! We are here to 
defend our homes, our wives and daugh- 
ters, against the horde of Vandals who 
have come here to possess the first and 
violate the last. Here, upon this sacred 
soil, we have assembled to drive back the 
northern invaders — drive them into the 
Tennessee. Will you follow me ? If we 
cannot hold this place, we can defend no 
spot of our cherished Confederacy. Shall 
we drive the invaders back, and strike to 



62 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



death the men Avho would desecrate our 
homes? Is there a man so base among 
those who hear me as to retreat from the 
contemptible foe before us ? I will never 
blanch before their fire, nor — " 

At this interesting period the signal was 
given, and six shells fell in the vicinity of 
the chivalrous officer and his men, Avho 
suddenly forgot their red-hot resolves, and 
fled in confusion to their breastworks. 



One of the Thing's to be Done. 

A very gentlemanly, intelligent Union 
soldier was one day standing by the side 
of a 32-pounder, at Annapolis, Maryland, 
over which, under the military rule of 
General Butler, there proudly floated the 
Stars and Stripes. In the course of a con- 
versation with some disunionists who sur- 
rounded him, one of them said : 

" I would just like to know now, what 
you all expect to do ? " 

"With the gun for his seat, the flag for 
his protection, and slaveholders for his au- 
dience, he replied : 

" We expect to enforce the laws of the 
United States, in all the States. We in- 
tend, that persons living in Charleston, 
South Carolina, who desire to subscribe 
for any Northern paper, may, with perfect 
safety, take such paper from its wrapper, 
and read it with impunity in the public 
rooms of your hotels. And when vessels 
with colored sailors, having regular papers 
from the United States custom houses, go 
to Southern ports r we intend that those 
sailors shall not be molested, in any man- 
ner whatever." 

" Why, you are an abolitionist ! " 

" No, Sir, not a bit of it. But I am an 
American citizen, having certain rights, 
which have not, heretofore, been protected ; 
but which hereafter, thanks to your folly, 
will forever be secured. Why, only a 
year ago, when I was at Wilmington, a 
colored man, who had bought himself and 
a small schooner, was engaged in the coast- 
ing trade hereabouts, and happened to find 
himself in trouble, not far from this very 



point. His vessel ran aground, and he 
was obliged to stay several days in this 
place. He was put in jail, had no funds 
to pay some infernal fine with, and would 
have been sold by the State into slavery, 
had not several of us, Avho happened to 
hear it, raised $800, and secured his lib- 
erty." 

" Why, you surprise me ; I never heard 
of that." 

" No, and you never would have heard 
of it under your state of things. But now 
you will find that papers will print differ- 
ent matter from what they used to. And 
that, my friend, is one of the things that 
we expect to do." 



Friendly Advice to a Doubtful Unionist. 

Colonel Marshall, an old army officer, 
distinguished by his explorations on the 
Plains, regarded the valley of the Pamun- 
key as almost a paradise. The green 
fields of waving grain were so luxuriant 
that he was induced to inquire how long 
the ground was run without change, and 
was astonished to find that once in six 
years Avas the reply. The houses are built 
of brick, and the barns are of the most 
substantial character. Upon one occasion 
he encamped in a clover field, and, as Avas 
\ T ery natural under the circumstances, the 
horses, being in clover, lost no time in tak- 
ing ad\"antage of it. The gentlemanly 
proprietor of the clover field, having made 
serious remonstrances Avithout effect, at 
last demanded payment therefor, when the 
folloAving brief and conclusive colloquy 
ensued : 

Proprietor. Colonel Marshall, I be- 
lieve ? 

Col. M. You believe right, Sir. 

Proprietor. Well, Colonel, you have 
trampled doAvn my clover field and com- 
pletely destroyed it. Do you intend pay- 
ing for it ? 

Col. M. Well, Sir, are you loyal ? 

Proprietor. Yes, Sir. 

Col. M. Are you willing to take the 
oath of allegiance to the United States ? 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



63 



Proprietor. No, Sir. 

COL. M. Then get Jeff. Davis to pay 
you, and get out of my tent, you infernal 
traitor. 



Rousseau's First Step toward making Loyal 
Men of Rebels. 

On General Rousseau's succeeding 
General Mitchel in his command in Ala- 
bama, he Avas visited by a gentleman re- 
questing permission to go beyond our lines 
and visit his wife. He had never taken 
up arms against the Union, but he had 
aided and abetted those who had, and ad- 
mitted that he was still a Secessionist. 

" You can't go," said the General. 

"It seems very hard," replied Secesh, 
"that I can't go to see my wife." 

" No harder for you than it is for me," 
returned the General ; " I want to see my 
wife. You have compelled me to leave 
her, by your infernal treason. You surely 
don't expect me to grant you a favor which 
your rebellious conduct prevents me from 
enjoying." 

" Well, but General, " 

" It is useless to talk, Sir. If you will 
go to Avork and assist me to return to my 
wife, I will do all I can to enable you to 
return to yours." 

"What do you wish me to do, General?" 

" I wish you to return to your allegiance, 
and, as far as lies in your power, to dis- 
countenance rebellion and treason." 

" But, General, my conscience will not 
allow me to do that." 

" Neither, then," replied the Kentucky 
patriot, " will my conscience allow me to 
grant you favors which are due only to 
loyal men." 

Of course there was nothing further to 
be urged ; the baffled rebel took up his hat 
and left. The General turned toward 
those who were sitting in his tent, and 
quietly remarked, 

" When you have rendered these rebels 
fully sensible of how much they have lost 
by their rebellion, you have taken the first 
step toward making them loyal men." 



Dr. 's Loyalty rather Coppery. 

Down in old Eastern Massachusetts 
(town not mentioned), resides a certain 

Dr. , whose loyalty was commonly 

reputed as rather " coppery," but who is 
wonderful in his success in transplanting 
trees and making them thrive — in fact has 
raised a paradise around his fine old man- 
sion. A clerical guest once making the 
rounds, said, " Doctor, the United States 
Marshal ought to have an eye to your 
proceedings." " How so," asked the Doc- 
tor, a trifle startled, and wondering whether 
he had spoken out a little too plainly any 
time. " Because you have such a happy 
way of encouraging trees-on." The Doc- 
tor laughed, and " owed him one." 



Raising - the Flag - . 

A great city for Union people, Union 

speeches, Union flag-raising, etc., is , 

The boys are even more vociferous in 
cheering for the Union than are their pa- 
rents, and when the ' Stars and Stripes ' 
are to be unfurled to the breeze, specimens 
of Young America may always be seen 
honoring the occasion with their presence. 
At one of these gatherings, Avhere, with 
the above described concourse, were as- 
sembled the stanch Union men of the city, 
one among the latter class was chosen to 
address the assembly. Accordingly, he 
arose upon the platform, and amidst the 
deep silence of the expectant audience 
began, ' slowly but surely,' as follows : 

" Countrymen ! — friends ! — fellow-citi- 
zens ! — why are we here assembled this 
evening ? " 

Scarcely had this question been thus put 
to the listening crowd when an impatient 
juvenile patriot, indignant at the very 
thought that the man selected to address 
the people should be ignorant of the rea- 
son why they had there assembled, an- 
swered in a drawling, whining, but per- 
fectly audible voice : 

" To raise that flag, ye big fool ye !" 

This information was applauded by 
a general laugh — the orator asking no 



64 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



more such patent questions during that 
address. 



Judge G 's Idea of the Rebellion. 

Judge G. was a Justice of the Supreme 
Court in the western part of the State of 
New York a short time before the rebel- 
lion broke out, but while the distant mut- 
terings of its thunders could be heard. 
The Judge was as renowned for his solid 
learning and patriotism as he was for a 
certain quaintness of expression, that oft- 
times produced a laugh in court, to the 
great surprise of the Judge. One day a 
feigned issue in a divorce suit, involving 
abandonment and desertion on the part 
of the guilty party, was on trial at the 
Circuit, and the counsel for the plaintiff, 
who sometimes indulged in " spread ea- 
gles," Avas in the very climax of his rhap- 
sody, when, turning a moment from the 
jury, whom he was addressing, to the 
Court, he said, " What would your Honor 
do, I would like to know, if a portion of 
the States of this glorious Union should 
' shoot madly from their spheres,' and at- 
tempt the destruction of the nation ? " 
" What wovdd I dew ? " asked the Judge ; 
" why, I'd try and shute them back again." 
It may be added that the Judge, who is 
still upon the bench, adhered unfalteringly 
to his opinion. 



Devotion to the Stars and Stripes. 



Rev. Mr. 



-, a man about six feet 



four in his stockings, and of proportions 
worthy a grenadier, and whose heart is as 
stout as his frame, a thorough Union man, 
and in for the Avar until all treason Avas 
thoroughly crushed out, Avas conducting a 
religious conference meeting, when a 
brother arose to speak, Avho, after alluding 
to his hopes and fears in a religious point 
of A r ieAV, branched out in reference to the 
state of the country, saying that so great 
Avas his devotion to the Stars and Stripes 
that he had enlisted; and after a feAV 
further patriotic remarks, begged an inter- 
est in the prayers of the church, that he 



might be protected by Divine Providence, 
on the battle field, and that should he fall 
a victim to the bullets of the enemy he 
might be prepared for the change. 

Such a speech at any time would thrill 
with patriotic fervor the brave heart of 
that worthy minister, and he consequently 
spoke a feAV words of encouragement to the 
hero. After this, the Avife of the enlisting 
brother volunteered her experience, in the 
course of which, alluding to her husband's 
enlistment, she expressed a Avillingness to 
give him up, even unto death, in the ser- 
vice of his country. 

In a feAV moments after, the meeting 
came to an end, when the minister, all 
anxiety for the welfare of the patriot 
volunteer, proceeded to make some inqui- 
ries in reference to his regiment, commenc- 
ing with the very natural question as to 
its name and number, when he received 
the startling reply, 

"I'vejined the Home Guard/" 



Arrest of "Joe Guild " by Colonel Myers. 

Colonel Myers, of California, received 
the appointment of Union Sheriff of Nash- 
ville and its vicinity, and in the discharge 
of lus duties Avas ordered to arrest certain 
offensive characters — among others a cer- 
tain Col. Joe Guild. This person A\ r as 
elected Judge of the Chancery District, 
which embraces Sumner county, after Ten- 
nessee A\ r as forced into rebellion. He Avas 
a lawyer of some ability, and a bilious 
Breckinridge politician. In the work of 
treason, no one commenced earlier or 
ran faster. 

When Colonel Myers went in search 
of " Old Bally," he took a walk around 
Gallatin in his usual quiet way, and asked 
some one he met where Colonel Guild 
lived. "Judge Guild? yonder he goes 
now," said the citizen, "on that pony." 
Quickening his pace, the Sheriff soon 
caught up, and approaching him, inquired 
if that Avas Colonel Guild. 

" Guild is my name, sir ; what Avill you 
have?" 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



65 



" I have visited Gallatin for the purpose 
of arresting you." 

" Arrest me ! " said Guild, with well 
feigned astonishment; I have done nothing 
worse than thousands have done in this 
county." 

" That may all be very true, Colonel 
Guild ; but we are determined that those 
who took front seats in this little show shall 
keep them throughout." 

Colonel Guild desired to see his resi- 
dence before setting out for Nashville, but 
our Sheriff was in a hurry. " But the 
Court is in session," said Guild, " surely 
you will allow me to sign the records ? " 
" Yes, you can sign them. Send for them 
and sign them at the Provost Marshal's 
office." 

The Judge sent for the records and for 
his family. When these came, a number 
of citizens came as a committee of condo- 
lence. Judge Guild's female relatives were 
demonstrative. Mrs. G. wished she just 
had the power; she would drive the Yan- 
kee Hessians out of the country very 
quick. 

" Yes," said the officer, " but we have 
the power, and intend to drive the enemies 
of the country in." 

" Very well," replied madam, " you need 
not think you can force our people into the 
Union." 

" We intend to force the soil in, any- 
how," said Colonel Myers, "and if the 
people cannot afford to come in, they would 

better get off." 

♦ — 

Pro-Southern Domine Delineated. 

Some one was discussing the character 
of a pro-Southern clergyman — a time- 
serving Washington domine — in the pres- 
ence of Mr. Lincoln. Says Mr. Lincoln 
to his visitor, I think you are rather hard 
upon Mr. Blank. He reminds me of a 
man in Illinois who was tried for passing 
a counterfeit bill. It was in evidence that 
before passing it he had taken it to the 
cashier of a bank and asked his opinion 
of the bill, and he received a very prompt 



reply that the bill was a counterfeit. His 
lawyer, who had heard of the evidence to 
be brought against his client, asked him 
just before going into court, " Did you take 
the bill to the cashier of the bank and ask 
him if it Avas good ? " "I did," was the 
reply. "Well, what was the answer of 
the cashier ?" The rascal was in a corner, 
but he got out of it in this fashion : " He 
said it was a pretty, tolerable, respectable 
sort of a bill." Mr. Lincoln thought the 
clergyman was " a pretty, tolerable, respect- 
able sort of a clergyman." The President 
said : " We have a good many of that class 
in Washington, I fear, though, if anybody 
is going to make me prove this I'll back 
down at once, for in these times it is hard 
to prove anything." 



Hard-Shell Brethren Dealing with a Contu- 
macious Member. 

Nobody took a higher reputation for 
daring and efficiency in the guerrilla war 
in Missouri than Major Clark Wright. 
He and his rangers became a terror to 
rebels in that region. When the roar of 
secession first went up from South Caro- 
lina, he heard it in common with others, 
but, while avowing his Union sentiments, 




Hard Shell Brethren. 



attended simply to his business, and avoided 
giving any offence on account of his views. 
In course of time, however, at a Baptist 
meeting near his residence, a few of the 



66 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



"brethren," after refreshing their spiritual 
appetites with the crumbs of his sanctu- 
ary, took his case into consideration, and 
unanimously determined that he should 
be made to leave the country, appointing 
a committee to inform him of their de- 
cision. 

One of the party, although an ardent 
secessionist, happened to be a personal 
friend of Wright, and forewarned him. 
Wright, knowing that he had done nothing 
to warrant such proceedings, determined 
to light it out, and in this he was backed 
by his wife. He provided himself with 
two revolvers, and his wife took one, and 
awaited further developments. 

Monday afternoon, three men rode up 
and inquired for Mr. Wright. He walked 
out, with the butt of a revolver sticking 
warily from his coat pocket, and inquired 
their wishes. The revolver seemed to 
upset their ideas. They answered that it 
was nothing in particular, and proceeded 
to converse upon every thing in general, 
but never alluded to their errand. Finally, 
after a half hour had passed, and the men 
still talked on without coming to their 
mission, Wright grew impatient, and asked 
if they had any special business — if not, 
he had a pressing engagement, and would 
like to be excused. Well, they had a lit- 
tle business, said one, with considerable 
hesitation, as he glauced at the revolver 
butt. 

" Stop ! " said Wright, " before you tell 
it I wish to say a word. I know your 
business, and I just promised my wife on 
my honor as a man, that I would blow 
— out of the man who told me of it, and 
by the Eternal God, I'll do it ! Now tell 
me your errand ? " 

Saying this, he pulled out his revolver 
and cocked it. The fellow glanced a mo- 
ment at the deadly looking pistol, and took 
in the stalwart form of Wright, who was 
glaring at him with retribution in his eye, 
and concluded to postpone the announce- 
ment. The three rode away, and reported 



their reception to their principals. The 
next Sunday, after another refreshing sea- 
son, the " brethren " again met and took 
action upon the contumacy of Mr. Wright. 
The Captain of a company of secession- 
ists was present, and after due delibera- 
tion, it was determined that upon the next 
Thursday he should take his command, 
proceed to Wright's, and summarily eject 
him from the sacred soil of Missouri. 
Wright's friend was again present, and he 
soon communicated to Wright the state of 
affairs, and begged him to save bloodshed 
by leaving. 

Wright lived in a portion of the coun- 
try remote from the church, and the resi- 
dence of those who were endeavoring to 
drive him out, and he determined, if pos- 
sible, to prepare a surprise for the worthy 
captain and his gallant forces. To this 
end he bought a barrel of whiskey, an- 
other of crackers, a few cheeses, and some 
other provisions, and then mounting a 
black boy upon a swift horse,* sent him 
around the country, inviting his friends to 
come and see him, and bring their arms. 
By Wednesday night he had gathered a 
force of about three hundred men, to whom 
he told the state of things, and asked their 
aid. They promised to back him to the 
death. The next day they concealed 
themselves in a cornfield, back of the 
house, and waited the development of 
events. So, a little after noon, the captain 
and some eighty men rode up to the place 
and inquired for Mr. Wright. That gen- 
tleman immediately made his appearance, 
when the Captain informed him that, being 
satisfied of his abolitionism, they had come 
to eject him from the State. 

" Won't you give me two days to settle 
up my affairs ? " asked Wright. 

" Two days be — ! I'll give you just 
five minutes to pack up your traps and 
leave ! " 

" But I can't get ready in five minutes. 
I have a fine property here, a happy home, 
and if you drive me off you make me a 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



67 



beggar. I have done nothing. If I go, 
my wife and children must starve." 

"To hell with your beggars! You 
must travel ! " 

" Give me two hours ? " 

" I'll give you just five minutes, not a 
second longer. If you ai'nt out by that 
time (here the gallant soldier swore a most 
fearful oath,) I'll blow out your cursed 
abolition heart ! " 

" Well, if I must, I must ! " and Wright 
turned toward the house, as if in deep 
despair, gave a preconcerted whistle, and 
almost instantly after the concealed forces 
rushed out and surrounded the astounded 
Captain and his braves. 

"Ah, Captain ! " said Wright, as he 
turned imploringly towards him, " won't 
you grant me two days — two hours, at 
least, my brave friend, only two hours in 
which to prepare myself and family for 
beggary and starvation — now do, won't 
you?" 

The Captain could give no reply, but 
sat upon his horse as if ague-smitten. He 
at length found voice to say — 

" Don't kill me ! " 

" Kill you ! No, you black-livered 
coward, I Avon't dirty my hands with any 
such filthy work. If I kill you, I'll have 
one of my niggers do it. Get down from 
that horse ! " 

The gallant Captain obeyed, imploring 
only for life. The result of the matter 
was that the whole company dismounted, 
laid down their arms, and then as they 
filed out were sworn to preserve their alle- 
giance inviolate to the United States. An 
hour after, Mr. Wright had organized a 
force of two hundred and forty men for 
the war, and by acclamation was elected 
Captain. The next Sunday he started 
with his command to join the National 
troops under Lyon, stopping long enough 
on his way to surround the Hard-shell 
church, at which his miseries had all been 
so augmented. After the service was 
over, he administered the oath of allegi- 
ance to every one present, including the 



Reverend Pecksniff, who officiated, and 
then left them to plot Treason and wor- 
ship God in their own peculiar and pious 
manner. 

He soon, became Major Wright, doing 
brave and valuable service for his country. 



Noble Greeting- by a Loyal Southerner to a 
Green Mountain Boy. 

A tall, splendid-looking man, dressed in 
the uniform of the Allen Greys, Vermont, 
stood one day conversing with a friend on 
Broadway, New York city. He was en- 
tirely unconscious that his superior height 
was attracting universal attention on that 
crowded thoroughfare, until a splendid ba- 
rouche drove up to the sidewalk, and a 
young man sprang from it and grasped the 
soldier's hand, saying, 

" You are the most splendid specimen 
of humanity I ever saw. I am a South- 
erner, but my heart is with the Union ; if 
it were not, such noble-looking fellows as 
yourself would enlist me in the cause." 

The subject of this salutation, although 
surprised, was perfectly self-possessed, and 
answered the cordial greeting of the young 
Southerner with warm enthusiasm. He 
was of superb stature — several inches 
above six feet, and his noble, open coun- 
tenance, beamed with the ancient patriot- 
ism of the Green Mountain Boys, of which 
he was so fine a specimen. He had walked 
fifteen miles from the village of Chitten- 
den to enlist, and was the only representa- 
tive of that village ; but he was a host in 

himself. 

♦ 

Parson Brownlow expressing: his Senti- 
ments in Jail. 

Parson Brownlow's sufferings while in 
jail for his fidelity to his country are well 
known, as well as his unflinching endur- 
ance of them. General Carroll, of the 
Confederate army, who was at one time 
a great friend of his, visited the parson in 
jail, and said to him, 

" Brownlow, you ought not to be here." 
" So I think," responded the Parson ; 
" but here I am." 



68 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



" The Confederate Court is sitting with- 
in a hundred yards of the jail, and if you 
will take the oath of allegiance you shall 
be immediately liberated." 

" Sir," said the Parson, looking him 
steadily in the eye, "before I will take the 
oath of allegiance to your bogus Govern- 
ment I will rot in jail, or die here of old 
age. I don't acknowledge you have a 
Court. I don't acknowledge you have a 
Government. It has never been acknowl- 
edged by any power on earth, and never 
will be. Before I would take the oath I 
would see the whole Southern Confedera- 
cy in the infernal regions, and you on top 
of it." 

" That is — plain talk," said the Gen- 
eral, indignantly leaving the jail. 

" Yes, Sir-ee," said the Parson ; " I am 
a plain man, and them's my sentiments." 



Confederate Notes in Maryland. 

The rebel officers treated the citizens of 
Frederick with a great deal of courtesy, 
but generally forced upon them their 
worthless Confederate notes and scrip, in 
exchange for provisions, or any thing else 
they desired. The merchants and others 
who had articles to sell, upon the rebel 
forces entering the town, closed their places 
of business and refused to sell. Stuart 
threatened to use force uidess the stores 
were opened, and then the merchants con- 
cealed the bulk of their stocks, and opened 
their doors. At one store Colonel Gordon 
called, and insisted upon paying for goods 
he wanted in Confederate notes. The 
merchant happened to be a man who did 
not hesitate to utter his Union sentiments 
freely, and he told the gallant rebel that 
Confederate notes were not worth the pa- 
per they were printed on. The Colonel, 
in reply to this, asked, 

" And pray what may be your political 
sentiments ? " 

" I am a Union man, Sir, and always 
intend to remain one." 

" Indeed ! .are there many people like 
you here ? " 



"Yes, Sir. We have voted on seces- 
sion, and this district gave three thousand 
majority for the Union." 

" Yes, at the point of the bayonet." 

"No, Sir. There were neither bayo- 
nets nor muskets to intimidate us. Every 
man was free to vote as he pleased." 

" Then we have been most damnably 
deceived." 

"Hail Columbia," and the "Star Spangled 
Banner," at Fort Sumter. 

It is familiar to all, that, on leaving Fort 
Moultrie, Major Anderson brought away 
with him the flag which he had been in the 
habit of hoisting over that fort. He en- 
tered Sumter on the night of 26-27th 
December, 1860, and determined to hoist 
the tlaj; at noon on 27th. 




A short time before noon Major Ander- 
son assembled the whole of his little force, 
with the workmen employed on the fort, 
around the foot of the flag-staff. The 
national ensign was attached to the cord, 
and Major Anderson, holding the ends of 
the lines in his hands, knelt reverently 
down. The officers, soldiers, and men 
clustered around, many of them on their 
knees, and all deeply impressed with the 
solemnity of the scene. The chaplain 
made an earnest prayer — such an appeal 
for support, encouragement and mercy, as 
one would make who felt that ' Man's ex- 
tremity is God's opportunity.' As the 
earnest, solemn words of the speaker 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



69 



ceased, and the men responded "Amen" 
with a fervency that perhaps they had 
never before experienced. Major Ander- 
son drew the fc Star Spangled Banner ' up 
to the top of the staff, the band broke out 
with the national air of ' Hail Columbia,' 
and loud and exultant cheers, repeated 
again and again, were given by the offi- 
cers, soldiers, and workmen. 



Cities biiilt and in Embryo: Schaffer and 
Ould at a Joke. 

Colonel Schaffer, chief of staff to Gen- 
eral Butler, and General Ould, the rebel 
Commissioner of exchange, were the best 
of friends, personally, and, in their official 
interviews, always very pleasant and agree- 
able to each other. On one of these occa- 
sions, when chatting at City Point on mat- 
ters and things in general, Colonel Schaf- 
fer picked up a map of Virginia, and 
glancing at it casually, it occurred to him 
that there was a good site for a city in the 
neighborhood of City Point, and expressed 
his astonishment that it had been over- 
looked so long. Said he, with great seri- 
ousness, " If I had the capital, I would 
invest it right here. It's bound to be a 
great city some day or other." Ould kept 
his eyes for awhile on the map, and then 
looking at the Colonel, remarked, hardly 
able to suppress a smile that was trying to 
force its way out, " It seems to me, Col- 
onel, that instead of building a new city, 
you had better take one already built " 
" Sam," said the Union Colonel to the 
servant, " get that black bottle out of my 
basket ; " and the rebel joke was washed 
down with old rye. 



that was said, and then replied : " Sup- 
pose, gentlemen, all the property you were 
worth was in gold, and you had put it in 
the hands of Blondin to carry across the 
Niagara river on a rope, would you shake 
the cable, and keep shouting to him, 
' Blondin, stand up a little straighter — 
Blondin, stoop a little more — go a little 
faster — lean a little more to the North — 
lean a little more to the South ! ' No, 
you would hold your breath, as well as 
your tongue, and keep your hands off till 
he was safe over. The Government is 
carrying an immense weight. Untold 
treasures are in their hands. They are 
doing the best they can. Don't badger 
them. Keep silence, and we'll carry you 
sa'e across." This simple but wonderfully 
graphic idea answered the complaints of 
half an hour, and not only silenced but 
charmed the auditors. 



Blondin's Art Serving a good Figure. 

Some gentlemen from the "West obtained 
an interview with President Lincoln, at 
the executive mansion, Avhen things looked 
dark for the national cause, and gave vent, 
in an excited and troubled manner, to 
their feelings as to the commissions and 
omissions of the administration. The 
President, as usual, heard patiently all 



Cabinet Pictures Before and After the Elec- 
tion. 

President Lincoln took it into his head 
to call one day at the studio of the artist 
who at that time was engaged in painting 
the Cabinet group. Mr. Lincoln inquired 
how he was getting along with the happy 
family. The artist informed him that he 
was progressing finely, and woidd soon 
have it completed. Mr. Lincoln, after 
scanning closely the arrangement of the 
group, expressed his admiration of the 
Avork. " Yes," said the artist, " it will be 
a fine painting, and as soon as I get it com- 
pleted, I intend to travel through the 
country and exhibit it." " What ! " says 
the President, " exhibit that all over the 
country? It will ruin my chances for 
re-election. Everybody expects me to 
change my Cabinet." 



Danger of Freedmen Voting. 
Some southern gentlemen were dis- 
cussing the question of the possibility and 
propriety of giving votes to the freedmen 
of the South; a measure in the expedi- 
ency of which the Southern Unionists — 



70 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



more particularly those from the far South 
— appear to be tolerably unanimous. One 
of the gentlemen present — a loyal Texan 
— aimounced himself inflexibly opposed to 
any such a grant of votes to the blacks, 
"because," said he, "in' six months after 
you give the right to negroes to vote, half 
the politicians in the country will go about 
swearing that they have negro blood in 
their veins.' 



Didn't like Vallandignam's Defeat. 
The news of VaUandierham's euberna- 
torial defeat, when announced to the Ohio 
troops, caused a good deal of lusty cheer- 
ing, — such as would have been heard after 
the reading of an official dispatch on dress 
parade, proclaiming a signal victory for 
our troops. The noise attracted the atten- 
tion of the rebel pickets in front, and many 
of them inquired what it all meant. The 
following conversation on the subject took 
place in front of Fort Wood : 

Rebel — Say, Yank, what's all that noise 
about ? 

Union — The boys are cheering for 
Brough's election. Vallandigham is whip- 
ped. 

Reb. — How do you know Vallandigham 
ain't elected? your telegraph's out, ain't 
it? 

Union — 1 don't know about that. Ro- 
sey says Brough's elected. 

Reb. — Rosey's a d — n liar, I guess. 
But is Brough elected, honest? 
Union — Yes, he is, honest. 
Reb.{ vociferously) — Officer of the guard, 
No. 6! 

The officer of the guard made his ap- 
pearance very shortly, and asked what 
was wanted. The rebel picket replied — 
" Brough's elected and Vallandigham's 
whipped like h— 1. You had better send 
word to General Bragg." 

The pickets were told to find out how 
the election went, if they could, and send 
word to head-quarters. 



Vanity of Patriotism and Honor. 
A humorous colloquy took place upon 
the hurricane deck of one of the Cumber- 
land river craft, between a newspaper cor- 
respondent and an elderly darkey. The 
latter possessed a philosophical and retro- 
spective cast of countenance, Avas squatted 
upon his bundle, toasting himself against 
the chimney, and apparently plunged in 
a profound state of meditation. Finding 
upon inquiry that he belonged to the 
Ninth Illinois, one of the most gallantly 
behaved and heavy-losing regiments at the 
Fort Donelson battle, and part of which 
was aboard, the correspondent interrogated 
him somewhat on the subject. That the 
Ethiop's philosophy was much in the Fal- 
staffian vein, the following will show : 
" Were you in the fight ? " 
" Had a little taste of it, sa." 
" Stood your ground, did you ? " 
" No, sa, I runs." 
" Run at the first fire, did you ? " 
" Yes, sa ; and would have run soona, 
had I known it war comin'." 

" Why, that was not very creditable to 
your courage ! " 

" Dat isn't in my line, sa — cookin's my 
perfeshun." 

" Well, but have you no regard for your 
reputation ? " 

" Reputation's nuffin to me by de side 
ob life." 

" Do you consider your life worth more 
than other people's ? " 

" It's worth more to me, sa." 
" Then you must value it very highly." 
"Yes, sa, I does — more dan all dis 
wuld — more dan a million of dollars, sa ; 
for what would even dat be worth to a 
man wid de bref out of him ? Self-pres- 
erbashun am de just law wid me." 

" Then patriotism and honor are nothing 
to you ? " 

Nuffin, whatever, sa; I regard dcm as 
among de vanities." 

It is £afe to say that the dusky corpse 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



71 



of that African will never darken the field 
of carnage. 



"Mustered In." 
The boys of the One Hundred and Sev- 
enteenth New York tell a good joke in re- 
gard to the "mustering in" of a darkey 
attached to that regiment, who became 
fearful he would be deprived of his pay 
unless he was joined to the service. A 
huge mustard plaster was applied to his 
back, about a foot below where the rear 
buttons of Ills coat were placed, and, un- 
der the belief that all soldiers Avere served 
in the same manner, as a sort of military 
institution, he wore it until the pain be- 
came unendurable, at which time he was 
formerly declared " mustered in," accord- 
ing to the law in such cases made and pro- 
vided. If that darkey didn't get his wages, 
it was not because he failed to suffer for 
his country as a patriot duly put through 
by the One Hundred and Seventeenth. 



"Benefit of Clerg-y." 
The "Volunteer" was the title of a 
' broadside ' published by the boys of the 
Iowa Tenth, then stationed at the little se- 
cesh town of Charleston, about twenty-five 
miles west of Cairo. The following story 
tells the way in which, the day after the 
Tenth took possession of the village, the 
people thereof went to church: On his ar- 
rival, on Sunday, General Payne found the 
churches vacant, and no evidences of that 
devotion on the Sabbath so necessary to 
all well-regulated communities ; he accord- 
ingly summoned the inhabitants of the 
place and its surroundings to meet him at 
the Court-house, at half-past one in the 
afternoon, where he proposed to expound 
to them the weightier matters of the law. 
The house was filled (the General occa- 
■sionally sending after a prominent ab- 
sentee), and after giving them some good 
advice, he called on a reverend divine to 
conduct the services, quietly informing the 
audience that his services were required 

elsewhere, and that it would be necessary 
5 



for them to remain until six o'clock. On 
turning to the door they were surprised to 
find that the house was closely guarded, 
and that for the balance of the clay they 
were prisoners. By this ruse the General 
not only succeeded in preventing informa- 
tion of his movements being carried to the 
rebels, but brought many an old sinner to 
the altar who had not seen it for years. 



Prompt Administration of the Lav/. 

After General Schenck's arrival in Cum- 
berland, one of his first decisions was very 
characteristic. A secesh Colonel had sold 
his negro to the Confederate government, ' 
taking pay, of course, in scrip. The negro, 
employed in fortifications, managed to es- 
cape to Cumberland, where he spread him- 
self considerably. A constable, knowing 
the circumstances, and wishing to turn a 
penny, had the negro thrown into prison 
as an escaped slave. General Schenck, 
hearing the facts, sent for the parties. 
" By what right," he asked of the constable, 
"do you hold this man in prison?" 

"As a fugitive from service." 

" Don't you know that he escaped from 
the service of the rebels?" 

" Yes, but we have a law in Maryland 
that covers the case, General." 
. "And I have a law upon which it can 
be decided. Colonel Porter, set that ne- 
gro at large and put this constable in his 
place." 

The astonished snapper up of trifles was 
marched off to the cell lately occupied by 
his proposed victim. After being detained 
there precisely the same number of days 
he had imprisoned the poor darkey, he was 
set at large, fully impressed with the belief 
that the grim-vi&aged General had never 
learnt to be trifled with. 



Command of the Virginia Forces tendered 
to General Scott. 

Judge Douglas stated, soon after the 
breaking out of the rebellion, that one day 
while walking down the streets of Wash, 
ington, he met a distinguished gentleman, 



72 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



a member of the Virginia Disunion Con- 
vention, whom he knew personally, and 
had a few minutes conversation with him. 
" He told me," said Judge D., "that he had 
just had an interview with General Scott; 
that he was chairman of the committee ap- 




boot with a hole in the toe, and, in other 
respects, decidedly the Avorse for wear. 

" How came you here with such boots 
as those, my friend ? " asked the patriotic 
citizen. 

" When the order came for me to join 
my company, sir," replied the soldier, " I 
was plowing in the same field at Concord, 



General Scott 

pointed by the Virginia Convention, to 
wait upon General Scott, and tender him 
the command of the Virginia forces in | 
this struggle. General Scott received him ! 
kindly, listened to him patiently, and said 
to him: 

"I have served my country, under the 
flag of the Union, for more than fifty years; 
and as long as God permits me to live, I 
will defend that flag with my sword, even 
if my own native State assails it." 




Minute Men of Massachusetts. 
1775 and 1881. 

As one of the Massachusetts regiments 
was passing through New York on its way 
to Washington, under the President's first 
call for seventy-five thousand men, a gen- 
tleman of the first-named city met one of 
its members on the street. 

" Is there anything I can do for you ? " 
said the New Yorker, whose heart warmed 
toward the brave representative of the 
brave Massachusetts militia who had been 
so prompt to shoulder the musket. 

The soldier hesitated a moment, and 
finally, raising one of his feer, exhibited a 



Minute Men of Massachusetts — 1775 and 1861. 

where my grandfather was plowing when 
the British fired on the Massachusetts men 
at Lexington. He did not wait a minute ; 
and I did not, sir." 

That noble soldier was furnished at once 
with every thing that could meet a soldier's 
wants. 



Patriotism of the Rarest Kind. 

Messrs. Nathaniel Davis, Robert Davis, 
and William Robertson, co-partners in 
business in Montreal, Canada, abandoned 
their establishment immediately on receipt 
of the President's proclamation calling for 
troops, and issued the following card : 

" The business of Nathaniel Davis & 
Co., 1058 McGill street, will cease on 
Thursday of this week, as the proprietors 
leave for the scene of war on Friday. 
Our landlord, Mr. Flynn, kindly releases 
us from our agreement to occupy his store 
for another year. The President of the 
United States has issued his call for vol- 
unteers. As Americans we respond at 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



73 



once. Every drop of blood in our veins 
belongs to our country. We are thankful 
to Divine Providence that we are alive and 
in good health to do duty to our govern- 
ment. The name of Washington will re- 
ceive new lustre from the glorious deeds 
about to transpire in the trial of the cause 
of freedom and a republican government." 



They Had. Heard of Him. 

When the steamer Maryland reached 
Locust Point, Baltimore, carrying Captain 
Sherman's Light Artillery, and a regiment 
of Peimsylvania volunteers, the troops 
were met by the noted Mr. Kane, Marshal 
of the city, when the following colloquy 
took place : 

" Major, can I be of any assistance ? " 

" Who are you, Sir ? " 

" I am Marshal of the Police of Balti- 
more, and would render any assistance." 

" Oh, yes ! we have heard of you in the 
region from whence we came. We have 
no need of you. We can take care of our- 
selves." 

The secession-hearted Marshal retired, 
and the disembarkation of the troops took 
place immediately, the Harriet Lane pre- 
senting her broadside to the point where 
the cars waited to convey the passengers 
to the Relay House. 



Retort Courteous from an American in Paris 
to M. Thouvenel. 

A distinguished American, conversing 
in the city of Paris, with M. Thouvenel, 
the French Minister of State, was asked 
rather impatiently by that distinguished 
French official, 

" But, Sir, how much time do you want 
to take Richmond? How long must we 
wait?" 

" I think, Monsieur, with great respect," 
was the courteous reply of our country- 
man, " that Ave shall be satisfied if we are 
granted as much time as the allies took to 
reduce Sebastopol." 

M. Thouvenel changed the subject. 



Compromising the Capitol Flag. 
Under the administration of Mr. Bu- 
chanan, a man named Duddington was 
captain of the Capitol police at Washing- 
ton. Though he held an important and 
responsible office connected with the safety 
of the Capitol, he was a secessionist — a 
decided but not an obtrusive one ; he made 
little display of his Southern patriotism, 
and his politics were practically of that 
mild type which was not inconsistent with 
a willingness to retain office after the acces- 
sion of Lincoln. In fact, he was not indis- 
posed to mediation and compromise, and 
was inclined to bring back our misguided 
and rather impetuous Southern brethren 
by gentle and conciliatory means. So he 
visited Senator King, during the special 
executive session of the Senate called to 
consider the nominations of the new Pres- 
ident, and suggested as a measure of rea- 
sonable compromise that the American 
flag, which always floats over each house 
of Congress, when it is in session, should 
not be raised. " Not raise the American 
flag ! Why not ? " asked the sturdy Re- 
publican Senator. " Because," said the 
official, " it irritates the Southern people." 
The careful compromiser soon after — about 
as soon as a note could reach the Secretary 
of the Interior from Mr. King — fell a vic- 
tim to " this proscriptive Administration," 
and the places that had known him in 
Washington knew him no more. He was 
next, and very soon afterwards, heard of in 
command of a rebel battery, one of those 
which so long blockaded the Potomac, and 
were unfortunately left so long without 
being " irritated " by our arms. 



Under the Star- Spangled Banner. 
Over the large gate at the Provost 
Marshal's splendid head-quarters in Nash- 
ville — Elliott's female school — waved a 
Union flag. A very ardent secesh lady, 
who wished to see Colonel Matthews, was 
about to pass through the gateway, when, 
looking up, she beheld the proud flag flap- 
ping like an eagle's wing over his eyrie. 



74 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Starting back horror-struck, she held up 
her hands and exclaimed to the guard : 

" Dear me ! I can't go under that dread- 
ful Lincoln nag. Is there no other way for 
me to enter?" 

"Yes, madam," promptly replied the 
soldier, and turning to his comrade he 
said — 

" Here, orderly, bring out that rebel flag 
and lay it on the ground at the little gate, 
and let this lady walk over it ! " 

The lady looked bewildered, and after 
hesitating a moment, concluded to bow her 
head to the invincible Goddess of Free- 
dom, whose immaculate shrine is the folds 
of the Star Spangled Banner. 



Description of Soiith Carolina by Mr. Pet- 
tigru. 

The late. Judge Pettigru, of Charleston, 

South Carolina, stood, solitary and alone, 

among his peers in that treasonable city, 

for his undisguised and persistent anti- 

secessionism, facing with an unblenching 




eye the social and political tide of antago- 
nism which rolled against him in his ven- 
erable years and whitened locks. A person 
meeting him in the street one day, accosted 
him, and said : 

" Will you be so kind as to direct me to 
the lunatic asylum?" 

" Certainly," answered Mr. Pettigru : 
u There it is," pointing to the east ; " and 



there," turning and pointing to the south ; 
" and there," pointing to the west ; " and 
there again," pointing to the north : " You 
cannot possibly go amiss." 

When asked an explanation of this sin- 
gular direction, he said, not having the fear 
of Ehett, Pickens, Magrath & Co., before 
his eyes : 

" The whole State is a lunatic asylum, 
and the people are all lunatics." 

When prayers were offered in the 
Charleston churches for " President Da- 
vis," Judge Pettigru took his hat and left 
the place of worship where such jargon 
sounds fell upon his ear. It seems almost 
impossible that such a noble-minded man 
could have been a fellow townsman and 
walked 'the same streets with that " archi- 
tect of ruin," Colonel Rhett, who so boldly 
boasted of having " fired the Southern 
heart." 



National Oath of Allegiance according 1 to 
Southern Honor. 

There is no doubt that much false swear- 
ing was " done " under the feint of loyalty, 
in order to serve ulterior ends, by citizens 
of the States in rebellion, and many like- 
wise took the oath under avowed compul- 
sion. The following will serve as an illus- 
tration of the circumstances under which 
many in Louisiana attested their " loyalty." 
A young man, well known in New Orleans, 
Avas anxious to send down some goods on 
a boat from Memphis. He applied to the 
Provost Marshal there for a permit, and 
the following form was gone through with 
as preliminary : " Are you a loyal citizen ? " 
" No, sir." " You must take the oath of 
allegiance." " Very well, Sir." (Takes 
it without sugar.) " There, you have taken 
the oath. Do you know what that means ? " 
" Perfectly. It means a padlock on my 
mouth, and a bayonet in my rear." 



Shaky Abutments. 
President Lincoln's repeated reference 
to the irreconcilable antagonism between 
the demands of the south and the spirit 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



75 



of the Constitution is well known. On a 
certain occasion he illustrated this antago- 
nism by an anecdote not less apt than 
amusing. " I once knew," said Mr. Lin- 
coln, " a good sound churchman, whom we 
will call Brown, who was on a committee 
to erect a bridge over a very rapid and 
dangerous river. Architect after architect 
failed, and, at last, Brown said he had a 
friend named Jones, who had built several 
bridges, and could build this. ' Let us 
have him in,' said the committee. In came 
Jones. ' Can you build this bridge, Sir ? ' 
' Yes,' replied Jones, ' I could build a bridge 
to the infernal regions, if necessary.' The 
sober committee were horrified. But when 
Jones retired, Brown thought it but fair to 
defend his friend. ' I know Jones so well,' 
said he, ' and he is so honest a man, and 
so good an architect, that if he states, so- 
berly and positively, that he can build a 
bridge to Hades, why, I believe it. But I 
have my doubts about the abutment on the 
infernal side.' And so it is with me. 
When politicians said they could harmonize 
the northern and southern wings of the 
democracy, why, I believed them. But I 
had my doubt about the abutment on the 
southern side." 



Dr. Rucker— his Capture and Escape. 

The arrival at Fayettville, West Vir- 
ginia, of Dr. Rucker, the Union refugee, 
was an exciting event in the history of 
that remarkable man — renowned as he 
had become for his persevering loyalty 
under circumstances that would ordinarily 
cause the stoutest heai-t to quail. He 
came up from Kanawha county, making 
his appearance in company with Colonel 
Duval, of the Ninth West Virginia regi- 
ment of infantry. 

Dr. Rucker resided in Covington, Vir- 
ginia, and was regarded as a radical 
Union man. He was several times form- 
ally requested by the authorities to take 
the oath of allegiance to the Southern 
Confederacy, but this he unyieldingly re- 
fused to do. At last a squad of men, 



headed by a desperate leader, were sent 
to take him by force. He still refused to 
heed their demands, when the leader of 
the party struck him a blow upon the head 
with a cane, producing an ugly wound, 
from which the blood flowed freely. The 
doctor deliberately drew a knife, telling his 
assailant he intended to kill him, and pro- 
ceeded to execute his threat by cutting the 
fellow until he died. Dr. R. soon found 
himself with twelve Confederate indict- 
ments pending against him, for murder, 
horse stealing, treason, and almost all the 
crimes known to the law. 

His escape from the jail at Pittsylvania, 
in the southern part of Virginia, was 
made partly by means of a key obtained 
from a two year old child and partly 
through the assistance of an unknown lady 
who procured a carriage and drove him to 
Lynchburg, where he remained some days 
and until the excitement growing out of 
his escape had subsided. From the time 
lie was arrested until the time of Ins es- 
cape he was confined in twelve different 
jails, and was threatened with mob violence 
every time he was removed from one 
prison to another. In all these jails he 
communicated with unknown friends — 
Union men, — who made him proffers of 
assistance. While in Pittsylvania jail he 
received from different persons yarn and 
aquafortis, and other means of sawing or 
cutting his way out. He was also pre- 
sented with a pair of shoes, in the soles of 
which he found watch springs which had 
been converted into saws. No more heroic 
instance of making political loyalty a point 
of life or death can be found than this of 
Dr. Rucker. 



Where is Your Heart ? 
The case of Rev. William J. Hoge, D. 
D., forms a sad page in the incidents and 
outgrowths of the rebellion. He was bom 
in Athens, Ohio, in 1826, and was for some 
years a clergyman in that State, removing 
thence to Richmond, Virginia, where he 
taught for several years. In 1858-9 he 



76 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



was called to be colleague to the Eev. Dr. 
Spring, of the Brick Church, New York 
city, Avhich he accepted and was settled. 
In the midst of these labors, the rebellion 
burst upon the country. Dr. Hoge was 
not at once decided as to his course of ac- 
tion. His sympathies were with the South, 
but he hesitated as to the line of ministe- 
rial duty. On the 17th of "July, 1861, he 
went to the study of Rev. Dr. Prime, 
at whose invitation Dr. H. originally came 
to New York, and solicited Dr. P's advice 
as to his duty — should he go to the South, 
or should he remain in New York ? Dr. 
Prime had often argued the political ques- 
tion with him before, and vainly endeav- 
ored to convince him that secession was a 
crime, and would be the ruin of the South. 
Dr. P. therefore said to him, 

" Where is your heart ? " 

" It is with the South." 

" Then, go there ; and, if my heart was 
there, I would go with you." 

" When shall I go ? " 

" Go this week ; to-day, if possible." 

The result of this conversation was his 
immediate resignation of his pastoral 
charge. He preached his farewell sermon 
on the Sabbath following, while the disas- 
trous battle of Bull Run Avas in progress. 
He left for the South, and was soon heard 
of as settled at Charlottsville. He threw 
himself into the cause of the rebellion with 
his accustomed zeal, but died in a short 
time, in the midst of his years and of the 
gigantic conspiracy against a nation's life. 



Questions and Replies : " Nothing 1 agin the 
Old Mag." 

Unionist to a Virginian prisoner. — Are 
you not ashamed to fight against the 
Union, and the Government which has 
done so much for you? 

Virginian. — I never fought agin the 
Union, and I never will. 

Unionist. — What were you doing at 
Fort Donelson ? 

Virginian. — I hugged the ground closer 
nor ever I did before in my life. 



Unionist. — Were you forced into the 
army ? 

Virginian. — Wall, no, not exactly forc- 
ed ; I knew I would be, so I j'ined. 1 
thought I'd feel better to go myself! 

Unionist. — What do you expect to gain 
by the rebellion ? 

Virginian. — We find our leaders have 
lied to us. Our big men, like Tyler, Wise, 
Letcher, and others, wanted to get rich and 
get into high office, and so they have got 
us into this mess by their lies. We have 
nothing agin the ohi fag. All Ave want is 




John Tyler. 

our constitutional rights, according to the 
instrument under which our forefathers 
lived. They told us that the election of Lin- 
coln would deprive us of these, and Ave 
believed them. But Ave noAv knoAV that 
they Avere lies." 

Poor Tyler, in the midst of his efforts 
to destroy the nation over which he once 
presided, in the chair of state consecrated 
by the immortal Washington, died an out- 
law and fills a traitor's grave. 



Slave Insurrections Foiled by "Union 
Generals. 

One day (says " Edmund Kirke," in his 
racy volume, " Doavii in Tennessee,") as 
I Avas sitting alone Avith Rosecrans, an aide 
handed him a letter He opened it, ceased 
doing half a dozen other things, and be- 
came at once absorbed in its contents. He 
re-read it, and then, handing it to me, said : 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



77 



*' Read that. Tell me what you think of 
it." I read it. Its outside indicated it 
had come from " over Jordan," and had 
u a hard road to travel," but its inside 
startled me. It was written in a round, 
unpracticed hand, and though badly spell- 
ed, showed its author familiar with good 
Southern English. Its date was May 
18th, 1863, and it began thus : 

" General : — A plan has been adopted 
for a simultaneous movement or rising to 
sever the rebel communications through- 
out the whole South, which is now dis- 
closed to some General in each military 
department in the Secesh States, in order 
that they may act in concert, and thus in- 
sure us success. 

The plan is for the blacks to make a 
concerted and simultaneous rising, on the 
night of the first of August next, over the 
whole States in rebellion. To arm them- 
selves with any and every kind of weapon 
that may come to hand, and commence 
operations by burning all railroad and 
county bridges, tearing up all railroad 
tracks, and cutting and destroying tele- 
graph wires, — and when this is done take 
to the woods, the swamps, or the moun- 
tains, whence they may emerge, as occa- 
sions may offer, for provisions or for further 
depredations. No blood is to be shed ex- 
cept in self defence. 

The corn will be in roasting ear about 
the first of August, and upon this, and by 
foraging on the farms at night, we can sub- 
sist. Concerted movement at the time 
named would be successful, and the rebel- 
lion be brought suddenly to an end." 

The letter went on with some details 
which I cannot repeat, and ended thus : 

" The plan will be simultaneous over 
the whole South, and yet few of all en- 
gaged will know its whole extent. Please 
write ' 1' and " approved" and send by the 
bearer, that we may know you are with us. 

Be assured, General, that a copy of this 
letter has been sent to every military de- 
partment in the rebel States, that the time 



of the movement may thus be general over 
the entire South." 

I was re-reading the letter when the 
General again said : " What do you think 
of it ? " 

"It would end the rebellion. It taps 
the great negro organization, of which I 
speak in ' Among the Pines,' and co-oper- 
ated with by our forces would certainly 
succeed, but — the South would run with 
blood." 

" Innocent bkood ! Women and child- 
ren ! " 

" Yes, women and children. If you let 
the blacks loose, they will rush into car- 
nage like horses into a burning barn. St. 
Domingo will be multiplied by a million." 
" But he says no blood is to be shed ex- 
cept in self-defence." 

" He says so, and the leaders may mean 
so, but they cannot restrain the rabble. 
Every slave has some real or fancied 
wrong, and he would take such a time to 
avenge it." 

" Well, I must talk with Garfield. Come, 
go with me." 

We crossed the street to Garfield's lodg- 
ings, and found him bolstered up in bed, 
quite sick with a fever. The General sat 
down at the foot of his bed, and handed 
him the letter. Garfield read it over care- 
fully, and then laying it down, said : 

" It will never do, General. We don't 
want to whip by such means. If the 
slaves, of their own accord, rise and assert 
their original right to themselves, that will 
be their own affair ; but we can have no 
complicity with them without outraging 
the moral sense of the civilized world." 

" I knew you'd say so ; but he speaks of 
other department commanders — may they 
not come into it ? " 

"Yes, they may, and that should be 

looked to. Send this letter to , and 

let him head off ' the movement.' " 

It was not thought prudent to intrust 
the letter to the mails ; nor witli the rail- 
way, infested with guerillas, was it a safe 



78 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



document to carry about the person. A 
short shrift and a long rope might have 
been the consequence of its being found 
on a traveler. So, ripping open the top 
of my boot, I stowed it snugly away in 
the lining, and took it North. On the 4th 
of June following, Garfield wrote me that 
he had just heard from the writer of the 
letter ; that five out of our nine depart- 
ment commanders had come into the pro- 
ject, and, subsequently, that another gen- 
eral had also promised it his support. 

But I can say no more. All the world 
knows that the insurrection did not take 
place. The outbreaks in September, 
among the blacks of Georgia and Ala- 
bama, were only parts of the plan, the 
work of subordinate leaders, who, mad- 
dened at the miscarriage of the grand 
scheme, determined to carry out their own 
share of the programme at all hazards. It 
was a gigantic project, and the trains were 
all laid, the matches all lighted. 



Ratifying 1 the Ordinance : Startling- Scene. 
On the ratification of the South Caro- 
lina Ordinance of Secession, Rev. Dr. 
Bachman was selected by the Secession 
Convention to offer a prayer before them, 
in religious observance of the act. Dr. 
Bachman's name had become quite dis- 
tinguished in scientific circles, he being an 
eminent naturalist ; but he had also be- 
come even more conspicuous by his strong 
political leanings to the side of Disunion. 
The scene was one that partook alike of 
the startling and the impressive. Most of 
the men there assembled to commit the high- 
est and gravest act against their country, 
were those upon whose heads the snow of 
sixty winters had been shed — patriarchs in 
age — the dignitaries of the land — the high 
priests of the Church — reverend states- 
men — and the judges of the law. In the 
midst of deep silence an old. man, with 
lowed form and hair as white as snow, the 
Rev. Dr. Bachman, advanced forward, 
with upraised hands, in prayer to Almighty 
God for his blessings and favor on the 



great act about to be consummated. The 
whole assembly at once arose to its feet, 
and, with hats off, listened to the prayer. 
At the close of this performance, the Pres- 
ident advanced with the consecrated parch- 
ment upon which was inscribed the decis- 
ion of the State, with the great seal at- 
tached. Slowly and solemnly it was read 
until the last word — ' dissolved' ; when men 
could contain themselves no longer, and a 
shout that shook the very building, rever- 
berating long continued, rose up, and 
ceased only with the loss of breath. 
Such was the scene, in the midst of which 




P. S. Brooks 

no portrait could have been suspended 
with more appropriateness, than that of 
Preston S. Brooks, South Carolina's arch- 
assassin of liberty of speech on the floor 
of the United States Senate. 



Uon-Combatant— but a Tough One. 
Mr. Mark R. Cockrill, was an old man 
of great wealth living near Nashville, 
Tennessee ; he was reputed to be worth 
two million dollars, and owned twelve 
miles of land lying on the Cumberland river. 
It was reported to the Federal Chief of 
Army Police, that this Mr. Cockrill had 
induced guerrillas to lie in wait near his 
place for the purpose of seizing upon and 
destroying Union forage trains, &c., and 
that he was a very bitter rebel. Having 
been ordered to appear at the office of the 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



79 



Chief of Police, he made the subjoined over three thousand dollars worth of wood 
Statement:- — j from me. I have never received any 

" I am upwards of seventy-four years pay for anything taken from me. I came 
of age, and have six children, — three of in yesterday to get a negro blacksmith of 
them being sons, and one of them is in mine to go out with me, he consented to go 
the Confederate army. I was born near if I could get a pass for him ; have not 
this city. I had about ninety-eight slaves, been in town before for four months. I 
but most all have left me. My son has been paid one thousand dollars as an assessment 
in the Confederate service since the war by General Negley, about four months 
began ; is twenty-two years old; was cap- since, to the United States government, as 
tain in that service ; think he is now in a loan. I have been very much aggra- 
the commissary department. I voted for vated by the taking of my property, and 
separation every time ; was not a member have been very harsh in my expressions 



of any public committee ; have had noth- 
ing to do with getting up companies or 
any thing else connected witli the army. 
Have talked a good deal ; was opposed to 
guerrillaism ; have ordered them away 
from my house. I have lost twenty thou- 
sand bushels of corn, thirty-six head of 
horses and mules ; sixty head of Durham 
Cattle, two hundred and twenty sheep, — 
very fine ones, valued at one hundred dol- 
lars each, — two hundred tons of hay. 
The Federals have taken all this. I have 
two thousand sheep left, and I have a few 
milch cows and five or six heifers. I was 
worth about two million dollars before the 
war commenced. The Confederates have 
taken three horses from me only. 1 have 
loaned the Confederates twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars in gold. They have pressed 
from me no other property. I have their 
bonds at eight per cent interest, payable 
semi-annually in gold, for this twenty-five 
thousand dollars. I thought when I loaned 
the money that the South would succeed, 
and I think so now. I do not think that 
the two sections can ever be brought to- 
gether. The Federals also took two thou- 
sand pounds of bacon from me ; also two 
thousand bushels of oats. Some twenty- 
five or thirty of my men negroes ran 
away, — six of them, however, being press- 
ed. I have about five thousand six hun- 
dred acres of land. My son, James E., 
is with the South ; lives on a place belong- 
ing to me ; but he has never taken any 
active part 



towards those who have visited my place 
for such purposes. I Avill not give bond 
tor loyal conduct, or that I will not aid or 
abet by word or deed the Southern cause. 
The loan to the South was made volunta- 
rily, and supposing it to be a good invest- 
ment. While I was loaning to individuals 
the loan was made to the Southern gov- 
ernment just as I would have loaned to any 
other party." 

When brought into the police office, Mr. 
Cockrill was almost beside himself with pas- 
sion. The language he used with respect 
to the Federal troops was, "Kill 'em! 
Plant 'em out ! Manure the soil with 
'em ■ ■ 'em !" &c 



He utterly 
refused to give the non-combatant's oath 
and bond ; and when assured by General 
Ro ecrans that he must do so or he would 
be rent out of the State, and perhaps to a 
Northern prison, he struck his hands 
against his breast, and exclaimed, — 

" Take my heart out, — kill me if you 
will ; I will not give any bond by which 
enemies here can swear falsely and I be 
prosecuted for its forfeiture." 

The General assured him that he had 
but a choice of two evils, — to give the 
bond or be sent away. He preferred the 
former. 



Interesting Historical Episode, Civil and 
Military. 

It is a fact of some interest, that Gen- 
eral Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate 
army, commanded in person the small 
The Federals have taken j body of marines sent to Harper's Ferry 



80 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



from Washington, on the occasion of John 
Brown's attack upon that place, and that 
it was to Colonel Lee that the old man 
surrendered. The Virginia militiamen hav- 
ing driven Brown and his gang into the 
engine house, awaited anxiously the arrival 
of government troops, known to be on 
their way from Washington, the greatest 
excitement in the mean time prevailing at 
Harper's Ferry, as several citizens who 
had shown themselves near the engine 
house had been shot by the invaders. 

By three o'clock the following morning, 
sixty marines, under the immediate com- 
mand of Lieut. Green, but directed by Col. 
Robert E. Lee, reached the Ferry by cars 
from the capital. Colonel Lee ordered his 
detail to stand under arms in the public 
streets until sunrise, when he conducted 
the men, leading them himself to the front 
of the building fortified and occupied by 
Brown. The lookers-on viewed* this sol- 
dierly movement with astonishment and 
awe, expecting to see Colonel Lee shot 
down as other leaders had been. But not 
a shot was fired. Lieutenant Green was 
ordered to demand a surrender. He 
knocked at the door of the engine house. 
John Brown asked — 

" Who goes there ? " 

" Lieutenant Green, United States Ma- 
rines, who, by authority of Colonel Lee, 
demands an immediate surrender." 

" I refuse it ;" said Brown, " unless I, 
with my men, are allowed to cross the 
bridge again into Maryland, unmolested, 
after which you can take us prisoners if 
you can." 

Lee refused to allow this, and ordered 
Lieutenant Green to renew his demand 
for an immediate and unconditional sur- 
render. John Brown refused those terms, 
and four of the marines, who had got tre- 
mendous sledge-hammers from the works, 
began battering at the door of the engine 
house. The engine had been moved 
against the door, and it would not yield. 

" Ten of you," said Lee, " take that lad- 
der and break down the door." 



Five on each side, the soldiers drove 
the ladder against the door, and at the 
third stroke it yielded and fell back. Col- 
onel Lee and the marines jumped in — one 
man John Brown shot through the heart — 
and then was overpowered and surren- 
dered. Colonel Washington, with other 
citizens, in Brown's hands, was released, 
and John Brown was handed over to the 
civil authorities, after which, Colonel Lee 
took the train to Washington again. 

Who knows how much this episode, in 
its civil and military bearings, may have 
influenced Robert E. Lee to forsake the 
flag of the United States and become a 
chieftain in the rebel cause I 



The Boy Father to the Man. 

When General Grant was a boy, he at- 
tended the same school with his cousin 
John, a Canadian, who had come to the 
States to be educated. The two youths 
mingled as relatives ; and, whenever the 
Canadian restrained his inherited preju- 
dices, their intercourse was pleasant. 
Ulysses felt all the true impulse of patri- 




The Boy Father to the Man. 

otism when a student at school. It was 
his conviction, born and nourished in his 
boy's heart, that his country Avas the equal 
of any other, and that his countrymen 
were the equals of the best of mankind. 

" Speaking of Washington," said his 
Canadian cousin, one day, " it seems to me, 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



81 



Ulysses, you appear to think a great deal 
of him." 

"And why shouldn't I?" quickly replied 
the tanner boy ; " he is the father of my 
country, and was raised up by the Al- 
mighty to lead it to independence." 

" All very fine," retorted John ; " but he 
was a traitor to his king ! " 

" A what ? " asked Ulysses, raising his 
voice. 

" Washington was a traitor, a rebel ! " 
continued the Canadian. 

" Cousin John," calmly replied Ulysses, 
" would you like to have your sovereign 
called hard names ? " 

" Why, no ; I can't say I should." 

" Well, then, let me tell you plainly, 
that I will not allow you or any one to 
insult the memorj of Washington ! " 

" What are you going to do about it ? " 
queried John with a sneer. 

• " I shall resent it as I have a right to 
do. You may take advantage of me ; for 
you are older than I am. My mother has 
told me not to quarrel with my school- 
mates ; and I mean to mind her, and shall 
not attack them on my own account. But 
when Washington is assailed, and espe- 
cially by an English boy, I shall defend 
the father of my country. Cousin or no 
cousin, I am ready to fight for Washing- 
ton." 

. So saying, Ulysses laid off his jacket, 
and soon convinced the Canadian reviler 
that he was in earnest. Blow qu : ckly 
followed blow, until young Grant was the 
victor. The false assertion of the elder 
boy was corrected, and he compelled to 
admit that he had done wrong. As he 
would have defended his own chief ruler, 
so fie was forced to acknowledge that 
Ulysses had done right in not submitting 
to hear Washington insulted. 



Ohio Battle Flag in the Hands of a Bishop. 
The autumnal session of the Pittsburg 
Annual Conference of the Methodist 
Church, 18G4, was characterized by an 
incident of patriotic and thrilling interest. 



Bishop Simpson followed the introductory 
exercises with a speech, an hour and a 
half long, without manuscript, in which he 
held his vast audience of cultivated Chris- 
tian gentlemen spell bound, under his dis- 
cussion of the four questions — " Shall our 
government be destroyed and swept from 
the earth ? Can we be divided into two or 
more governments ? Shall we have a new 
form of government ? Is not the nation 
to rise out of its present troubles better, 
firmer and more powerful ? " During the 
whole of this magnificent address, the as- 
sembly, in deep silence, hung upon his 
lips save when applause was struck out of 
them as with blows of magnetism. But a 
scene ensued, in the delivery of his pero- 
ration, that was well nigh sublime. 

Laying his hands on the torn and ball- 
riddled colors of the Seventy-third Ohio 
regiment, the impassioned orator spoke of 
the battle-fields where they had been bap- 
tised in blood, and described their beauty 
as some small patch of azure, filled with 
stars, that an angel had snatched from the 
heavenly canopy to set the stripes in blood. 
With this description began a scene that 
Demosthenes might have envied. All over 
the vast assembly handkerchiefs and hats 
were waved, and before the speaker sat 
down the whole throng arose, as by a magic 
influence, and screamed and shouted, and 
saluted, and stamped, and clapped, and 
wept, and laughed in wild excitement. 
Colonel Moody sprang to the top of a 
bench and called for the " Star Spangled 
Banner," which was sung, or rather shout- 
ed, until the audience dispersed. 



Northern Instructors of Southern Teachers. 
As touching the subject of loyalty, one 
of the most unique and characteristic let- 
ters of General Butler will be found in 
the following correspondence between him 
and a southern woman whose patriotism 
had failed her : 

LOCUSTVILLE, ACCOMAC Co., Va., 

March 10.— General B. F. Butler, Sir : 
My school has been closed since Christ- 



82 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



mas, because as I understood the oath re- 
quired of us, I could not conscientiously 
take it. Having heard since then that one 
of your officers explains the oath as mean- 
ing simply that we consent to the acts of 
the United States government, and pledge 
passive obedience to the same, I take the 
liberty of addressing this to you to ascer- 
tain if you so construe the oath. I cannot 
understand how a woman can "support, 
protect and defend the Union," except by 
speaking or writing in favor of the present 
war, which I could never do, because my 
sympathies are with the south. 

If by those words you understand merely 
passive submission, I am ready to take the 
oath, and abide by it sacredly. 

Very respectfully, 

Mary II. Graves. 

General Butler's reply to the foregoing 
certainly leaves Miss Graves in no doubt 
as to what an oath to support the govern- 
ment of her country implies. 

Fortress Monroe, March 14. — My 
Dear Madam : I am truly sorry that any 
Union officer of mine has attempted to 
fritter away the effect of the oath of alle- 
giance to the government of the United 
States, and to inform you that it means 
nothing more than passive obedience to the 
same. That officer is surely mistaken. 
The oath of allegiance means fealty, pledge 
of faith to love, affection and reverence for 
the government, all comprised in the word 
patriotism, in its highest and truest sense, 
which every true American feels for his 
or her government. 

You say, "I cannot understand how a 
woman can 'support, protect and defend 
the Union,' except by speaking or writing 
in favor of the present war, which I could 
never do, because my sympathies are with 
the south." That last phrase, madam, 
shows why you cannot understand "how a 
woman can support, protect and defend the 
Union." 

Were you loyal at heart, you would at 
once understand. The southern women 
who are rebels understand well "how to 



support, protect and defend" the Con- 
federacy "without speaking or writing." 
Some of them act as spies, some smuggle 
quinine in their under-clothes. some smug- 
gle information through the lines in their 
dresses, some tend sick soldiers for the 
Confederacy, and some get up subscriptions 
for rebel gunboats. 

Perhaps it may all be comprised in the 
phrase, " Where there is a will there is a 
way." 

Now, then, you could "support, protect 
and defend the Union" by teaching the 
scholars of your school to love and rev- 
erence the government, to be proud of their 
country, to glory in its flag, and to be true 
to its Constitution, But, as you don't un- 
derstand that yourself, you can't teach it 
to them, and, therefore, I am glad to learn 
from your letter that your school has been 
closed since Christmas ; and with my con- 
sent, until you change your sentiments, 
and are a loyal woman in heart, it never 
shall be opened. I would advise you, 
madam, forthwith to go where your " sym- 
pathies" are. I am only doubtful whether 
it is not my duty to send you. I have the 
honor to be, ' 

Very respectfully, 

your obedient servant, 
B. F. Butler, Maj. Gen. Com'g 
To Miss Mary R Graves, 

Locustville, Accomac County, Virginia. 



Loyalty of one of Jeff. Davis's Fellow Citi- 
zens in Mississippi. 

Andrew Jackson Donelson's name was, 
for more than a generation, prominent and 
respected in the region where he lived, as 
well as far beyond that limited sphere of 
political influence. In 1856 he was a can- 
didate for the Vice Presidency of the Uni- 
ted States, by one of the great parties 
which then swayed the country. During 
the rebellion, Mr. Donelson's case was a 
hard one, as appears from a conversation 
which he had with a Union man, on board 
a gunboat going from Memphis down the 
Mississippi. In a frank, hearty, and open 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



83 



manner. Mr. D. spoke of his ineffectual 
efforts to induce his friends in Mississippi 
to keep clear of the rebellion; of his many 
predictions to them that the sacrifice of 
their "peculiar institution" would certainly 
follow their attempt to destroy the Gov- 
ernment; of the ban under which he was 
placed in consequence of his loyalty; of 
the many little annoyances to which he 
was subjected by those whom he had pre- 
viously befriended; and finally, of his av- 
rest and transportation to Vicksburg, to 
answer a charge of high treason to the 
Confederate Government. On the last 
topic he was very bitter, and used language 
too expressive to look well in print. He 
said that upon his arrival in Vicksburg, he 
demanded the charges against him, and 
that after considerable delay they were 
furnished. There were thirteen specifica- 
tions, one of which intimated that he would 
not trust Jeff. Davis further than a blind 
mule could kick, — or words to that effect. 
He admitted that he had said so, and 
offered to substantiate his opinion by evi- 
dence bearing upon certain events con- 
nected with that functionary's political 
dishonesty in former years; but his pro- 
position was ruled out. In regard to the 
other specifications, he said he Avas ready 
to prove any statement which they charged 
him with making in reference to the rebel- 
lion, if time were allowed him in which to 
bring his witnesses. The result of the 
matter was, that he was not brought to 
any trial, but was told, after several day's 
stay in Vicksburg, that he was at liberty 
to return to his plantation. He was not 
slow to avail himself of this permission. 



Predictions of Beckerdite, the ''Southern 
Prophet." 

In the year 1832, as appears from au- 
thentic statements, a man named Becker- 
dite, who resided at Lawnhill, Mississippi, 
began to prophesy on national affairs and 
the future of the southern States. He 
was a man of reputable character, of grave 
manners, and of profound religious feeling. 



Conscious that the "visions" he had to re- 
veal would be very unpopular if made 
public, he made them known only to influ- 
ential persons, and these subsequently cor- 
roborated his statements. His visions had 
one burden — southern ruin. 

On the 27th of March, 1864, he felt 
impelled to communicate to Jeff. Davis, 
through the Hon. J. A. Orr, of Mississippi, 
the predestined taking of Richmond, and 
utter defeat of the South. The rebel au- 
thorities regarded Beckerdite as a danger- 
ous man, whose prophetic words tended to 
discourage rebel efforts, and they ordered 
that he should be hung; he was however 
warned, and escaped. His daughter sub- 
sequently placed copies of the paper sent 
to Jeff. Davis, in the hands of Captain 
Jean, of the Sixty-first United States in- 
fantry (colored,) and through him they 
were made to see the light, — the following- 
quotations being samples: 

"•At this writing Richmond is threatened 
by the armies that will take it, after which 
it may be called the city of Blood." 

"]S T o memory can be strong enough to 
retain all the moans of so erreat a war. 
Be it sufficient that I have given you the 
great events to prove to you that the whole 
was laid out by the Master of the Uni- 
verse, before the sectional conventions of 
1860. There will be an implied armistice 
by the northern power, believing the re- 
bellion at an end, during which, God gives 
you time to consider your welfare. If you 
repent, humbling yourself in prayers and 
supplications for His mercy and re-instate 
yourselves in the Union, peace will ensue; 
but the States of South Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama and Mississippi will not, and the 
vision of 25th of March, 1864, will take 
place and be fulfilled by three northern 
armies crossing in the radius of, and east 
of Mobile, and prostrating the Confed- 
eracy to its ultimate destruction. 

A curious trait of this southern prophet 
was his attachment to the South, his dis- 
like of Yankees, an indisposition to con- 
demn slavery, and his belief that great 



84 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



evils would ensue to the Union people of 
the country unless they provided a home 
for the blacks and induced them to emi- 
grate to it. 

Scouting the Doctrine that Majorities are to 
Rule. 

Mr. Gilmore, who visited Richmond in 
the summer of 1864, and sought by inter- 
views with Jefferson Davis, to bring about 
an arrangement for a cessation of hostil- 
ities, was at one poiut in the conversation 
with that official completely " stuck " — and 
no wonder. This dead-lock between the 
two was occasioned by Davis's plump de- 
nial that " majorities " should rule in polit- 
ical or State affairs. 

Gilmore — If I understand you, the dis- 
pute between your government and ours 
is narrowed down to this: Union or dis- 
union. 

Davis — Yes; or to put it in other 
words: Independence or subjugation. 

Gilmore — Then the two governments 
are irreconcilably apart. They have no 
alternative but to fight it out. But it is 
not so with the people. They are tired 
of fighting and want peace ; and as they 
bear all the burden and suffering of the 
war, is it not right they should have peace, 
and have it on such terms as they like? 

Davis — I don't understand you. Be a 
little more explicit. 

Gilmore — Well, suppose the two gov- 
ernments should agree to something like 
this : To go to the people with two prop- 
ositions — say, peace, with disunion and 
southern independence, as your proposi- 
tion; and peace, with union, emancipation, 
no confiscation, and universal amnesty, as 
ours. Let the citizens of all the United 
States (as they existed before the war) 
vote*' Yes' or 'No' on these two proposi- 
tions, at a special election, within sixty 
days. If a majority votes disunion, our 
government to be bound by it, and to let 
you go in peace. If a majority votes 
Union, yours to be bound by it, and to stay 
in peace. The two governments can con- 
tract in this way, and the people, though 



constitutionally unable to decide on peace 
or war, can elect which of the two prop- 
ositions shall govern their rulers. Let 
Lee and Grant, meanwhile, agree to an 
armistice. This would sheath the sword; 
and if once sheathed, it would never again 
be drawn by this generation. 

Davis — The plan is altogether imprac- 
ticable. If the South w T ere only one State, 
it might work; but as it is, if one south- 
ern State objected to emancipation, it 
would nullify the whole tiling ; for you are 
aware the people of Virginia cannot vote 
slavery out of South Carolina, or the peo- 
ple of South Carolina vote it out of Vir- 
ginia. 

Gilmore — But three-fourths of the 
States can amend the Constitution. Let 
it be done in that way, so that it be 
done by the people. I am not a statesman 
or a politician, and I do not know just how 
such a plan could be carried out ; but you 
get the idea — that the people should de- 
cide the question. 

Davis — That the majority shall decide 
it, you mean. We seceded to rid our- 
selves of the rule of the majority, and this 
would subject us to it again. 

Gilmore — But the majority must rule 
finalfy, either with bullets or ballots. 

Davis — I am not so sure of that. 
Neither current events nor history shows 
that the majority rules, or ever did rule. 
The contrary, I think, is true. Why, Sir, 
the man who should go before the South- 
ern people with such a proposition, with 
any proposition which implied that the 
North was to have a voice in determining 
the domestic relations of the South, could 
not live here a day. He would be hanged 
to the first tree, without judge or jury, 

Gilmore (smiling) — Allow me to doubt 
that. I think it more likely he would be 
hanged if he let the Southern people know 
the majority couldn't rule. 

Davis (also smiling most good humor- 
edly) — I have no fear of that, I give you 
leave to proclaim it from every house-top 
in the South. 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



85 



Crossing: Fox River. 
Mr. Lincoln's story in reply to a Spring- 
field (Illinois) clergyman, who asked him 
what was to be his policy on the slavery 
question, in connection with the war, must 
certainly be regarded as sufficiently ex- 
pressive: 

" Well, your question is rather a cool 
one, but I will answer it by telling you a 
story. You know Father B., the old 
Methodist preacher ? and you know Fox 
river and its freshets ? Well, once in the 
presence of Father B., a young Methodist 
was worrying about Fox river, and ex- 
pressing fears that he should be prevented 
from fulfilling some of his appointments 
by a freshet in the river. Father B. 
checked him in his gravest manner. Said 
he 'Young man, I have always made it a 
rule in my life not to cross Fox river till 
I get to it.' And," said the President, " I 
am not going to worry myself over the 
slavery question till I get to it." A few 
days afterwards, a Methodist minister 
called on the President, and on being pre- 
sented to him, said, simply : " Mr. Presi- 
dent, I have come to tell you that I think 
we have got to Fox River." Mr. Lincoln 
relished the point thoroughly, thanked the 
clergyman, and laughed heartily. 



Three Hundred Ladies with their Union 
Flag-s. 

The good people of Cleveland, East 
Tennessee, suffered much from the power 
of the rebellion, and for a time the flood- 
gates of secession .were opened wide upon 
them, with the accompanying tide of per- 
secution and spoliation. But in course of 
time the " powers that be " Avere changed, 
and they once more breathed the salubri- 
ous atmosphere of olden times, for the law 
of the Union and the Constitution was 
again established among them. Colonel 
Waters, of the Eighty-fourth Illinois regi- 
ment, was in command, and one of his 
first acts was to give notice that the 
loyal citizens of Cleveland and vicinity 
desired to resurrect the same identical flag 
that was lowered two and a half years 



previously, in obedience to the revolution- 
ists, but which had been securely buried 
in the southern portion of the county, that it 
might escape insult and destruction. 

At the time appointed for this interest- 
ing patriotic ceremony, a procession of 
ladies, numbering some three hundred, 
and displaying their gay Union flags, 
marched to the public square, where their 
long banished idol was to be unfurled to 
the pure breeze that played so calmly over 
the beautiful town of Cleveland. It was 
one of the most imposing spectacles of 
loyalty and true patriotism ever witnessed. 
Gray-haired mothers, whose eyes were 
dimmed by age, were there ; and there, 
too, was the middle-aged matron, whose 
sober gaze told the observer that a hus- 
band and father was at that time imper- 
iling his lii'e upon the field or in the dreary 
camp, to sustain the honor and dignity of 
that banner about to flap its cherished 
folds in the breeze where it was once 
scoffed and derided ; and there were those 
who had bade farewell to brother or lover, 
with a God-speed to the glorious cause. 

Of these was that jubilant procession 
composed, while five hundred, at least, 
refugees from rebellion, and loyal East 
Tennesseans, who had taken refuge 
within the Federal lines, were there to 
assist in unfurling "the gorgeous en- 
sign of the Republic."* The procession 
halted at the Public Square, the band dis- 
coursed ' Hail Columbia,' and amid the 
swelling jubilee of cheers from the vast 
multitude, that beautiful emblem of a great 
people's nationality was run up to the 
staff-head. Each star appeared more 
brilliant, and each stripe more attractive, 
for having been so long buried from the 
hands of those who would have dishon- 
ored it. 



Presidential Favor at last for Everybody. 
Not long after the issue of his Procla- 
mation of Emancipation, the President had 
a fit of illness, though happily of short du- 
ration. Notwithstanding this disability. 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



however, lie was greatly bored by visitors.. 
The Honorable Mr. Blowhard and the 
Honorable Mr. Toolittle did not fail to 
call on his Excellency, to congratulate him 
on his message and his proclamation ; 
gentlemen in the humble walks of civil 
life were at the capital for the first time, 
and couldn't leave without seeing the suc- 
cessor of George Washington ; persons 
with axes to grind insisted upon a little 




Presidenti.il Favor at last for Everybody. 

aid from the great American rail-splitter ; 
and between them all they gave the con- 
valescent Chief Magistrate very little leis- 
ure or peace of mind. One individual, 
whom the President knew to be a tedious 
sort of customer, called at the White 
House about this time, and insisted upon 
an interview. Just as he had taken his 
seat, Mr. Lincoln sent for his physician, 
who immediately made his appearance. 

" Doctor," said he, holding out his hand, 
" what are those marks ? " 

" That's varioloid, or mild small-pox," 
said the doctor. 

" They're all over me ! It is contagious, 
I believe," said Mr. Lincoln. 

" Very contagious, indeed," replied the 
Esculapian attendant. 

" Well, I can't stop, Mr. Lincoln ; I 



just called to see how you were," said the 
visitor. 

" Oh, don't be in any hurry. Sir ! " pla- 
cidly remarked the Executive. 

" Thank yon, Sir, I'll call again," re- 
plied the visitor, executing a masterly 
retreat from a fearful contagion. 

" Do, Sir," said the President : " Some 
people; said they could take very well to 
my Proclamation, but now, I am happy to 
say, I have something that everybody can 
take." By this time the visitor was mak- 
ing a desperate break for Pennsylvania 
Avenue, which he reached on the double 

quick. 

«. , 

French Sensibility. • 
Amongst the gentlemen present on the 
platform when Mr. Beecher addressed the 
people of Edinburgh on the American 
question, were M. Garnier Pag's, M. 
Desmarest (a distinguished member of 
the French bar), and M. Henri Martin, 
the French historian. These eminent for- 
eigners had been attending the social 
science meetings in Edinburgh, and they 
had arranged to leave for Paris early that 
evening ; but at the request of somebody 
they consented to attend Mr. Beecher's 
meeting to testify their detestation of slav- 
ery. Near the close of the proceedings, 
the chairman stated that M. Desmarest had 
intended to address the meeting, but owing 
to an allusion to the Peninsular War in 
the course of Mr. Beecher's remarks, he 
thought his national sensibilities had been 
offended, and had left the room before the 
reverend gentleman had concluded. The 
following passage is supposed to have 
wounded the Frenchman : — 

In the begiiming of the war we were 
peculiarly English — for I have observed 
that Eno-land goes into wars and makes 
blunders in the first part— [" hear, hear," 
cheers and hissing,]— for it is generally 
found, I say, that England has blundered 
in the beginning. [Renewed cheers and 
hissing.] That is mere punctuation, I 
suppose. I will make all the noise that 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



87 



is necessary. I have noticed that in the 
Peninsular War for months — for a whole 
year — there was a series of rude endeav- 
ors — misunderstandings at home, and want 
of support to the armies — money squan- 
dered like water — contracts, and contract- 
ors making themselves rich — [" hear," 
cheers and hissings] — but if I recollect, 
at last [cheers and disturbance] — at last 
Wellington drove every Frenchman out 
of the Peninsula, and did not stop his 
course until he had swept every French- 
man out of Spain. And I say that we 
have not lo>t so much of the English blood, 
from which Ave are derived, and which 
yet flows in Yankee veins ; but that we 
began by blundering and blundering — 
[laughter] — but I think we are doing bet- 
ter and better at every step. [Loud 
cheers.] 

Right kind of Government to be Established 
Down South. 

Colonel Hanson, of the Kentucky Sec- 
ond, was one of the prisoners that fell into 
Union hands at Fort Donelson. Not so 
taciturn as some of his comrades he en- 
tered into an animated conversation with 
the Union Lieutenant who had him in 
charge, on " the situation," telling frankly 
some bad truth : 

Colonel — Well, you were too hefty for 
us. 

Lieutenant — Yes, but you were pro- 
tected by these splended defences. 

Col — Your troops fought like tigers. 

Lieut — Do you think now one South- 
ern man can whip five Northern men ? 

Col — Not Western men. Your troops 
are better than Yankee troops — fight 
harder — endure more. The devil and all 
hell can't stand before such fellows. But 
we drove you back. 

Lieut — Why didn't you keep us back ? 

Col — You had too many reinforcements. 

Lieut — But we had no more troops en- 
gaged in the fight than you had. 

Col — Well, you whipped us, but you 
havn't conquered us. You can never con- 
quer the South. 

6 



Lieut — We don't wish to conquer the 
South ; but we'll restore the Stars and 
Stripes to Tennessee, if we have to hang 
ten thousand such dare-devils as you are. 

Col — Never mind, Sir, you will never 
get up to Nashville. 

Lieut — Then Nashville will surrender 
before we start. 

Col— Well, well, the old United States 
flag is played out — we intend to have a 
right Government down here. 

Lieut — What am I to understand by a 
' right Government ? ' 

Col — A Government based on property, 
and not a damned mechanic in it. 

Lieut — Do these poor fellows, who have 
been fighting for you, understand then 
that they have no voice in the ' right Gov- 
ernment ' that you seek to establish ? 

Col — They don't care. They have no 
property to protect. 



Tracing his Political Pedigree 

A northern sympathizer with the South 
was denouncing, in immeasurable terms, 
the United States Government and the 
war, when the company was joined by a 
neighbor, a strong Union man, and after 
listening for a time, he interrupted him 
with the remark : " You came honestly by 
your principles — you are a tory, natural- 
ly." " What do you mean ? " said Secesh. 
" Yon know," said Union, " that during 
the war with Great Britain, the British 
entered the harbor and burned the town 
of New London." " Well, what of that," 
said S. "Why, somebody piloted them 
in, and when his dirty work was done, he 
came home with the British gold, and his 
neighbors, hearing of his presence, pro- 
vided themselves with ropes and made 
him an evening call, when he made his 
escape by the back door, and fled to the 
island of Bermuda, and died there." 
"Well," said S., " what has all that to do 
with it?" "Well," said Union, "that 
pilot was your grandfather." 



88 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Pelicans vs. Eagles. 
A little incident in connection with the 
custom-house at New Orleans, would seem 
to show that secession was a thing thought 
of by some of the southern leaders many 
years ago. This was not done merely to 
assert the. doctrine of State Rights, but 
rather with the deliberate purpose and ex- 
pectation that Louisiana would one day 
become an independent nation. The cus- 
tom-house in question has been in the 
course of erection some sixteen years or 
so, and, more than ten years ago, there 
were put up the heraldic ornamentations 
and devices which usually give to such an 
edifice the indications of its nationality. 
An examination, however, shows that there 
is not on the building the slightest indica- 
tion that it was erected and owned by the 
United States. As many as ten or twelve 
years ago, Beauregard and Slidell displayed 
their propensity to treason by ignoring the 
arms of the United States and substituting 
in their stead the Pelican of Louisiana. 
And there to this day is the sectional sym- 
bol, occupying the place of right and honor 
in the great room, where should be the 
eagle and the shield. 



Mistook his Man. 

Rev. Mr. was a priest of the 

Catholic church in Missouri, his parochial 
precinct embracing several counties. A 
staunch Union man from the beginning, he 
hoisted the Stars and Stripes over the door 
of his church at the commencement of the 
war, and there he kept them flying. His life 
was threatened, he was warned to flee, but 
he maintained his ground. He knew the 
views and sentiments of every man in his 
parish, which extended from the Iowa line 
to Missouri river. 

One day he saw a man moving about 
from house to house and having business 
with rebel sympathizers. He watched the 
fellow's course. He noticed also a wagon 
filled with bedding, with a woman and 
children, as if the family were on the 
move. It stopped at the houses of rebel 



sympathizers. He took notes and kept 
his own counsel. One night he was waited 
upon by a ruffianly looking fellow, who ad- 
vised him to flee, as there was to be an 
uprising of the rebels, and his life might 
be in danger. Out of respect for the 
Catholic religion, he had called to give 
him timely warning. " The wagon which 
you may have seen filled with bedding," 
said the fellow, " contained guns and am- 
munition. Our friends (rebels) are sup- 
plied with arms, and will soon be in posses- 
sion of the country." 

" Sir," said the priest, " you have come 
voluntarily into my house and told what I 
had already mistrusted. I give you two 
hours to leave this town. If you are found 
here at the expiration of that time you 
need not appeal to me to save your life. 
Go, Sir!" . 

The ruffian had mistaken his man. He 
disappeared, and the rebel sympathizers 
did not rise. The nearest Federal officers 
were at once informed of what was going 
on, and the Union citizens were immedi- 
ately supplied with arms. 



Sprinkling' Blood in the Face of the People. 

Jere. Clemens, of Alabama, in a public 
address given by him, related an interesting 
circumstance in connection with the early 
history of the Rebellion, as illustrating the 
predetermination of the leaders to plunge 
the country into war. He was in Mont- 
gomery soon after the Ordinance of Seces- 
sion was passed, and was present at an 
interview between Jeff. Davis, Memmin- 
ger and others. They were discussing the 
propriety of firing upon Sumter. Two or 
three of them withdrew to the corner of the 
room, and, said Mr. C, " I heard Gilchrist 
say to the Secretary of War, ' It must be 
done. Delay two months and Alabama 
stays in the Union. You must sprinkle 
blood in the face of the people.' The 
meeting then adjourned." 

The traitor chieftains were as good as 
their word. Sumter was fired upon. 
Blood was sprinkled " in the face of the 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



89 



people," and from this sprinkling the best 
blood of the nation, in both sections, was 
made to flow as a river. " Sprinkle blood 
in the face of the people ! " — a trim and 




Iloweil Cobb. 

polished phrase which filled a continent 
with woes unutterable! It was doctrine 
such as this, that Howell Cobb taught in 
Georgia, and, by carrying that glorious old 
State over to secession, gave force and 
prestige to the disloyal movement in its 
first stages, and thus reddened the history 
of the whole country with four years of 
blood. 



Andy Johnson and the Clerical Secessionists. 
The State of Tennessee had a watchful 
pilot at the helm when Andrew Johnson 
was its Governor. He was early called 
to deal with secessionists and traitors in 
this capacity. One day a pair of citizens 
belonging, professionally, to 'the cloth,' 
stood before him, and the following dia- 
logue between the respective parties, ' spir- 
itual ' and ' secular,' will throw some light 
on the question ' Who was the truer man ? ' 

Gov. Johnson — Well, gentlemen, what is 
your desire ? 

Rev. Mr. Sehon — I speak but for myself. 
I do not know what the other gentlemen 
wish. My request is that I may have a 
few days to consider on the subject of sign- 
ing this paper. I wish to gather my fam- 
ily together and talk over the subject; 



for this purpose, I desire about fourteen 
days. 

Gov. Johnson — It seems to me there 
should be but little hesitation about the 
matter. All that is required of you is to 
sign the oath of allegiance. If you are 
loyal citizens, you can have no reason to 
refuse to do so. If you are disloyal, and 
working to obstruct the operations of the 
Government, it is my duty, as the repre- 
sentative of that Government, to see that 
you are placed in a position so that the 
least possible harm shall result from your 
proceedings. You certainly cannot reason- 
ably refuse to renew your allegiance to the 
Government that is now protecting you 
and your families and property. 

Rev. Mr. Elliott — As a non-combatant? 
Governor, I considered that under the 
stipulations of the surrender of the city, I 
should be no further annoyed. As a non- 
combatant, I do not know that I have com- 
mitted an act, since the Federals occupied 
the city, that would require me to take the 
oath required. 

Gov. Johnson — I believe, Mr. Elliott, 
you have two brothers in Ohio. 

Mr. Elliott — Yes, Governor, I have two 
noble brothers, there. They did not agree 
with me in the course I pursued in regard 
to secession. But I have lived in Ten- 
nessee so many years that I have consid- 
ered the State my home, and am willing 
to follow her fortunes. Tennessee is a 
good State. 

Gov. Johnson — I know Tennessee is a 
good State : and I believe the best way to 
improve her fortunes is to remove those 
from her borders who prove disloyal and 
traitors to her interest, as they are traitors 
to the interest of that Government which 
has fostered and protected them. By your 
inflammatory remarks and conversation, 
and by your disloyal behavior, in weaning 
the young under your charge from their 
allegiance to the Government, you have 
won a name that will never be placed on 
the roll of patriots. A visit to the North 
may be of benefit to you. 



90 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Loyal Demonstration with a Crutch. 
At one of the fashionable hotels in New 
York, there boarded for a time, during the 
war, a somewhat wrathful secession sym- 
pathizer — one of the New England and 
consequently one of the worst kind, — and 
a chivalric, spirited Major-General of the 
army, minus a leg, and hobbling about on 
his crutch. Fired by natural folly and a 
luxurious dinner, the former insulted the 
latter, as he was passing through the halls, 
with loud and coarse denunciations of the 
war, anil all who fought on the loyal side 
in it. The cripple turned and faced the 
coward, demanding apology and retraction. 
They were denied. The man of crutch 
and soul then asked the name of the pol- 
troon traducer of his country and her 
patriots. With natural instinct, a wrong 
one was given. Other words followed ; 
another insult was added by the traducer ; 
whereupon the hero of Chancellorsville and 
Gettysburg " shouldered his crutch and 
showed how fields were won," by breaking 
it over the head of said degenerate son 
of Adam, who then took himself off, with 
at least one new idea in his head, namely, 
that the next crippled soldier of the army 
he insulted had better be somebody else 
than Dan Sickles. 



First Oath and Testimony of a Slave in 
Virginia. 

A few miles from Fortress Monroe, to- 
ward Buck river, there is a place called 
Fox Hill, in the neighborhood of which 
are or were several excellent farms, one 
of these being the " Hudgins place." The 
Hudgins family had absconded when Gen- 
eral Magruder retired from Hampton, and, 
under permission from General Wool, Cap- 
tain Wilder (superintendent of the colored 
inhabitants) had allowed a colored man 
named Anthony Bright to occupy and cul- 
tivate the Hudgins farm. Under this per- 
mission Anthony had carried on the place 
in 1861, and up to August, 1862, assisted 
by other industrious and well-behaved ne- 
groes. 



In July or August, 1862, Mrs. Hialgins 
and her two children had unexpectedly 
returned to the farm, taken possession of 
the mansion, and set up a claim to the' 
harvest of 1862. She came with her 
claim to the provost judge, John A. Bolles. 
On the other hand, Anthony Bright, in 
behalf of himself and his black co-laborers, 
presented his claims to the fruit of his 
labors, and called on the judge for protec- 
tion. A day and hour was appointed for 
the trial. Mrs. Hudgins was an intelligent 
lady, and in all her conduct and conversa- 
tion made a very pleasant impression on 
those who observed them. Anthony Bright 
was a tall, finely-formed, and very bright 
young man of perhaps thirty years of age. 
He was a slave. His master had been 
many years in California, and during that 
period Anthony had been left in charge 
of Mr. and Mrs. Hudgins, who had allowed 
him on payment of $75 a year to work for 
himself and to act as though he were a 
freeman. 

About half an hour before the trial was 
to begin, Col. Joseph Segar, the member 
of Congress from that district, called upon 
the provost judge in behalf of Mrs. Hud- 
gins, and among other things inquired if 
the judge was intending to allow Anthony 
or any other slave to testify. The judge 
answered yes. But the Colonel begged 
him to reconsider his determination, re- 
minding him of the exclusionary rule of 
the Virginia law of evidence, and remark- 
ing that in his own judgment the admission 
of colored witnesses would, more than al- 
most anything else that could happen, dis- 
please the Union men among his (Segar's) 
constituency, and prejudice the cause of the 
federal government. The judge, however, 
was unmoved by that suggestion, and ven- 
tured to express the belief that never again 
in the Old Dominion would a colored man 
be banished, as unworthy of belief or as 
unfit to be heard, from a court of justice. 
" However, Colonel," said he, " I will first 
examine Mrs. Hudgins, and possibly she 
may save me the necessity of shocking the 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



91 



prejudice of your constituents. If she 
places the case beyond the need of further 
evidence, or is herself desirous to hear 
what Anthony will say, your difficulty will 
be obviated."' 

Accordingly Mrs. Hudgins appeared in 
court, and after being sworn, proceeded to 
relate her story. From her statements and 
the documents which she produced, it ap- 
peared that the farm, which formerly be- 
longed to her father, had been devised by 
him to her two minor children, and that 
she was the executrix of the will, and 
guardian of the little girls. Her husband, 
then with the rebels, had no interest hi the 
farm. She went on to state what "Anthony 
said," and what 'Anthony told me," and 
was interrupted by the judge, who in- 
quired, " But who is Anthony, Mrs. Hud- 
gins?" "Anthony," answered she, with 
much surprise, " why, judge, Anthony is 
the colored man that claims the harvest." 
" Yes," said the judge, " but isn't he a 
slave, and would you think of believing 
what he said, or of washing me to hear his 
story?" "Of course, Sir," replied Mrs. 
H., " why should not I believe him ? He 
was brought up in the family. I would 
believe him as quickly as I would one of 
my children." "And have you no objec- 
tions to my examining Anthony, and at- 
tacliing such credit as I please to what he 
may say ? " " No objection in the world, 
judge ; I want you to hear him." 

Here the judge exchanged glances with 
Colonel Segar, and said, " Well, Colonel, I 
don't see but that I must gratify Mrs. 
Hudgins ; " and the Colonel, in a tone that 
was almost amusing, responded, " I suppose 
you must." 

Anthony was accordingly called into 
court, and told all that Mrs. Hudgins had 
said, to which he assented as strictly true. 
He was then asked if he had ever testified 
under oath. " No, Sir," said he, very re- 
spectfully, " I never has." He was further 
asked if he knew what an oath was, and 
what would be the consequences of false 
swearing. " I s'pose so master," was his 



answer ; " If I ask God to hear me tell 
lie, God will punish me for lying." " Very 
well, Anthony ; very truly answered," said 
the judge. 

'■'•And now, Anthony" continued Judge 
Bolles, rising as he spoke, " / am about to 
administer to you the oath to tell the truth, 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 
Hold up your right hand" 

It was worthy of a long journey to be- 
hold Anthony in that supreme moment of 
his life. As he lifted his hand and arm 
aloft, he seemed to gain several inches in 
height ; his broad chest expanded and his 
dark eye lighted up as with the inspiration 
of a new manhood. He was a noble spec- 
imen, physically and intellectually, of his 
race, and most favorably impressed all who 
saw him. 

Anthony produced the permission of 
Captain Wilder and of General Wool, and 
then told his story clearly and intelligibly 
and with a modesty as pleasing as his in- 
telligence was remarkable. When he had 
finished his statement, the judge asked the 
lady if she wished to cross-examine An- 
thony ; but she said, " No, I believe he has 
told the truth." And there, so far as the 
evidence was concerned, the case was 
ended. The judge gave the parties a short 
time to settle the matter among themselves, 
and at the end of that period, as they had not 
come to a settlement, appointed a commis- 
sioner to divide the products of the farm, 
awarding one half of the harvest to the ex- 
ecutrix and guardian, as the representative 
of the land, and the other half to Anthony 
and his associates, as the representatives of 
the labor. This decision was satisfactory to 
both the panties in interest, and even Col- 
onel Segar was content with the result, 
though not entirely pleased with the pro- 
cess by which it was attained. 



Two King's at the South. 

Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, 

will long be remembered for his famous 

"mudsill" speech in the United States 

Senate, in the palmy days of Union, when 



92 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



the lion and the lamb there commingled. 
In that speech, the vivacious Senator de- 
clared that by means of her cotton crop 
the South could " bring the whole world 
to her feet." With a defiant air he went 
on to say : " "What would happen if no 
cotton was furnished for three years ? I 
will not stop to depict what every one can 
imagine, but this is certain — England would 
topple headlong and carry the whole civil- 
ized world with her, save the South. No, 
you dare not make war upon cotton. No 
power on earth dares to make war upon 
it. Cotton is King ! " Senator Hammond, 
as well as many others, unquestionably be- 
lieved this, and acted accordingly. But 
there were and are a much greater num- 
ber believing, with Senator Clark, of New 
Hampshire, who, in his review of the 
astute South Carolinian's argument, re- 
marked : " Cotton is King ! Sir, there is 
another King besides Cotton — Humbug is 
Kins ! " 



Which Side? 
Walking one day on the beach at Birattz, 
Louis Napoleon happened to meet an intel- 




Which Side? 



salute, and said, "Are you English?" 
"No," answered the boy, very quickly, 
and drawing himself up, " I'm American." 
" Oh ! American, are you ? Well, tell me, 
which are you for, North or South?" 
" Well, father's for the North, I believe ; 
but I am certainly for the South. For 
which of them are you, Sir ? " The Em- 
peror stroked his moustache, smiled, hesi- 
tated a little, and then said, " I'm lor both ! " 
" For both, are you ? Well, that's not so 
easy, and it will please nobody!" His 
Majesty let the conversation drop and 
walked on. 



ligent looking boy, about eight or nine years 
old, who took off his hat as he passed. 
The Emperor courteously returned the 



Diseases of the Brain and Heart. 

In one of the upper townships of Ohio 
were two farmers, their places being sep- 
arated by a small creek. They were well- 
to-do people, but diametrically opposed in 
politics, and each noted for the zeal with 
which he defended his sentiments, Mr. M. 
being a straight uncompromising Union 
man, and Mr. S. an anti-war Democrat. 
Meeting a few days before the State elec- 
tion, Mr. S. accosted his neighbor, say- 
ing: 

" How is it, friend M., — I hear there is 
a very prevalent disease on your side of the 
creek ! " 

"Ah!" said Mr. M., "what is the dis- 
ease?" 

" N-i-g-g-e-r on the brain," replied Mr. 
S. 

" Well," said Mr. M., " that is a mere 
trifle compared to the malady existing on 
the other side." 

" Indeed ! " exclaimed Mr. S., "and pray 
what can that be ? " 

" Treason on the heart ! " retorted M. 

The conversation " took a turn." 



Treason in an Unexpected Quarter. 
As one of the boats containing Federal 
prisoners was on its way to the point where 
an exchange was to be made, the rebel 
Captain essayed a conversation with one 
of the passengers on board, the circum- 
stances and situation furnishing the theme. 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



93 



"I am a Northern man myself; my name 
is Samuel Todd ; I am Mrs. Lincoln's 
brother," said the Captain. "And what 
are you doing here ? " asked the passenger. 
" Yes, Sir," he repeated, in a musing man- 
ner, " I am Mrs. Lincoln's brother. I was 




Mrs. Lincoln. 

bom and brought up in the North ; but I 
am into this thing on the Southern side, 
and I mean to see it through." To this 
the Captain received answer : " Now, you 
know very well that the cause of the 
Union, for which the United States are 
fighting, will be successful in the end, and 
what in the world are you doing down 
here, fighting against the lawful govern- 
ment of the Union — fighting against your 
own historic flag, which you know has 
been respected and honored by the civil- 
ized world?" This allusion to the Stars 
and Stripes seemed to touch him ; but he 
answered, " I came down here several 
years ago, made some money, bought some 
property, and my home and interest are 
here. We consider that the Northern 
people are encroaching on our rights, and 
of course we feel bound to protect them, 
or die in the attempt." And yet, there 
was no truer-hearted loyal woman, during 
the Avar, than Mrs. Lincoln, whose mis- 
guided brother was thus willing to " die in 
the attempt" to destroy the best and most 
benign government in the world. 



Hatred of Southern Unionists to Southern 
Rebels. 
In one of the tents of a Union Mary- 
land regiment a man was found who had 
been wounded in an engagement Avith a 
rebel Maryland regiment, in Avhich Avere 
two of his cousins, "the same as brothers to 
him — they had all gone to school together 
and lived on the next farm to each other 
all their lives, till the Avar broke out." 
The Unionist Avas asked if it would not 
have been very disagreeable to him if he 
had learnt that either of them had been 
shot by a bullet from him. " No," he an- 
SAvered savagely, " I Avas on the lookout for 
them all the time, so that I might aim at 
them. I Avas hoping and praying all the 
time that my shot might by chance reach 
them. I would ask for nothing better 
than to shoot them, or to stick them with 
my bayonet — curse the traitors ! " When 
throAvn together on picket or in hospital, 
the Yankee boys from Massachusetts or 
Ohio, and the Johnnies from Alabama and 
Mississippi Avere the best of friends ; but 
the loyal Virginian scoAvled darkly on the 
rebel Virginian, and the rebel Tennesseean 
had only a curse for the loyal Tennesseean 
— and so of the other border States. 



" To the Manor Born." 
At one of the receptions at Secretary 
SeAvard's, the dusky representative of 
Haytien government Avas present as one 
of the diplomatic corps. This distin- 
guished colored gentleman figured con- 
spicuously among the richly attired ladies 
and official dignitaries in attendance ; but 
at the refreshment table an awkward inci- 
dent occurred in connection Avith him. 
One of the representatives from Missouri, 
upon reaching the table with a lady upon 
his arm, obserA-ed a Avell dressed negro 
helping the ladies to oysters, and suppos- 
ing him to be one of the waiters, the Mis- 
sourian, holding out his plate, directed the 
supposed seiwant to " put some oysters on 
that plate." The colored gentleman hes- 
itated. The Missourian then became more 



94 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



imperative, when the colored individual, 
whom he addressed as " waiter " — looking 
daggers at him — finally obeyed the order. 
The incident was generally observed, and 
the Missourian was soon after informed 
that the colored personage whom he had 
commanded as a servant and addressed as 
" waiter," w r as " His Excellency " the Hay- 
tien Minister. " I am very sorry for the 
mistake," replied the gentleman from Mis- 
souri ; " But as I own a/i hundred as, good 
looking negroes as he, I can not afford to 
apologize for so natural a misconception 
of his position." Such an occurrence 
seems in keeping with the domination at 
Washington which preceded the Rebellion, 
but not subsequently. It may, however, 
have taken place, and at all events illus- 
trate the manner of those who are " to the 
manor born." 



"Welcome to the Tioops at Port Royal. 

Our troops at Port Royal were accom- 
panied in their first reconnoissance into 
the island by Dr. J. J. Craven, who re- 
ported the negroes on the plantations 
further inland as almost wild with delight 
at the advent of our soldiers and the hasty 
flight of their masters, which they described 
with great gusto. Said one of them to 
the Doctor : 

" 0, Lord ! massa, we're so glad to see 
you. We'se prayed and prayed the good 
Lord that he would send yer Yankees, 
and we know'd you'se was coming." 

" How could you know that ? " asked 
Dr. Craven : " You can't read the paper ; 
how did you get the news ? " 

" No, massa, we'se can't read, but we'se 
can listen. Massa and missus used to 
read, and sometimes they'se would read 
loud, and then we would listen so" (mak- 
ing an expressive gesture indicative of 
close attention at a key hole) ; " when I'se 
get a chance I'se would list'h, and Jim, 
him would list'n, and we put the bits 
together, and we knowed the Yankees 
were coming. Bress the Lord, massa." 



Constructive Parole Rights. 
A detective officer belonging to the 
New York police force, named Hart, who 
accompanied Mrs. Anderson cm her visit 
to her husband at Fort Sumter, obtained 
permission to remain there on condition 
that he should not fight. He faithfully 
observed his parole, but when the barracks 
took fire, he exclaimed, " I didn't promise 
not to fight fire ! " and devoted himself with 
almost superhuman energy, to extinguish 
the flames. With balls hissing and shells 
bursting around him, he worked on un- 
daunted, and could with the utmost diffi- 
culty be forced away from the burning 
buildings, even when it was death to 
remain. When the flag was shot down, 
the Charlestonians concentrated their fire 
upon the flag staff, to prevent its being 
replaced ; but unmindful of the shot, which 
whizzed by him every second. Hart nailed 
the flag to the wall, amid cheers from the 
United States troops. 



That Flag- Presentation in New Orleans. 

General Butler had a dandy regiment 
in New Orleans — one a little nicer in 
uniform and personal habits than any 
other ; and so ably commanded, that it had 
not lost a man by disease since leaving 
New England. One day the Colonel of 
this fine regiment came to head-quarters, 
wearing the expression of a man who had 
something exceedingly pleasant to commu- 
nicate. It was just before the fourth of 
July, and this is Mr. Parton's apt narra- 
tion of what followed : 

" General," said he " two young ladies 
have been to me — beautiful girls — who 
say they have made a set of colors for the 
regiment, which they wish to present on 
the fourth of July." 

" But is their father willing ? " asked the 
General, well knowing what it must cost 
two young ladies of New Orleans, at that 
early time, to range themselves so con- 
spicuously on the side of the Union. 

" Oh, yes," replied the Colonel ; " their 
father gave them the money, and will 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



95 



attend at the ceremony. But have you 
any objections ? " 

" Not the least, if their father is willing." 

" Will you ride out and review the regi- 
ment on the occasion ? " 

" With pleasure." 

So, in the cool twilight of the evening 
of the fourth, the General, in his best 
uniform, with chapeau and feathers, worn 
then for the first time in New Orleans, 
reviewed the regiment amid a concourse 
of spectators. One of the young ladies made 
a pretty presentation speech, to which the 
gallant Colonel handsomely replied. The 
General made a brief address. It was a 
gay and joyful scene ; everything passed 
off with the highest eclat, and was chroni- 
cled with all the due editorial flourish in 
the Delta. 

Subsequently, the young ladies ad- 
dressed a note to the regiment, of which 
the following is a copy : 

New Orleans, July 5, 18G2. 

" Gentlemen : — We congratulate and 
thank you all for the manner in which you 
have received our flag. AVe did not ex- 
pect such a reception. We offered the 
flag to you as a gift from our hearts, as a 
reward to your noble conduct. Be assured, 
gentlemen, that that day will be always 
present in our minds, and that we will 
never forget that we gave it to the bravest 
of the brave ; but if ever danger threatens 
your heads, rally under that banner, call 
again your courage to defend it, as you 
have promised, and remember that those 
from Avhom you received it will help you 
by their prayers to win the palms of 
victory and triumph over your enemies. 
We tender our thanks to General Butler 
for lending his presence to the occasion, and 
for his courtesies to us. May he continue 
his noble work, and ere long may we be- 
hold the Union victorious over his foes 
and reunited throughout our great and 
glorious country. Very respectfully." 

A few days later, an officer of the regi- 
ment came into the office of the command- 



ing General, his countenance not clad in 
smiles. He looked like a man who had 
seen a ghost, or one who had suddenly 
heard of some entirely crushing calamity. 

" General," he gasped, " we have been 
sold. They were negroes ! " 

"What! Those lovely blondes, with 
blue eyes and light hair ? Impossible !" 

" General, it's as true as there's a heaven 
above. The whole town is laughing at us." 

" Well," said the General, " there's no 
harm done. Say nothing about it. I 
suppose we must keep it out of the papers, 
and hush it up as well as we can." 

They did not quite succeed in keeping 
it out of the papers, for one of the "for- 
eign neutrals " of the city sent an account 
of the affair to the Courier des Etats Unis, 
in New York, with the inevitable French 
decorations. 



Original Conspiracy to Assassinate Mr. 
Lincoln. 

That Mr. Lincoln, the President-elect, 
was to feel the sting of Southern steel — 
as proclaimed by his political enemies — 
on his way to Washington, to take the 
oath of office, is now historical. A detect- 
ive of great experience, who had been 
employed by Mr. Lincoln's friends, dis- 
covered a combination of men banded 
together under a most solemn oath, to do 
the deed of assassination. The leader of 
the conspirators was an Italian refugee, a 
barber, well known in Baltimore, who 
assumed the name of Orsini, as indicative 
of the part he was to assume. 

The assistants employed by the detect- 
ive of this plot, who, like himself, were 
strangers in Baltimore, by assuming to be 
secessionists from Louisiana and other sece- 
ding States, gained the confidence of some 
of the conspirators, and were thus intrusted 
Avith their plans. It was arranged, in case 
Mr. Lincoln should pass safely over the 
railroad to Baltimore, that the conspira- 
tors should mingle with the crowd which 
might surround his carriage, and by pre- 
tending to be his friends, be enabled to 



96 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



approach his person, when, upon a signal 
from their leader, some of them would 
shoot at Mr. Lincoln with their pistols, 
and others would throw into his carriage 
hand-grenades filled with detonating pow- 
der, similar to those used in the attempted 
assassination of the Emperor Louis Na- 
poleon. It was also intended that in the 
confusion which should result from this 
attack, the assailants should escape to a 
vessel which was waiting in the harbor to 
receive them, and be carried to Mobile, in 
the seceding State of Alabama. 

Upon Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Philadel- 
phia, upon Thursday, February 21st, the 
detective visited Philadelphia, and submit- 
ted to certain friends of the President- 
elect the information he had collected as 
to the conspirators and their plans. An 
interview was immediately arranged for 
between Mr. Lincoln and the detective. 
The interview took place in Mr. Lincoln's 
room, in the Continental Hotel, where he 
Avas staying. Mr. Lincoln, having heard 
the officer's statement, replied : 

" I have promised to raise the American 
flag on Independence Hall to-morrow 
morning — the morning of the anniversary 
of Washington's birthday — and have ac- 
cepted the invitation of the Pennsylvania 
Legislature to be publicly received by that 
body in the afternoon. Both of these en- 
gagements I ivill keep if it costs me my 
life. If, however, after I shall have con- 
cluded these engagements, you can take 
me in safety to Washington, I will place 
myself at your disposal, and authorize you 
to make such arrangements as you may 
deem proper for that purpose." 

On the next day he gallantly performed 
the ceremony of raising the American 
flag on Independence Hall ; he then went 
to Harrisburg, where he was formally 
welcomed by the Legislature, and at six 
o'clock in the evening he, in company with 
Col. Lamon, quietly entered a carriage 
without observation, and was driven to 
the Pennsylvania railroad, where a special 
train was waiting to take him to Philadel- 



phia.' On his departure, the telegraph 
wires were cut, so that no communication 
of his movements could be made. 

The special train arrived in Philadel- 
phia at a quarter to eleven at night. Here 
he was met by the detective, who had a 
carriage in readiness, into which the party 
entered, and were driven to the depot of 
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti- 
more railroad. 

They did not reach the depot until a 
quarter past eleven; but fortunately for 
them, the regular train, the hour of which 
for starting was eleven, had been detained. 
The party then took berths in the sleeping 
car, and without change of cars passed 
directly through to Washington, where 
they arrived at the usual hour, half-past 
six o'clock, on the morning of Saturday, 
the 23d. Mr. Lincoln wore no disguise 
whatever, but journeyed in an ordinary 
traveling dress. 



Protection under the Constitution. 

Among the incidents attending the op- 
erations of the celebrated Mackerelville 
Brigade, at or near the seat of war, is the 
following, recounted by the historiogra- 
pher-extraordinary of the corps, Mr. 
Kerr. It seems that just at the moment 
when the Conic Section was proceeding to 
make a " masterly movement," an aged 
chap came dashing down from a First 
Family country seat, near by, and says 
he to the General of the Mackerel Brigade : 

" I demand a guard for my premises 
immediately. My wife," says he with 
dignity, " has just been making a custard 
pie for the sick Confederacies in the hos- 
pital, and as she has just set it out to cool 
near where my little boy shot one of your 
vandals this morning, she is afraid it 
might be taken by your thieving mudsills 
when they come after the body. I, there- 
fore, demand a guard for my premises in 
the name of the Constitution of our fore- 
fathers." 

Here Capt. Bob Shorty stepped for- 
ward, and says he : 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



97 



" What does the Constitution say about 
custard pie, Mr. Davis ? " 

The aged chap spat at him, and says 
he: 

" I claim protection under that clause 
which refers to the pursuits of happiness. 
Custard pies," says he reasoningly, " are 
included in the pursuits of happiness." 

" That's very true," says the General, 
looking kindly over his fan at the venera- 
ble petitioner. " Let a guard be detailed 
to protect this good old man's premises. 
We are fighting for the Constitution, not 
against it." 

A guard was detailed, with orders to 
make no resistance if they were fired upon 
occasionally from the windows of the 
house ; and then Captain Brown pushed 
forward with what was left of Company 
3, to engage the Confederacy on the edge 
of Duck Lake, supported by the Orange 
County Howitzers. 



Unacquainted with Politics. 

No small pains were taken by certain 
partisan leaders, while General Grant was 
at Vicksburg, to inveigle him into some 
debate, or the expression of some definite 
idea or opinion relative to the state of the 
various political parties of the country, 
and their professed tenets. The General, 
however, Avas not thus to be drawn out. 
He had never attached himself to any 
mere partizan organization, and all the 
various political issues or questions were, 
to him, entirely subordinate to the great 
and single object of crushing the rebellion. 

While operating in the vicinity of Vicks- 
burg, his professed political friends paid a 
visit to his head-quarters, and after a short 
time spent in compliments, they touched 
upon the never-ending subject of politics. 
One of the party was in the midst of a 
very flowery speech, using all his rhetor- 
ical powers to induce the General, if pos- 
sible, to view matters in the same light as 
himself, when he was suddenly stopped 
by Grant. 

" There is no use of talking politics to 



me. I know nothing about them, and, 
furthermore, I do not know of any person 
among my acquaintances who does. But," 
continued he, " there is one subject with 
which I am perfectly acquainted ; talk of 
that, and I am your man." 

"What is that, General?" asked the 
politicians, in great surprise. 

" Tanning leather," was the reply. 

The subject was immediately changed. 



Secesh Taming-. 

War, like nearly every other sort of 
human experience, has its comical side. 
' Old Ben Butler's ' management of New 
Orleans was " as good as a play," — a spice 
of humor in it, a certain apt felicitousness 
in turning the tables, calculated to make 
even the victim smile while he yet winced. 

It was the New Orleanaise who gave 
the General his soubriquet of ' Picayune 
Butler ' — that being the well known ap- 
pellative of the colored barber in the base- 
ment of the St. Charles. The fourpence 
ha'penny epithet of course implied how 
very cheap they held the commander at 
Ship Island. The Yankee General fetched 
up at the St. Charles. 'Twas empty and 
barred. Where was the landlord ? Off. 
The house must be opened. Impossible. 
It shall be forced. Well, here are the 
keys. So the first thing was to show he 
could keep a hotel. 

Next he sends Avord to the Mayor that 
he must see him at his parlor. Back 
comes word that His Honor does business 
at the City Hall. Straight goes a per- 
emptory message by an orderly, and Mayor 
Monroe and a Avhole be\y of dignitaries 
make their appearance, hats in hand. The 
hotel-keeper is induced to draAV it mild, 
and arranges that the civil government of 
the city shall remain in their hands on the 
condition that all the police and sanitary 
duties shall be faithfully performed. 

For a little while matters go on 
smoothly. But it soon became apparent 
that the streets Avere neglected, as if on 
purpose to invite YelloAV Jack to come and 



98 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



make short work of the " Hessians." A 
sharp Avord goes from the St. Charles to 
the City Hall to start the hoes, and, at 
a jump, the hoes were started. But it 
went against the grain. The aldermen 
could not sleep o'nights. Yellow Jack 
■out of the. question, they thought they 
would try la belle France. So they passed 
a resolution tendering the officers of the 
French frigate Catinet the freedom and 
hospitalities of the city. Up comes 
word from the St. Charles that this sort 
of thing don't answer — that ' the free- 
dom of a captured city by the captives 
would merit letters patent for its novelty, 
were there not doubts of its usefulness as 
an invention, and that the tender of hospi- 
talities by a government to which police 
duties and sanitary regulations only are 
intrusted is sinmly an invitation to the 
calaboose or the sewer.' 

The women next bridle up. They are 
not content with leaving our quiet soldiers 
to themselves, but must needs insult and 
abuse them. The General determines 
that this unfeminine practice, so provoca- 
tive of ill blood, shall stop. He proclaims 
that all women guilty of it shall be treated 
as disorderly Avomen. Thereupon Mayor 
Monroe steps again upon the scene, and 
as ' chief magistrate of this city, chargea- 
ble with its peace and dignity,' protests 
against an order 'so extraordinary and 
astonishing.' The immediate reply is that 
' John T. Monroe, late Mayor of the city 
of New Orleans, is relieved from all re- 
sponsibility for the peace of the city, and 
committed to Fort Jackson until further 
orders.' Straightway the Mayor hurries 
down to the St. Charles, and makes a writ- 
ten retraction, to wit : ' This communica- 
tion having been sent under a mistake of 
fact, and being improper in language, I 
desire to apologize for the same, and to 
withdraAV it.' The retraction is accepted, 
and the Mayor retires ; but on the next 
day, having been taken to task by his 
clique, he again presents himself, with 
several backers, to get a modification of 



the ' Avoman order,' or to take back his 
apology. He receives for reply, that a 
modification is impossible, and with it an 
argument from the good-natured General 
shoAving its propriety and necessity. The 
Mayor boAvs, convinced, and leaA r es. Two 
days afterAvards again he comes down Avith 
his friends and insists upon having back 
his apology. The General, being of a 
yielding nature, politely hands it back, and, 
at the same moment, gives an order com- 
mitting the Avhole set to Fort Jackson, and 

there they ruminated. 

-♦ 

Romantic Adventure of a Tennessee Loy- 
alist. 
Of a similar character for boldness and 
intrepidity to Parson BroAvnloAv, Avas 
Hurst, the indomitable Unionist of Purdy, 
Tennessee. On returning from West Ten- 
nessee, to make his periodical report of 
himself — being under heaA r y bonds to the 
rebel powers to do so — and stopping at 
his home, he had no sooner entered his 




Romantic Adventure. 

house than he AA r as told to fly for his life, 
as a neAV accusation of being a traitor and 
a spy had been made against him by a 
malicious old rebel neighbor. 

He had barely time to make an appoint- 
ment Avith a bound boy, Avho loved him 
more than he did his OAvn father, to bring 
a faA'orite horse — that somehoAv escaped 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



99 



the thieving confiscations of the rebels — 
to the entrance of a certain alley in the 
town. Scarcely had he made the arrange- 
ment when a file of Confederate soldiers 
was seen coming towards the house. He 
slipped out at the back door, passed 
through a neighboring garden, and in a 
minute more was walking composedly 
down the principal street of the town. 
His bold and unconcerned appearance 
created quite a stir in the town. Men 
whispered together, and winked and wag- 
ged their heads significantly, and now and 
then would dart off to give information to 
the rebel guard, who were searching for 
him. He knew his time was short, that 
in a few minutes they would come in upon 
him from all sides, and his chance for life 
would not be worth a straw. He quick- 
ened his pace a little, and suddenly entered 
an apothecary's shop ; dozens of men 
were watching him, and said — 

" Now he is trapped ; he'll be nabbed 
as he comes out." 

Hurst walked quickly through into the 
back room, and called the proprietor in 
after him. The apothecary entered smil- 
ingly, thinking, doubtless, of how soon he 
should see his guest dancing upon nothing 
in the air. The moment he had entered, 
Hurst grasped him suddenly by the throat, 
and placing a pistol at his ear, told him 
that if he attempted to raise the slightest 
alarm, and did not do exactly as he told 
him, he would fire. 

By this time a crowd had collected in 
front of the shop, and as they could not 
see what was passing in the back room, 
they waited until the guard should come 
up to arrest him. Hurst now opened the 
back door, and looking up the alley, he 
saw the faithful bound boy with the horse 
standing partly concealed in the entrance 
of the alley. He beckoned to the boy, 
who quickly brought the horse to him. 
He then turned to the trembling fellow, 
and said — 

" Now, sir, in the spot where you stand, 
the rifles of four of my faithful friends 



are covering you — they are hid in places 
that you least suspect, and if you move 
within the next ten minutes they will fire ; 
but if you remain perfectly quiet they will 
not harm you." 

The apothecary had become so com- 
pletely ' frickcned,' as the Irish would say, 
by the touch of cold steel at his ears, that 
he did not recognize at once the improba- 
bility of Hurst's story. In an instant 
more, Hurst had put spurs to his horse, 
and dashed out of the alley, leaving the 
terrified 'pothecary gaping after him, and 
the bound boy absolutely crying at his 
master's danger, and in another instant 
the rebel soldiers and the crowd entered 
the store, rushed through the back room 
and out at the back door, just in time to 
see Hurst dashing out of the alley at full 
speed. Horses Avithout number were at 
once in requisition, but Hurst distanced 
them all. He soon joined the Union army, 
and on its subsequent triumphant entry to 
Nashville, Hurst was on hand with them, 
naively remarking that he came so as to 
" defend his bondsmen from any damage 
they might suffer by his non-appearance, 
and ' report ' himself as he had agreed! " 



Them and Theirs— not Us. 

One of the most interesting cases among 
the rebel prisoners at Camp Denison, Ohio, 
was a wounded youth, whose heart was evi- 
dently busy doing poetic justice to the Yan- 
kees he had been taught to hate, though he 
still was anxious about Southern rights. 
Parson Clayton talked to him for some time 
concerning religious matters, and the young 
man at last broke in by saying, " We've 
talked about religion long enough, now 
let's talk politics." There Avas a peculiar 
Southernism about his look and tone that 
excited a smile all around. "Well," re- 
plied Mr. Clayton, " I'm not much on pol- 
itics ; I'd rather not talk about them — tell 
me how you felt when you were wounded." 
He did so: 

" Thought it would be a sharp pain, Sir, 
but it wasn't. I was wounded in the legs, 



100 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



and it Avas just like my being knocked off 
my pins by a strong blow from a log of 
wood. Fell flat on my belly, and my 
knees drew themselves up under my chin. 
Made sure I was dead, but thought it 
didn't make much difference, for I saw our 
men retreating, and knew that the Yan- 
kees would get me and kill me sure ; al- 
ways was told, Sir, the Yankees had horns. 
Well, there I lay ; and up came a Colonel 
leading his men — he was in front, Sir; he 
jumped down from his horse, and ran to 
me drawing something from his belt, so I 
gave up ; but it wasn't a pistol, Sir," (and 
here the boy's eyes moistened) "it was a 
canteen ! He put it to my lips, I drank. 
He jumped on his horse again, and said, 
'Charge, boys, they're fleeing!' Then 
some soldiers on foot came toward me, 
and I thought they're not all like that 
officer, and I gave up again. But, Sir, they 
said, ' Comrade, get up.' They lifted me up 
and said, ' Put your arms around our necks, 
and we'll lead you away from these bullets. 
And these were the 'damned Yankees!' 
I tell you, Sir, no man ever hugged his 
sweetheart harder or more friendly than 
I hugged those Yankees' necks." 

After a few more remarks the youth 
showed a determination to " talk politics," 
and asked Mr. Clayton, " What are you 
fighting us for?" Mr. Clayton calmly, 
and in good humor, gave him his ideas of 
the issue, and in ending asked him what 
they were fighting for. " To hold prop- 
erty, Sir," replied the youth, — " our slave 
property." "How many slaves did you 
have?" "None." "And you?" (to the 
next) . " None." He then went around to 
all the thirty-four rebels, and but one was 
found who had owned a slave. "Now," 
said Mr. Clayton, "where are the men 
who have these slaves which they are so 
afraid of losing?" Here a man named 
McLellan, who soon afterwards died, raised 
himself up on his cot, and stretching out 
his thin hand said, in a sepulchral voice, 
"They are at home enjoying themselves, 
and have sent us to die for them and 



theirs." And to this the echoes around 
the room were, "That's so!" "That's 
God's truth ! " 



Vice-President Hamlin a Private in Com- 
pany A. 

There was at Fort McClary, in Ports- 
mouth harbor, New Hampshire, during 
the dark days of the war, a soldier who 
performed all the duties of a private in 
the ranks and a guard, and was not even 
clothed with the power of a fourth cor- 
poral, — but who, in the event of the death 
of President Lincoln, would at once have 
become the commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy of the United States. 
And yet, with that necessary consciousness, 
he was willing to place himself in the posi- 
tion of a common soldier, share with them 
in their messes, bear about his own tin 
dipper, and reside in their barracks. This 
was the position of the Hon. Hannibal 
Hamlin, Vice-President of the United 
States (and formerly Governor of Maine 
and United States Senator), and private 
in Company A, of the State Guard of 
Bangor. Such may be said to be one of 
the beauties of republicanism; but it re- 
quires a sound-cored man thus to display 
the most beautiful features of the sim- 
plicity of our institutions. 



Col. Polk, and Sanders, the Refugee. 

Colonel William H. Polk, of Tennessee, 
the well known scholar, politician and wit, 
of Tennessee, had a plantation some forty 
miles from Nashville, lived comfortably, 
had a joke for every one. and Avas, withal, 
a resolute man in his opinions. 

A few days before the arrival of the U. S. 
army at Nashville, in 1862, and, indeed, 
before he heard of the fall of Fort Don- 
elson, in going down the road from his 
farm, he descried a fat, ragged, bushy-head- 
ed, tangled-mustached, dilapidated-looking 
creature, (something like an Italian organ- 
grinder in distress,) so disguised in mud 
as to be scarcely recognizable. What was 
his surprise, on a nearer approach, to see 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



101 



that it was the redoubtable George N. 
Sanders. 

George had met the enemy and he was 
theirs — not in person, but in feeling. His 
heart was lost, his breeches were ragged, 
and his boots showed a set of fat, gouty 
toes protruding from them. The better 
part of him was gone, and gone a good 
distance. 

" In the name of God, George, is that 
you ? " said the ex-Congressman. 

''Me!" said the immortal George: "I 
wish it wasn't ; I wish I was anything but 
me. But what is the news here — is there 
any one running? They are all running 
back there," pointing over his shoulder 
with his thumb. 

"No," said Mr. Polk, "not that I know 
of. You needn't mind pulling up the seat 
of your pantaloons. I'm not noticing. 
What in are you doing here, look- 
ing like a muddy Lazarus in the painted 
cloth?" 

" Bill," said George to the Tennesseean, 
confidentially, and his tones would have 
moved a heart of stone, " Bill, you always 
was a friend of mine. I know'd you a 
long while ago, and honored you — cuss 
me if I didn't. I said you was a man 
bound to rise. I told Jimmy Polk so; 
me and Jimmy was familiar friends. I 
intended to have got up a biographical 
notice of you in the Democratic Review, 

but that Corby stopped it. I'm glad 

to see you; I'll swear I am." 

" Of coui'se, old fellow," said the chari- 
table Tennesseean, more in pity of his 
tones than even of the flattering eloquence ; 
"but what is the matter?" 

"Matter!" said George ; "the d d 

Lincolnites have seized Bowling Green, 
Fort Donelson, and have by this time ta- 
ken Nashville. Why," continued he, in a 
burst of confidence, "when I left, hacks 
was worth $100 an hour, and, Polk, (in a 
whisper,) I didn't have a cent." 

The touching pathos of this last remark 
was added to by the sincere vehemence 
with which it was uttered, and the mute 



eloquence with which he lifted up a ragged 
flap in the rear of his person that some 
envious rail or briar had torn from its 
position of covering a glorious retreat. 

"Not a d d cent," repeated he; 

"and, Polk, I walked that hard-hearted 
town up and down, all day, with bomb- 
shells dropping on the street at every 
lamp-post — I'll swear I did — trying to 
borrow some money; and, Polk, do you- 
thiidc, there wasn't a scoundrel there would 
lend anything, not even Harris, and he got 
the money out of the banks, too!" 

"No," interjected Polk, who dropped in 
a word occasionally, as a sort of encourager. 

"Bill," repeated Sanders, "Bill, I said 
I you was a friend of mine — and a talented 
! one — always said so, Bill. I didn't have 
a red, and I've walked forty-five miles in 
the last day, by the mile-stones, and I 
! havn't had anything to buy a bit to eat ; 
and," he added, with impassioned elo- 
quence," what is a cussed sight worse, not 
a single drop to drink." 

This is complete. It is unnecessary to 
tell how the gallant and clever Tennes- 
seean took the wayfarer home, gave him 
numerous, if not innumerable drinks, and 
filled him with fruits of the gardens and 
flesh of the flocks. 



Unfortunate Absence at the Siege of Fort 
Sumter. 

On the news of the fall of Sumter, the 
fires of patriotic enthusiasm were kindled 
throughout all the loyal States. In one of 
the small towns of Western Pennsylvania 
the excitement became intense — patriotic 
speeches were made, companies for the war 
speedily formed, etc., etc. It was at this 
time, when the public excitement was at 
its height, that there was a flag-raising at 

a school-house two miles from A , the 

orator of the occasion being a young col- 
legiate, fresh from his Alma Mater. After 
the speech had been made a sheet of fools- 
cap was produced, and twelve big, noble- 
looking fellows walked boldly up and en- 
rolled their names amons; the brave de- 



102 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



fenders of their country. As each man 
put his name upon the paper he was 
greeted by three lusty cheers and the 
rolling of the drum. Finally, when the 
twelve recruits had taken their seats, and 
no one seemed to manifest any inclination 
of following their example of enlisting, a 
young man was called upon to speak. He 
was a strong, dashing, dark-eyed youth, 
and evidently much excited. He seemed 
determined, however, to acquit himself 
with applause, and he spread out accord- 
ingly. 

After stating numerous, and, as he ur- 
ged, strong reasons for not going to the 
war himself — that 'he couldn't leave his 
business' — 'would go if they couldn't get 
along without him' — 'if he found it to 
be his duty,' etc., he waxed warm. He 
glowed in his overflowing patriotism, and 
having depicted in flaming colors the out- 
rage practiced on our flag by the rebels, 
he closed his impressive speech with, in 
effect, the following: 




Edmund Ruffin. 

"Gentlemen! do you know what I'd 
have done had I been down there- when 
that glorious flag was torn by these trait- 
ors from its lofty height? I would have 
snatched it from their bloody hands — I 
would have mounted the flag-staff — and, 
regardless of the hail of bullets that might 
have stormed around me, I would have 
nailed it there — ay! with my own hands 
would I have nailed it there ! and have — 



have — gentlemen — desired it to remain!" 
The absence of this patriotic orator at the 
siege of Sumter must, of course, have 
been the cause of its unfortunate surren- 
der. Edmund Ruffin, the hoary traitor, 
who fired the first shot at Sumter, should 
have had a clinch at that tonguy and soft- 
pated orator. The odds would have been 
of little account, which of the two went 
down. 

Application of the Term "Contraband" by 
General Butler. 

The rebel Colonel Mallory had the mis- 
fortune to lose some of his ' servants,' who 
used their legs to convey themselves from 
the custody of their master. Though a 
traitor to his country, Col. M. had the 
audacity to go with a flag of truce to For- 
tress Monroe and demand of hid old polit- 
ical friend, Butler, the delivering up of 
said escaped servants, under the Fugitive 
Slave Law. 

"You hold, Colonel Mallory, do you 
not," said General Butler, "that negro 
slaves are property ; and that Virginia is 
no longer a part of the United States." 

"I do, Sir." 

" You are a lawyer, Sir," Gen. Butler 
replied, " and I ask you, if you claim that 
the Fugitive Slave Act of the United 
States is binding in a foreign nation? 
And if a foreign nation uses this kind of 
property to destroy the lives and property 
of citizens of the United States, if that 
species of property ought not to be re- 
garded as contraband?" 

Such was the origin of the term con- 
traband, as applied to fugitive slaves, and 
its acceptance became at once universal. 



"Newport News." 
The operations of the two great armies, 
from time to time, at "Newport News 
Point," have given that place quite a 
celebrity in military annals, and its pecu- 
liar name has given rise to much curiosity 
as to how it could have originated. In 
reference to this, it appears that the early 
colony on James river was at one time 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



103 



reduced to a straightened condition, and 
some or its members started down the 
James river, with the intention of pro- 
ceeding to England. They reached the 
bend in the river which has since become 
an object of so much interest, and paused 
for some days. When they were about 
to set sail, they saw a ship coming up the 
roads, bearing the British ensign. They 
delayed till it should arrive. It proved 
to be Lord Newport's ship, with his lord- 
ship on board, who brought the intelli- 
gence that the ship which the colony had 
long before dispatched to England for sup- 
plies, and which was many months over- 
due, was near at hand, bringing much 
needed relief. Meantime, his lordship 
distributed provisions among the colonists, 
who, from these circumstances, named the 
place " Newport News," on account of the 
good tidings which his lordship brought 
to them. 



the press., he gave expression to as fol- 
lows : 

"All people zall speak vat dey tink — 
I write vat dey pleaze, and be free to do 
. anytink dey pleazhe — only dey zall speak 
and write no treason/" 



Tigers and Treason. 

Colonel Boernstein, a German com- 
mander at the West, became somewhat 
noted for his logical method of dealing 
with traitors. While holding possession 
of Jefferson City, Missouri, his patriotic 
and magisterial traits were made conspic- 
uous by not a few well-remembered cases 
of summary discipline. One day he heard 
of a desperado being in town, from Clark 
township, who had led a company of dis- 
unionists known and dreaded as the "Ti- 
gers." 

"If anybodies vill make ze affidavit," 
said Colonel B., "I vill arrest him if he 
izh a tiger. I don't believe in tigers ; zey 
d d humbugs!" 

Some one inquired of the Colonel how 
long he should remain in that place. 
With a French shrug of the shoulder, he 
replied : 

" I don't know — perhaps a year ; so long 
as the Governor chooses to stay away; 
I am Governor now, you see, 'till he come 
back." 

His notions of freedom of speech and 
7 



G-ould, the Hero of Corinth. 
In the heat of the conflict, the Ninth 
Texas regiment bore down upon the left 
centre of the Twenty-Seventh Ohio reg- 
iment, with their battle flag at the head 
of the column, when Orrin B. Gould, a 
private of Company G. shot down the 
color-bearer and rushed forward for the 
rebel flag. A rebel officer shouted to his 
men to "save the colors!'''' and, at the same 
moment, put a bullet into the breast of 
Gould. But the young hero was not to 
be intimidated. With his flag-staff in his 
hand, and the bullet in his breast, he re- 
turned to his regiment, waving the former 
defiantly in the faces of the enemy. After 
the battle, on visiting the hospitals, Col- 
onel Fuller of the Twenty-Seventh Ohio, 
(commanding first brigade, second divis- 
ion) found young Gould stretched upon a 
cot, apparently in great pain. Upon see- 
ing him, his face became radiant, and, 
pointing to his wound, he said, " Colonel, 
I don't care for this, since I got their 
flair!" 



John Bell's Tennessee Iron Works. 

On the evening of Feb. 16th, 1862, 
Commodore Foote sent the gun-boat St. 
Louis on a reconnoitreing expedition to- 
wards Clarksville, Tenn. Six miles above 
Dover, they came in sight of the Tennes- 
see Iron Works, an extensive establish- 
ment owned by Hon. John Bell, Mr. 
Lewis, and others. Not a person was in 
sight, and to ascertain if anybody was at 
home, a shell was thrown at a high eleva- 
tion, and burst directly over the establish- 
ment, too high to do any damage. It had 
the desired effect — the workmen streamed 
out of their hive like a swarm of bees. 

It having been reported that the mill 



104 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



had been engaged extensively in the man- 
ufacture of iron plates for rebel gunboats, 
officer Johnson, of the St. Louis, was sent 
ashore to find the proprietors and inquire 
.about it. He found Mr. Lewis, who at 
once presented himself as the proprietor, 
and in response to the officer's inquiries, 
stated that the mill had been occupied 
lately in the manufacture of a good deal 
of iron of various patterns ; but it had 
been done for contractors and other indi- 
viduals, and not directly for the rebel 
4 Government.' 

Mr. Lewis was asked if he did not 
know from the pattern of the iron that it 
was for war purposes. He said that a 
good deal of it had been square iron, 
which he supposed was for wagon axles, 
and a considerable part had been heavy 
plates which might be for gunboats. He 
stated that he had been a strong and de- 
cided Union man as long as he could be 
with safety from mobs, which threatened 
his person and property, and likewise ap- 
plied the rather doubtful assertion to Mr. 
Bell. He was asked why he did not de- 
cline orders for making war materials, as 
Mr. Hinman — proprietor of the Cumber- 
land Iron Works, lower down the river — 
had done; to which his reply was, that 
Mr. Hinman was in Kentucky, which did 
not secede, while he was in Tennessee, 
and above the fortification of Donelson, 
which was erected in May, thus shutting 
up the Cumberland river at the Tennessee 
line. 

Li view of the inevitable fact that the 
works had been engaged in making and 
furnishing materials of war to the rebels, 
Commodore Foote considered it his duty 
to disable them, not knowing then that the 
Union lines would soon embrace them, and 
the river beyond, to Clarksville. He in- 
formed Mr. Lewis that this would be ne- 
cessary and also that he must require him 
to go on board as a prisoner. An attempt 
was first made to disable the machinery 
of the establishment, the desire being not 



to utterly destroy the property if it could 
be avoided. But the machinery was so 
heavy that no means could be found of 
confining powder sufficient to blow it up. 
It was, therefore, set on fire and consumed. 
When Mr. Lewis beheld his property in 
flames, he said — 

" I hope that my private residence will 
be spared." 

"Sir," said the noble Commodore, "we 
came not to destroy any particle of your 
property which has not been used in the 
carrying on of this most uimatural war 
against the Government." 

Other Side of the Case. 

A New York journal in one of its is- 
sues published the opinions of respectable 
colored people, favoring the President's 
Emancipation Proclamation. In the af- 
ternoon the reporter met a well-known 
colored man, named Cooley, who white- 
washes for a living, and is generally found 
about Ann street. The reporter said: 

"Well, Cooley, what do you think of 
the Proclamation?" 

Cooley — "The worse thing for 

the black man that ever was done." 

Reporter— "Why?" 

Cooley — (coming close up, and in a 
mysterious whisper,) — "There's too many 
niggers starving here now. By'-n-bye 
these fellows will come down on us from 
the South, and drive us out, for then I tell 
you, then there would not be a place where 
a decent colored man can put down his 

foot ! Mark my words ! " 

♦ 

Another of the Uncle Toms. 
During the secession conflict in Ken- 
tucky, a Union gentleman on the other 
side of Green River had his attention at- 
tracted, one morning, to a little group com- 
ing up the hill. First were two intelligent 
looking contrabands, next, a little 'go-cart,' 
drawn by a mule, in which was a female 
slave and about a dozen little negroes, 
carefully wrapped in sundry and divers 
coats. An Uncle Tom sort of a chap, 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



105 



with a Miss Dinah, brought up the rear. 
"As they came by," says the gentleman, 
"I addressed Tom.' 

"Well, Uncle, where did your party 
come from?" 

'• We's from de town, dar, sah." 
"And where are you going?" 
"Gwine home, sah." 
"Then you do not live in the village?" 
"No; we lib right ober yonder, 'bout a 
mile : de secesh draw us from home." 

" Ah ! well now stop a minute, and tell 
me all about it." 

"Dat I do, sure, massa. Jim (to the 
other leader of the mule-cart,) you go on 
wid the wagon, an I kotch you fore you 
gits home. Now, I tells you, massa, all 
'bout ura. My massa am Union, an' so 
is all de niggers. Yesterday, massa war 
away in de town, an de first ting we know, 
'long come two or free hundred ob dem 
seceshers, on bosses, an' lookin' like cut- 
froats. Golly, but de gals wor scared. 
Jus' back ob us war de Union sogers — 
God bress (reverentially,) for dey keep de 
secesh from killin' nigger. De gals know 
dat. an' when dey see de secesh comin' 
dey pitch de little nigger in de go-cart, an' 
den we all broke for de Union sogers." 

'•So you are not afraid of the Union 
soldiers ? " 

" God bress you. massa, nebber. Nig- 
ger gits ahind dem Union sojers, secesh 
nebber gits urn. Secesh steal nigger — 
Union man nebber steal urn, Dat's a fac, 
massa." 

And with a chuckling smile on his face, 
the clever old darkey bade good morning, 
and trotted on after the go-cart- 



Mr. Vallandigham himself had just fallen 
into a doze, when Colonel McKibben 
waked him, informing him that it was 
daylight, and time to move. Some poet- 
ical • remark had been made about the 
morning. Mr. Vallandigham hereupon 
raised himself upon his elbow, and said, 
dramatically, 

' Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day- 
Stands tip-toe on the mountain tops.' 

He had evidently forgotten the remain- 
ing line of the quotation; but it seemed 
so applicable to his own case, in view of 
the wrathful feeling of the soldiers to- 
ward him, that some one near by could 
not forbear adding aloud, 

' I must be gone and live, or stay and die.' 

The extreme appositeness of this quo- 
tation startled every one who heard it, 
including Mr. Vallandigham himself. 



On the Road to Dixie. 
When Mr. Vallandigham was being con- 
ducted to his Southern friends, by order 
of the United States government, because 
of his treasonable utterances, a halt was 
made by the escort, on nearing the out 
posts, for rest and refreshment. After an 
hour passed in conversation there was an 
effort made to obtain a little sleep, and 



Good Charlie, the Union Guide. 

A Union man named Smith had resided 
about six miles from Fayetteville, Arkan- 
sas, the owner of a tract of six hundred 
acres of land, with comfortable dwelling, 
stock, etc. Obnoxious to the secessionists, 
his property was plundered by their for- 
aging and other parties during the winter, 
his place being only about a mile from 
McCulloch's head-quarters. The family 
consisted of Mr. Smith, his wife and child, 
his mother-in-law, and also his brother-in- 
law, James Watkins and wife, married 
only about a year previously. Besides 
these, Charlie, the slave of Mr. Smith. 

Upon news of the approach of Curtis's 
forces to Springfield, the secessionists be- 
gan pursuing all the Union men to hang 
them, and Smith and Watkins fled, hoping 
to make their way to some of the Union 
camps. The women thus left behind, be- 
ing in fear of outrage and torture on their 
husbands' account — if not death — departed 
from their home on the night of Feb. 8th, 
with Charlie as their guide and protector, 
leaving the aged mother and child, who 
were unable to move. On foot they wend- 
ed their way, sleeping what they did sleep 



106 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



in the open air, upon such straw or litter 
as Charlie could gather for them, and cov- 
ered by the single blanket which he car- 
ried, — subsisting on the food which he 
had stowed in a pair of saddle-bags. He 
would have been seized as marketable 
property belonging to a Union man, and 
the women regarded their own jeopardy 
as something more than that of their 
lives, if met or caught by the secessionists. 
They traveled about eight miles the first 
day — the women being feeble, and one of 
them in a delicate situation, — fording 
creeks, and avoiding the traveled roads. 

On one occasion, crossing a creek upon 
a log, one of the ladies fell in, and was 
witli difficulty extricated by Charlie, who, 
as he said, " cooned it on de log," so that 
his mistress got hold of him, and when 
she reached the bank he pulled her out. 
Thus for nearly a week, foot-sore and 
with short and painful journeys, having no 
shelter, and not seeing a fire, subsisting on 
the scant provision which Charlie carried, 
they slowly made their way until they first 
met the advance guard of the Union forces 
at Mudtown. Here the ladies were at 
once cared for by the Colonel, while Char- 
lie was taken some miles on horseback to 
" Mister Sigel," who examined him at 
great length, as a General knows how, 
comparing his stories with his own maps 
of the country. He was satisfied of Char- 
lie's truthfulness, and gave him a pass for 
himself and the two ladies. He was right- 
ly termed " good Charlie." 



Refusing- to Volunteer in the Rebel Army. 
In the same prison with Parson Brown- 
low and other Unionists in Tennessee, was 
a venerable clergyman named Cate, and 
his three sons. One of them, James Mad- 
ison Cate, a most exemplary and worthy 
member of the Baptist church, was there 
for having committed no other crime than 
that of refusing to volunteer in the rebel 
army. He lay stretched at full length 
upon the floor, with one thickness of a 
piece of carpet under him, and an old 



overcoat doubled up for a pillow, — and he 
in the agonies of death. His wife came 
to visit him, bringing her youngest child, 
which was but a babe. They were re- 
fused admittance. Parson Brownlow here 
put his head out of the jail window, and 
entreated them, for God's sake, to let the 
poor woman come in, as her husband was 
dying. The jailer at last consented that 
she might see him for the limited time of 
fifteen minutes. As she came in, and 




Refusing to Volunteer 

looked upon her husband's wan and ema- 
ciated face, and saw how rapidly he was 
sinking, she gave evident signs of fainting, 
and would have fallen to the floor with 
the babe in her arms, had not Parson B. 
rushed up to her and seized the babe. 
Then she sank down upon the breast of 
her dying husband, unable to speak. 
When the fifteen minutes had expired, the 
officer came in, and in an insulting and 
peremptory manner, notified her that the 
interview was to close. 



Entombment of a "Virginia Loyalist. 
Mr. John A. Ford, a respectable mer- 
chant of Petersburg, Va., having expressed 
a wish that the Boston troops had killed 
" fourteen or fifteen hundred "' of the mob 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



107 



m Baltimore, instead of " fourteen or fif- 
teen," was soon after waited on by an ex- 
cited crowd of people, who demanded to 
know if he had used this language. He 
replied in the affirmative, whereupon a cry 
was raised of " shoot him ! hang him ! kill 
him ! " and demonstrations were made to 
carry out the demand of the excited mob. 

Meantime, however, it had become 
quite dark, of which some friends of Mr. 
Ford, fellow members of a Masonic Lodge, 
took advantage, in dragging Mr. Ford out 
into an open store, through which he was 
urged into an alley-way in the rear, while 
the crowd in the street who had lost sight 
of him, were clamorously in search. A 
friend and Masonic brother accompanied 
him rapidly through the alley, and con- 
ducted him to the only place of safety 
which probably could have concealed him 
— a tomb in his family burial ground ! 

Taking the key from the vault hastily 
from his pocket he opened it, urged Mr. 
Ford in among the coffins, locked the door 
upon him, and quickly disappeared. That 
night and the following day every place 
and by-place in the town was ransacked 
in the eager search of the mob for the 
victim who had so terribly and so narrow- 
ly escaped their clutches. They finally 
concluded that he had been spirited away, 
and relaxed their vigilance. Meantime 
Mr. Ford remained undisturbed, with 
darkness and the dead. There were sev- 
eral bodies deposited there — far less feared, 
however, by him than the living. 

At three o'clock the following Monday 
morning, the train was to leave for Rich- 
mond. At an earlier hour, Mr. Ford's 
protector and friend came to deliver his 
friend from the charnel house, where, for 
two nights and a day, he had fasted with 
the dead. He was faint and weak from 
exhaustion, but the emergency lent him 
strength. While his friend went for his 
daughter, a litle girl seven yeirs of age, 
Mr. Ford wended his way cautiously and 
alone to the depot. Here they met again, 
and when the train rolled out of the sta- 



tion on its way north, Mr. Ford sat on 
one of the car seats, with his child 
wrapped closely in his arms. Arriving at 
Richmond, he attempted to procure a 
ticket, but was told that no passenger 
could leave for the North, unless exhibit- 
ing a pass from Governor Letcher. With 
many misgivings, Mr. Ford (it was still 
early in the morning,) wended his way to 
the executive mansion. He represented 
to the Governor that his business called 
him out of the State, and desired creden- 
tials which would enable him to continue 
the journey. Mr. Letcher asked no ques- 
tions, but promptly made out the papers 
and handed them to him, by the aid of 
which he in due time arrived in Wash- 
in gton. 



Unwilling' to Forfeit his Eight to Escape. 

One of the prisoners at Fort AVarren, 
Boston, managed to escape about the time 
he was sent there from Fort Lafayette. 
He then enlisted in the navy under an 
assumed name, in the hopes of being 
placed upon a vessel from Avhich he coidd 
escape, and join his friends at the South. 
Finding that his chances of success in this 
project were small, and not wishing to 
serve against the Confederate States, he 
revealed his true name, and the fact that 
he had escaped from custody, whereupon 
he was sent to Fort Warren. Col. Dim- 
mick, of that institution, had an intervieAv 
with him, and told him that he might have 
the same privileges as the other prisoners, 
if he would give his parole of honor not 
to attempt to escape again. The man 
hesitated a moment, and then frankly re- 
plied : 

" No, Colonel, I cannot do it ; if I make 
the promise I shall feel bound by it ; but 
really, I cannot consent to give up the 
right to escape if an opportunity occurs." 

The Colonel told the man that if he did 
not give his parole, he should put him 
where escape would be impossible, but he 
remained spunky, and was placed m close 
confinement. 



108 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



Left to Dine Alone. 
A person from Baltimore, temporarily 
a resident in the city of Boston, invited 
five of his friends to dine at the house of a 
female relation, — which invitation was duly 
accepted. On going to the dinner table, the 
party found the rebel flag topping a piece 
of ornamental pastry, in the centre of the 
festive board. The insult was at once no- 
ticed by the guests, before they were 
seated, and, as it appeared, by all of them 
nearly at the same moment. Not a word 
was spoken, but every man left as by a 
mutual impulse, and the Baltimore seces- 
sionist had to dine alone. Next morning 
he was waited upon for an explanation of 
his misconduct, but his discretion had 
prompted him to take the first westward 
train for home. 



Circumstances alter Principles. 

An anecdote is told of a Union officer, 
by Prentice, which is somewhat illustra- 
tive of the fact that circumstances not 
only alter cases but principles also. The 
gentleman in question was a violent Re- 
publican, and both before and after going 
into the army opposed, with all the zeal 
and ability of which he was capable, the 
Crittenden Compromise. At the battle 
of Chickamauga, when our routed Aving 
was falling back in great disorder, and the 
mass of the enemy pushing forward with 
a shower of shell, grape, canister and 
musketry, this officer, who was in the 
midst of the deadly torrent, and who stut- 
tered somewhat in his speech, turned to a 
fellow-soldier and said : 

" G-g-g-george, if G-g-g-govemor Crit- 
tenden were to r-r-r-rise up now f-f-f-from 
his g-g-g-rave, and offer me the C-c-c-crit- 

tenden com-com-compromise, by I 

would take it ! " 



Old Cotton Beard and his Girls. 
Among those who took the oath of al- 
legiance to the United States Government, 



may be named Mr. V. B. Marmillon, one 
of the richest and most extensive sugar 
planters in the whole valley of the Mis- 
sissippi. He refused, however, to work 
his plantation, unless he could have his 
own negroes returned to him. He had 
about fifteen hundred acres of cane under 
cultivation, but his whole family of plan- 
tation hands left him and went to New 
Orleans, reporting themselves to the Union 
officer. Among them could be found 
every species of mechanic and artisan. 
They were called up and informed that 
the Government had taken possession of 
their old master's crop, and that they were 
needed to take it off, and would be paid 
for their labor. All consented to return ; 
but next morning, when the time came 
for their departure, not one of them would 
go. One of them said : " I will go any- 
where else to work, but you may shoot 
me before I will return to the old planta- 
tion." It was afterwards ascertained that 
Marmillon, whom they called " Old Cotton 
Beard," had boasted in the presence of 
two colored girls, house servants, how he 
would serve the hands when he once 
more had them in his power. These girls 
•had walked more than thirty miles in the 
night, with all the risks of personal safety 
staring them in the face, to bring the in- 
formation to their friends. The hands 
were set to work elsewhere. 



Conciliatory Mesmerism. 
General Garfield aptly illustrated, by 
the following quotation from an old Eng- 
lish nursery rhyme, the policy of those 
extra-bleached and super-superior patriots 
who sought to put down the rebellion 
with conciliatory mesmerism : 

" There was an old man who said, how 
Shall I flee from this horrible cow ? 

I will sit on the stile 

And continue to smile, 
Which may soften the heart of this cow. 7 ' 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



109 



Circulation of Union Proclamations in South 
Carolina. 

Lieutenant Magner, of General Sher- 
man's staff j accompanied by Dr. Bacon, of 
the Seventh Connecticut, was detailed by 
General Sherman to perform the rather 
delicate duty of conveying to the rebels, 
under a flag of truce, his proclamation, 
which was addressed to the loyal citizens 
of South Carolina, inviting them to return 
to their homes and promising them protec- 
tion. The bearers were placed ashore in 
the cutter, under a flag of truce, accompa- 
nied by a negro, who was picked up while as- 
cending the river, and who, being acquaint- 
ed with the country, was to act as guide. 
Mules were found, and, led by the negro, 
they proceeded into the country, and after 
penetrating about ten miles they were met 
by a Rev. Mr. Walker, a Baptist clergy- 
man, formerly of Beaufort. To their in- 
quiries, whether there were any rebel camps 
in the vicinity, he informed them that the 
camps they were looking after were a 
number of miles on, and advised them not 
to proceed further, as he did not deem it 
prudent or safe. They were not quite 
satisfied, however, Avith the information he 
gave, as his conduct was somewhat suspi- 
cious, and they inquired of the negro 
guide as to the distance. He informed 
them that it was about half a mile further 
on They concluded to proceed. They 
had continued about half a mile further 
on, when they were met by two rebel offi- 
cers, one of whom bore a white handker- 
chief on an oar, which he had brought 
from a small boat in a creek near by, in 
which they had evidently come. They 
proved to be a First Lieutenant and a 
Second Lieutenant from a Charleston 
company. 

The object of the mission was explained 
by the bearers of the flag, and they were 
politely informed that there were no " loyal 
citizens" in South Carolina, and that their 
mission was fruitless. The business being 
completed, a luncheon was partaken of, 
which was furnished by the bearer of the 



flag ; the mules were fed by order of the 
rebel officers. During the lunch, Lieuten- 
ant Barnwell, one of the scions of thts 
aristocratic stock of South Carolina, made 
his appearance and joined the company. 
He was excessively haughty and distant 
in his demeanor, and appeared to regard 
himself as one of the most important per- 
sonages the world had yet produced. 
During the conversation he haughtily and 
impertinently inquired : 

" Have you permission, sirs, to return ? " 

Naturally enough the question was re- 
garded as insulting, and Dr. Bacon quietly 
replied : 

" I have already communicated with 
your superior officer." 

This sarcastically worded reply effectu- 
ally squelched the upstart, and he sub- 
sided immediately thereafter. 



Letting them Judg-e by the Tunes. 

A good story is told of an old patriot 
who was employed at the Kentucky Mili- 
tary Institute as a fifer. The old fellow 
had served in the Northwest, in the sec- 
ond war with Great Britain, taking a part 
in the battle of the Thames and other 
fights. During the secession tornado which 
at first swept over Kentucky, the cadets 
at the Institute, becoming affected with 
the fever, talked pretty severely against 
those devoted to the stars and stripes. 
Our old veteran listened, but said nothing. 
One evening he went into a room, and was 
observed to be in something of a passion. 
He paced backward and forward, saying 
nothing, and refusing to answer all ques- 
tions- At last he pulled out his fife, and, 
sitting down, sent forth Yankee Doodle 
with its shrillest strains. Then he played 
Hail Columbia, and then The Star Span- 
gled Banner, until the whole premises 
were made alive to the jubilant sounds, — 
the tears meanwhile rolling down his aged 
and weather-beaten cheeks. Concluding 
the last named exhilarating melody he 
jumped to his feet, and exclaimed : " Now, 



110 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



It 



'em, I guess they know which side 



Old Hickory's Three Swords and Three 
Injunctions. 

Among the multiplied testimonials that 
honored the glorious career, civil and mili- 
tary, of Andrew Jackson, were the three 
magnificent swords presented to him — one 
by the State of Tennessee, another by the 
citizens of Philadelphia, and a third by 
the riflemen of New Orleans. By his 
Avill the General bequeathed the first of 
these swords to his nephew and adopted 
son, Andrew Jackson Donelson ; the sec- 




Pv M 




ond to his grandson, Andrew Jackson ; 
mid the third to his grand-nephew, Andrew 
Jackson Coffee. The clause relative to 
the first runs thus : — 

"Seventh — I bequeath to my well-be- 
loved nephew, Andrew J. Donelson, son 
of Samuel Donelson, deceased, the elegant 
sword presented to me by the State of 
Tennessee, with this injunction, that he 
fail not to use it, when necessary, in sup- 
port and protection of our glorious Union, 
and for the protection of the constitutional 
rights of our beloved country, should they 
be assailed by foreign enemies or domestic 
traitors" 

That same Andrew J. Donelson did fail 
thus to use the sword thus received from 
his great kinsman, and even ranged him- 
self at the side of those very " traitors " 



who fought to destroy both the glorious 
Union and the Constitution itself. Again : 

*• I bequeath to my beloved grandson, 
Andrew Jackson, son of Andrew Jackson, 
Jr., and Sarah, his wife, the sword pre- 
sented to me by the citizens of Philadel- 
phia, with this injunction, that he will 
always use it in defence of the Constitu- 
tion and our glorious Union, and the per- 
petuation of our Republican system.'* 

This same Andrew Jackson, thus hon- 
ored by his patriotic grandfather, put him- 
self in the ranks of the traitors, aiding by his 
influence and his money the conspirators 
who sought the overthrow of that same 
" Republican system." And again : 

" To my grand-nephew, Andrew Jack- 
son Coffee, I bequeath the elegant sword 
presented to me by the Rifle Company 
of New Orleans, commanded by Captain 
Beal, as a memento of my regard, and to 

brinsr to his recollection the gallant ser- 
es o 

vices of his deceased father, Gen. John 
Coffee, in the late Indian and British wars, 
under my command, and his gallant con- 
duct in defence of New Orleans in 1814 
'15, with this injunction, that he ivield it in 
protection of the rights secured to the 
American citizen tinder our glorious Con- 
stitution, against all invaders, whether for- 
eign foes or intestine traitors." 

Where, then, was Andrew Jackson Cof- 
fee, when the Union was in its life and 
death struggle ? He, too, was among the 
traitors, and the sword placed in his hands 
for the "protection of the rights secured 
to American citizens under our glorious 
Constitution," was pointed at the hearts 
of loyal men ! 



Broadbrim's Method with Secessionists. 

A secession minister comes into the 
store kept by a Quaker, and talks loudly 
against the country, until Broadbrim tells 
him he must stop or leave the store. The 
clerical brawler keeps on, till the Quaker 
tells him he will put him out of the store 
if he does not go out. " What," exclaimed 
the minister, •' I thought you Quakers dit" 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



111 



not fight." " The sanctified do not fight, 
but I have not been sanctified yet; and I 
will put thee out of the store in a minute ! " 
The minister fled from the wicked Quaker. 



Badge of Treason in a New York Ball Boom. 

Quite a flutter in the political world 
was occasioned by a little act which trans- 
pired at a convivial gathering in New 
York, one winter's evening in 1863. The 
Marquis of Hartington, a young gentle- 
man from England, had been traveling for 
some months in this country, and had run 
the lines to Richmond. In returning, his 
companion, or one of them, was taken, and 
imprisoned. The Marquis was more for- 
tunate, and escaped. 

Before sailing for England from New 
York a masquerade was given by a gen- 
tleman of the city, to which the young 
man was invited. While chatting with a 
' domino ' (one of the characters assumed 
by a lady in the masquerade,) the wearer 
insisted that he, the Marquis, should wear 
a rebel badge upon his coat. He refused, 
good humoredly. She pressed. He de- 
clined. At last die said, " Well, then, at 
least , while you are talking with me." It 
was the old story : " The woman tempted 
me, and I did yield." She paraded her 
triumph through the rooms until meeting 
suddenly his guide, philosopher, and friend, 
that gentleman said abruptly to the Mar- 
quis, as his eye fell upon the badge, " Good 
God! my good fellow — you must'nt do 
that ; " and exhorted him in the -most strin- 
gent Avay to remove the badge. The 
young man obeyed ; but not of course 
until it was known throughout the rooms 
that he had plainly displayed a badge 
which was inexpressibly offensive to the 
feelings of every loyal heart in the house. 
There were several officers of various 
grades present. General McClellan was 
one of the guests. It was therefore not 
surprising that a little later a young officer, 
whose only knowledge of that badge was 
that it was the symbol of the murder of 
his friends and the attempted ruin of his 



country, brushed violently against the 
Marquis. That gentleman, thinking prob- 
ably that it was an inadvertence, took no 
notice of the collision. But upon its repe- 
tition, when the intention was palpable, he 
turned, and said, 

" Well, sir, what am I to understand by 
that?" 

" You know very well what it means," 
was the prompt and crisp reply. 

At the same instant friends interfered, 
and begged that if any difficulty were pend- 
ing, its consideration should be deferred un- 
til the morning. The gentlemen assented. 
Before the morning full explanations were 
made, and when the two gentlemen met at 
the club-house an understanding satisfac- 
tory to both sides concluded the affair. 
A few days afterwards the Marquis sailed 
for England. 

It was a proceeding which grossly in- 
sulted every loyal American in the rooms ; 
and it is not to be doubted that the host — 
a conspicuous member of the gayer circles 
of the city — took occasion to inform the 
light-headed youth of the great abuse of 
courtesy and hospitality of which he had 
been guilty. If the host himself had been 
dining a few years since at the house of 
the Marquis of Hartington's father — an 
English duke — and had said or implied 
(as he certainly never would have done), 
intentionally or unintentionally, that he 
hoped Great Britain, which was then con- 
tending for India in the persons of the 
children and brothers and friends of the 
company at table, would not succeed ; or 
if he had worn at table the colors, had 
there been any, of Nena Sahib — if there 
had been a single gentleman present Avhose 
son had been massacred in that war, it is 
not rash to presume, despite British 
phlegm, that the offender would have left 
the dining-room more rapidly than he 
entered. 



Senator Lane and the Stage Driver. 
A story is told of Senator Joseph Lane, 
of Oregon, which will bear repetition 



112 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Accounts of the Senator's pro-southern 
sentiments and movements preceded his 
return from the Congressional session of 
1861, and, it is said, rendered him very 
unpopular; particularly after the attack 
on Fort Sumter. When he reached the 
shores of the Pacific, he began to feel his 
unpopularity in various ways ; but no re- 
mark that was made to him and m his 
hearing was more cutting than that of a 
stage driver with whom he had entered 
into conversation without disclosing his 
name. In the course of his talk the Sen- 
ator took occasion to remark that he con- 
sidered himself the worst-abused man in 
the State. " Well, I don't know about 
that," replied the driver ; " but if you are 
any worse than that rascal, Jo. Lane, God 
help you." 



Loyal Breeze from Port Hudson. 

In order to enjoy a sight of the fleet 
of busy steamers at Port Hudson, soon 
after the capture of Vicksburg, a Union 
gentleman took a station on a cliff, com- 
manding a fine view of the newly-con- 
quered territory and of the Union flags, as 
their graceful forms waved sharp and clear 
against the blue sky. While thus sta- 
tioned, a rebel Captain gaily dressed, came 
up to the gentleman and said, thoughtful- 
ly- 

"It is a long time, Sir, since we have 
seen so many vessels lying there." 

"Yes, Sir, and I am glad of it, for your 
sake as well as ours." 

" How so ? " asked the Captain, in a 
somewhat surprised tone. 

" Because it looks to me very much like 
the beghming of the end ; and that is what 
we all wish to see." 

"The end is very far off yet," he con- 
tinued, in a proud manner; "In the first 
place I do not believe, even now, that 
Vicksburg is lost to us ; and you never 
yet knew a rebellion of such magnitude to 
fail in achieving its object." 

" Nor did you ever know a rebellion so 
causeless and unnatural to succeed. If you 



were like the Poles or Circassians, and we 
Russians, trying to crush out your existing 
nationality — if this were a Avar of religion 
or races, 1 could imagine it lasting through 
many, many years. But it is not so. In- 
stead of trying to crush out your national- 
ity, we are merely fighting to prevent you 
from crushing out our mutual one ; and 
every acre, every liberty we save from 
destruction, is as much yours as ours. War 
for such a cause was never waged before, 
and therefore cannot last. When a few 
more decisive successes like the present 
shall have proved beyond all doubt to the 
Southern people that the cause of separa- 
tion is utterly hopeless, I think we shall 
all be glad to meet again as citizens of a 
common country, greater for the very 
ordeal through which it has passed. The 
only difference will be that Slavery — the 
cause of all this trouble — will have died 
during the progress of- the war." 

'• We shall see," said the Captain, either 
unwilling or unable to maintain his posi- 
tion further ; " I suppose you will allow 
we defended our position here well?" 

" Too well,' was the answer ; '■ I think 
a great many good lives, on both sides, 
might have been saved by sooner surren- 
dering a place which, it must have been 
evident, you could not possibly retain." 

" We should have done so," he candidly 
avowed, " only we were all the while hoping 
for reinforcements." 



Familiar Chat about Generals. 

President Lincoln expressed his troubles 
to a gentleman who was visiting him on a 
certain occasion, in the following lan- 
guage : 

" The military men, it seems to me, will 
keep me in trouble all the time on their 
account. One day Senator Lane, of In- 
diana, calls on me and asks me why I don't 
give Lew. Wallace a command. I tell him 
that Halleek says Wallace is of no ac- 
count, and ought not to have a command. 
He goes at me then, and says Halleek isn't 
worth a cent, and oughtn't to have a com- 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, ClVlL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



113 



mand. Halleck wants to kick Wallace out, 
and Lane wants me to kick Halleck out." 

" Well," said the visitor, u I'll tell you 
how to fix it to the satisfaction of both 
parties." 

" How is that ? " inquired the President. 

" Why. kick 'em both out," was the re- 

" No," said Mr. Lincoln, " that won't do. 
I think Halleck is a good man. He may 
not be — of course ; I don't know much 
about such things. I may be a judge of 
good iawyers, but I don't know much 
about Generals. Those who ought to 
know, say he is good." 

"Well," said the visitor, "if you don't 
know, you ought to know ; and if the peo- 
ple don't know that Halleck is a fool, they 
think they do, and it's all the same." 



Pen with which the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion was Signed.. 

The identity of the pen with which the 
Emancipation Proclamation was signed by 
President Lincoln cannot be made good. 
This appears from the statement of a gen- 
tleman who happened to be in Washington 
a few days after the signing of that paper, 
and who, by appointment, had an interview 
with President Lincoln, on matters of offi- 
cial business. Just after he had entered 
the room and taken a seat, Mr. Lincoln 
opened and read aloud a letter from a 
Boston gentleman applying to him for the 
pen with which he signed the proclama- 
tion, and stating, in glowing words, what 
great value he should place upon it, could 
he obtain the prize. 

The President remarked, after he had 
read the letter, that he did not think he 
could comply with the request of the 
writer, as he was not sure which of his 
pens was the right one. He knew it was 
one of a lot (this was the word) of a dozen 
or so, and he would do the best he could. 
To finish up the matter, Mr. Lincoln — ac- 
cording to custom — told a story. He asked 
the gentleman at his side if he had ever 
read or seen a book or story called Squi- 



bob, and went on to give some account of 
it. But the point of the story was that 
Squibob was asked by some one for his 
autograph, which was sent with the re- 
mark that " it must be genuine, for it was 
written by his brother-in-law." 



When will the War End ? 

This question was answered by a little 
miss at one of the school examinations in 
Troy, in a manner that did credit to her 
intelligence and loyalty — her head and 
heart. After the exercises of the after- 
noon had concluded, the Principal stated 
that he should be pleased if the committee 
would examine the class in reference to 
matters of recent history, such as the 
events of the present war, — to show that 
they kept their eyes and ears open, and 
were posted in matters transpiring around 
them. One of the Committee said to the 
President of the Board of Education, who 
was conducting the exercises, "Ask 'em 
when the war will end. Guess that will 
puzzle 'em." 

Mr Kemp, in his blandest tones, said 
to the class — 

" It is asked, by a visitor, ' when this 
war will end.' Can any of you answer 
the question?" 

Up went a show of hands, as at least 
fifteen boys and girls manifested a willing- 
ness to solve the problem that statesmen, 
financiers and politicians were supposed to 
have puzzled over in vain. 

'* You may answer," said President 
Kemp to a bright-eyed little girl near him : 
'• When will the war end?" 

Rising from her seat, the little patriot, 
in a clear unfaltering voice, with enthusi- 
asm flashing from her eye, answered : 

" When the rebels lay doivn their arms 
and sue for peace ! " 

The gentleman who had suggested the 
inquiry said : " I guess we won't have any 
more questions." '-We are all loyal in 
this school,' was the comment of the Prin- 
cipal, echoed by the large audience pres- 
ent. 



114 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



Swear him in, and let him go! 
A characteristic story is said to have been 
told by General Butler, one day, in Wash- 
ington. The General, speaking of the 
farce of administering the oath to cap- 
tured rebels, and then turning them loose, 
related an incident that occurred at For- 




swear him, &c 

tress Monroe. A scouting party having 
captured and brought in a live rattlesnake, 
a question arose as to the disposal to be 
made of the dangerous customer, when a 
partially intoxicated soldier hiccoughed, 
" — him ! swear him in, and let him 

go!" t 

"Mudsills" on the Sacred Soil. 

Mr. Orpheus Kerr, of the " Mackerel- 
ville Brigade," relates his experience with 
the soldiers of the Potomac army as fol- 
lows : 

I never really knew what the term 
"mudsill" meant, my boy, until I saw 
Capt. Bob Shorty on Tuesday. I was out 
in a field, just this side of Fort Corcoram 
trimming down the ears of my gothic steed 
Pegasus, that he might look less like a 
Titanic rabbit, when I saw approaching 
me an object resembling a brown stone 
monument. As it came nearer, I discov- 
ered an eruption of brass buttons at inter- 
vals in front, and presently I observed the 
lineaments of a Federal face. 



" Strange being ! " says I, taking down 
a pistol from the natural rack on the side 
of my steed, and at the same time motion- 
ing towards my sword, which I had hung 
on one of his hip-bones, "Art thou the 
shade of Metamora, or the disembodied 
spirit of a sandbank?" 

"My ducky darling," responded the 
eolian voice of Capt. Bob Shorty, "you 
behold a mudsill, just emerged from a liqui- 
fied portion of the sacred soil. The mud 
at present inclosing the Mackerel Brigade 
is unpleasant to the personal feelings of the 
corps, but the effect at a distance is unique. 
As you survey that expanse of mud from 
Arlington Heights," continued Bob Shorty, 
" with the veterans of the Mackerel Brig- 
ade wading about in it up to their chins, 
you are forcibly reminded of a limitless 
plum-pudding, well stocked with animated 
raisins." 

" My friend," says I, " the comparison 
is apt, and reminds me of Shakespeare's 
happier efforts. But tell me, my Pylades, 
has the dredging for those missing regi- 
ments near Alexandria proved success- 
ful?" 

Capt. Bob Shorty took the mire from his 
ears, and then, says he : 

" Two brigades were excavated this 
morning, and are at present building rafts 
to go down to Washington to get some soap. 
Let us not utter complaints against the 
mud," continued Capt. Bob Shorty, reflec- 
tively, " for it has served to develope the 
genius of New England. We dug out a 
Yankee regiment from Boston first, and 
the moment these wooden-nutmeg chaps 
got their breath, they went to work at the 
mud that had almost suffocated them, 
mixed up some spoiled flour with it, and 
are now making their eternal fortunes by 
peddling it out for patent cement ! " 



Davis's Chairs in Beadiness for Ulysses. 

During the siege of Vieksburg, some 

of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry visited the 

former residence of "President" Davis, 

and found the blacks all very much alarmed 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



115 



at the near approach of General Grant, 
who they believed would immediately 
devour them. The frightened creatures 
asked numberless questions of the boys, as 
to what they should do to appease him if 
he should visit them. The boys told them 
the General was not very frightful, and 
if they would assemble in the yard and 
give him three cheers, when he made his 
appearance, they would be safe. They 
were very much amused on returning, to 
find that the darkeys had nicely swept a 
place under the tree in the yard, and had 
set there three of the best chairs the man- 
sion afforded — presuming that " cheers " 
meant chairs, — in readiness for the great 
Ulysses. The best part of this joke is not 
given, viz., the reply which Grant made 
when the joke-loving General was informed 
of said preparations to receive him. 



John Wells's "Idee" as to Splitting: the 
Union. 

At one of the stations on the Georgia 
Central Railroad, Sherman's men came 
across an old man named Wells — a very 
original character, — who was formerly a 
depot-master on that line. He was a 
shrewd old man, and seemed to understand 
the merits of the war question perfectly. 

They say, (remarked the old man,) that 
you are retreating, but it is the strangest 
sort of retreat I ever saAV. Why, dog 
bite 'em, the newspapers have been lying 
in this way all along. They allers are 
whipping the Federal armies, and they 
allers fall back after the battle is over. It 
was that ar' idee that first opened my 
eyes. Our army was allers whipping the 
Feds, and Ave allers fell back. I allers 
told 'em it was a — humbug, and now 
by — , I know it, for here you are right 
on old John Wells's place : hogs, potatoes, 
corn and fences all gone. I don't find any 
fault. I expected it all. 

Jeff. Davis and the rest (he continued) 
talk about splitting the Union. Why, if 
South Carolina had gone out by herself, 
she Avould have been split in four pieces 



by this time. Splitting the Union ! Why, 
— it, the State of Georgia is being split 
right through, from end to end. It is 
these rich felloAVS Avho are making this 
war, and keeping their precious bodies out 
of harm's Avay. There's John Franklin, 
went through here the other day, running 
aAvay from your army. I could have 
played dominoes on his coat tails. There's 
my poor brother, sick with small-pox at 
Macon, working for eleA r en dollars a month, 
and has'nt got a cent of the — stuff for 
a year. 'Leven dollars a month and 
eleA-en thousand bullets a minute. I don't 
believe in it, Sir. 

My Avife (added the old Georgian) came 
from Canada, and I kind o'thought I Avould 
some time go there to live, but Avas allers 
afraid of the ice and cold ; but I can tell 
you this country is getting too cussed hot, 
for me. Look at my fence rails a-burning 
there. I think I can stand the cold better. 
I heard as Iioav they cut down the trees 
across your road up country and burn the 
bridges ; why, dog bite their hides, one 
of you Yankees can take up a tree and 
carry it off, tops and all ; and there's that 
bridge you put across the river in less than 
two hours — they might as Avell try to 
stop the Ogeechee, as you Yankees. The 
blasted rascals Avho burnt this yere bridge 
thought they did a big thing ; a natural 
born fool cut in tAvo had more sense in 
either end than any of them. 

To bring back the good old time, (he 
concluded) it'll take the help of Divine 
Providence, a heap of rain, and a deal of 
elboAv grease, to fix things up again. 



Oath-Taking- in St. Louis. 

The St. Louis newspapers published 
long lists of the persons in that city who 
took the oath of allegiance to the Govern- 
ment in compliance with General Halleck's 
recommendation. Some of them append- 
ed remarks to their signatures. The fol- 
loAving is an instance : — 

Truman M. Post, pastor of the First 
Trinitarian Congregational church of St. 



116 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Louis. " As a minister of the Gospel, 
and a trustee of a State charity, I recog- 
nize the fitness of the call on me for my 
oath of allegiance. Cordially and grate- 
fully do I give in this my adhesion to my 
country in this hour of terrible trial, re- 
garding it as the scource of innumerable 
blessings to myself, and the millions of 
my countrymen, and fully believing the 
present attempt to destroy it to be a curse 
against both God and men, against the 
present and future, against ourselves and 
the human race, with hardly a parallel in 
the history of the world." 

That was good text and comment for 
every lover of his country and his race. 

Knotty Argument for Secession Ladies. 

Quite an entertaining dialogue occurred 
one day in the Governor's office in Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, between Governor John- 
son and two secession ladies of that city, 
who came to complain of the occupation 
of a residence belonging to the Confeder- 
ate husband of one of the ladies by a 
United States officer. The conversation 
was substantially as follows : — 

Lady. — I think it is too dreadful for a 
woman in my lonesome condition to have 
her property exposed to injury and destruc- 
tion. 

Gov. — Well, Madam, I will enquire into 
the matter, and if any injustice has been 
done, will try to have it corrected. But 
your husband, you admit, has gone off 
with the rebels, and you abandoned your 
dwelling, 

Lady. — My husband went off South, 
because it was his interest to do so. You 
mustn't find fault with anybody for taking 
care of himself these times. You know, 
Governor, that all things are justifiable in 
war. 

Gov. — Well, Madam, it appears to me 
that this broad rule of yours will justify 
taking possession of your house. Accord- 
ing to your maxim, I don't see any reason 
for helping you out of your difficulty. 

Lady. — Oh ! but I didn't mean it that 
way. 



Gov. — No, Madam, I suppose not. I 
will try to be more generous to you than 
your own rule would make me. I do not 
believe in your rule that " all things are 
justifiable in time of war." But that is 
just what you rebels insist upon. It is 
perfectly right and proper for you to vio- 
late the laws, to destroy this Government, 
but it is all -wrong for us to execute the 
laws to maintain the Government. 

The secession ladies looked around in 
various directions, and seemed to think 
that they had opened a knotty argument 
on a dangerous subject, with a very brist- 
ling adversary. Heaving a long sigh, 

they retired. 

♦ 

' ' Come from 'Ginny, Sure ! " 
At Point Lookout, where the Union 
army encamped, the blacks were nearly all 
from Virginia. Some, however, ran in 
there from the State of Maryland, pre- 
tending to have come from Virginia, that 
thus they might not stand any chance of 
being returned, in any contingency. On a 
certain occasion, a rich Marylander came 
down to the Point, to look after one of his 
boys ; finding him, he said, ' % Jack, you 
rascal, what are you here for?'' Jack 
very coolly replied, " Who be you. Massa ? 
I never seed you 'fore." " Yes you have 
too, you lying scamp, I raised you and 
you must go home with me." '' Yah ! 
yah ! Massa nebber can don fool dis nigger. 
I's come from ' ginny, sure," replied the 
darkey, and utterly refused to know his 
old master at all. General Marston was 
asked to send the negro back, but respect- 
fully declined, and " Massa" went off one 
darkey short. 



Literal " Stump" Speech of a Soldier. 
One of the attendants at the great. 
Union meeting held in Troy, Miami coun- 
ty, Ohio, during the gubernatorial canvass 
between Vallandigham the anti-war can- 
didate, and Brough the Union Republican 
candidate, was a returned soldier who had 
lost one leg at Vicksburgh. He was wel- 
come! by his friends, and one of them — a 



PATKIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



117 



Vallandigham democrat — entering into 
conversation with the soldier, remarked, 
" You were a Democrat when you enlisted, 
and I suppose you have come back a Dem- 
ocrat." The soldier replied, " Yes, I was 
a Democrat when I left, and I am a Dem- 
ocrat still. ' '< That's right ! " replied his 
friend, triumphantly ; " and of course you 
will vote for Vallandigham," — looking 
around to gain the attention of the crowd 
to the answer* It came. " My God ! how 
can I ? " said the soldier, as he' raised his 
eyes to the crowd, and put his hand on the 
unhealed stump of his leg. Was not that 
an eloquent " stump" speech ? 



Bogus Yankee Legislature in Georgia. 

When the Twentieth Corps of Sher- 
man's grand army of invasion through 
Georgia marched into the capital of that 
State, to the music of the Union, the offi- 
cers, to the number of about one hundred, 
assembled at the Senate chamber, called 
the roll of the House, appointed a speaker 
and clerks, and opened the ' Legislature' 
with prayer, the facetious chaplain pray- 
ing for the overthrow of the Confederate 
Government, the return of Georgia to the 
old Union, fine weather and little fighting 
on their march to the coast, and conclud- 
ing with, " All of which is respectfully 
submitted." 

A lobby member very gravely arose in 
the gallery, and asked if this honorable 
body would hear from the gallery. 

Half an hour's discussion followed, and 
on a parliamentary division, it was decided 
that the gallery should be heard. 

Rising with all the dignity and polish 
of a Chesterfield, he quietly put his hand 
in a side pocket, drew out a flask, placed 
it to his lips, replaced it in his pocket, and 
resumed his seat. 

The Speaker. — I must raise a point of 
order. I believe it is always customary 
to treat the Speaker. 

Lobby Member. — I beg the pardon of 
the honorable House for my thoughtless- 



ness. I believe it is customary to treat 
the Speaker. 

Here he produced the flask, and pro- 
ceeded : ' Yes, I beg to inform the House 
that I shall treat the Speaker — respect- 
fully.' 

The flask dropped into his pocket and 
he into his seat, amid cheers from the gal- 
lery and smiles from the honorable Speak- 
er's colleagues. 

After the organization of the Legisla- 
ture the question of reconstructing the 
State was taken up and discussed for some 
time, with all the gravity conceivable, by 
the Yankee 'representatives' from the 
various counties. The result of the de- 
liberations was that the State was led back 
like a conquered child into the Union, and 
a committee appointed to kick Governor 
Brown and President Davis at their most 
accessible point — which committee retired, 
and soon after returned and reported that 
they were animated by a progressive 
spirit, but that the articles upon which 
they were to exercise their pedal extremi 
ties were non est. 

The Legislature adjourned after the 
style of Governor Brown's Legislature of 
the previous Friday — by taking a square 
drink and a handful of " hojmuts." 



Tableau Political. • 
In. a letter dated from Murfreesboro', 
N. C, January twenty-second, 1862, is a 
description of a tableau given there for the 
benefit of the soldiers. It must have its 
place among the political olla podrida of 
the war of the rebellion : — 

We should not do justice to the tableau 
unless we were to describe the first scene. 
A young gentleman representing King 
Cotton, sat upon a throne resembling a 
bale of cotton. Down on one side of the 
throne sat a representative of the ebon 
race, with a basket of cotton. The king 
held a cotton cloth as a sceptre, and one 
of his feet rested on a globe. Around 
him stood young ladies dressed in white, 
with scarfs of red and white looped on the 



118 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



shoulder with blue. On their heads they 
wore appropriate crowns. These repre- 
sented the Confederate States ; Missouri 
and Kentucky were guarded by armed 
soldiers. 

While we Avere gazing on this picture a 
dark-haired maiden, robed in black, with 
brow encircled by a cypress-wreath, and 
her delicate wrists bound by clanking 
chains, came on and knelt before his maj- 
esty. He extended his sceptre, and she 
arose. He waved his wand again, and an 
armed soldier appeared with a scarf and 
crown, like those worn by her sister 
States. He unchained this gentle girl at 
the bidding of his monarch, changed her 
crown of mourning for one of joy and lib- 
erty, and threw the Confederate flag across 
her, — raised the flag over her and led her 
forward ; then Kentucky advanced, took her 
by the hand, and led her into the ranks. 
Need Ave tell you who this maiden of sable 
garments was intended to represent ? We 
leave that to be understood. If your 
readers cannot divine, it is owing to our 
description, and not to the scene. The 
ceremony was performed in pantomime. 
The representative of Virginia had in- 
scribed on her crown, ' Mater Herorum ; ' 
and North Carolina wore on her brow a 
white crown, on which was the word 
' Bethel.' Both of these States were 
represented by their own daughters. 



President Washington's Summary Dealing 
■with Rebellion. 

When the Whisky Insurrection broke 
out in the eastern counties of Pennsylva- 
nia in 1794, Washington said; "If the 
laws are to be so trampled upon with im- 
punity, and a minority, a small one too, is 
to dictate to the majority, there is an end 
put at one stroke to republican govern- 
ment." 

Washington issued his proclamation on 
the 7th of August, 1791, declaring that, if 
tranquillity were not previously restored, 
on the first of September force would be 
employed to compel submission to the 



laws. On the same day he made a requi- 
sition for twelve thousand men, afterward 
increased to fifteen thousand. He ap- 
pointed Governor Lee, of Virginia, to the 
chief command, and Lee marched with the 
fifteen thousand men in two divisions. 
This great military array, says the histo- 
rian, extinguished at once the kindling 
elements of a civil war by making resist- 
ance desperate. 

Every thing that Washington said and 
did at thaf period became of singular in- 
terest to those who lived in the times of 
the great Southern Rebellion, just two 
generations following. In writing of the 
soldiers to Governor Lee he speaks of 
" the enlightened and patriotic zeal for the 
Constitution and the laws, which had led 
them cheerfully to quit their families, 
homes, and the comforts of a private life, 
to undertake and thus far to perform, a 
long and fatiguing march, and to encoun- 
ter and endure the hardships and priva- 
tions of a military life. No citizen of the 
United States can ever be engaged in a 
service more important to their country. 
It is nothing less than to consolidate and 
preserve the blessings of that revolution 
which at much expense of blood and treas- 
ure, constituted us a free and independent 
nation." 

When the disturbance was quelled, he 
said: "It has afforded an occasion for the 
people of this country to show their ab- 
horrence of the attempt and their attach- 
ment to the Constitution and the laws; 
for I believe that five times the number 
of militia that Avas required would have 
come forward, if it had been necessary, in 
support of them." 

Governor Lee, of Virginia, was the 
"Light Horse Harry" of the Revolution 
— peculiarly dear to Washington, Avho in 
youth had loved Lee's mother before her 
marriage. He Avas also the father of 
General Robert E. Lee, the great Con- 
federate chieftain in arms against that 
same Constitution and those laAvs. Could 
General Lee doubt Avhere Washington, 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



119 



had he been alive in 18G1, would have 
been found ? Would he have been found 
standing side by side with the Virginian 
Lee, striking deadly blows at the heart 
and life of his country ? 



Same old Planter's Crotchet. 

To General Mitchell and his brave 
troops belongs the distinguished honor of 
being the first Federal commander to pen- 
etrate to the great Charleston and Mem- 
phis railroad, and the first to break 
through the enemy's line of defence, ex- 
tending from Chattanooga to Corinth. A 
strong Union feeling was discovered by 
the Nationals as they entered the State 
of Alabama, but it was mingled with the 
usual Southern political crotchet of State 
sovereignty, and the duty of submission 
thereto. One old Gentleman, a planter, 
with an extensive estate, expressed the 
views of the majority of the people of 
Madison county. Said he — 

"It seems like tearing out my heart, 
to give up the old Union, but when Ala- 
bama voted to separate, I thought it my 
duty to sustain her." 

" But," said his Union interlocutor, 
"Alabama, in attempting to break up the 
nation, did what she had no right to 
do." 

"Ah," responded the old gentleman, 
" passion and prejudice blinded our eyes 
to that truth." 

"Are you then willing,' he was asked, 
" to see the authority of the National Gov- 
ernment restored ? " 

" Yes, and to pray from this time forth 
that all her people may be willing to re- 
turn to their allegiance." 

This final answer of the old planter in- 
dicated his resolution to abide by the ac- 
tion of his State, whether the majority 
of her people became loyal or remained 
treasonable. It was the old planter's blind- 
ing and blundering crotchet, as it was of 
the South generally, among the planters. 
8 



"Old Zack " and his Son-in-Law. 

When the usual committee was ap- 
pointed by Congress to wait upon General 
Taylor, the President-elect, and announce 
to him his election by the people as Chief 
Magistrate, an incident occurred which the 
events of 1861 served strongly to recall 
in the minds of those who were knowing 
to it. 

It was doubtless with a courteous intent 
that those who moved the springs in this 
little matter induced Congress to appoint 
as chairman of that committee Jefferson 
Davis, — his previous domestic relations 
with General Taylor suggesting him as 
an acceptable medium ; though, had the 
public been as well informed as the pri- 
vate mind, such a choice would have been 
the last adopted. The duty in question 
is, of course, only a form, to be fulfilled 
with the gravity and the grace adapted to 
the occasion, but calling for no display of 
rhetoric, and no assumption of official dig- 
nity ; it is simply a constitutional observ- 
ance, whereby the representatives of the 
nation testify to the result of the ballot, 
and state the same to the successful can- 
didate. 

General Taylor's want of oratorical ac- 
complishments, his aversion to display, his 
modest demeanor, and his conscientious- 
ness, were known as well as his bravery 
and patriotism, and would have been deli- 
cately respected by a thorough gentleman 
in the discharge of this simple duty, which 
needed for its performance only quiet 
courtesy and respectful consideration. 

Instead thereof, Jefferson Davis, enter- 
ing the hotel parlor, where General Tay- 
lor was seated, with the aspect of a quiet, 
honest old farmer, threw back his shoul- 
ders, turned out his right foot, and with 
precisely the air of a complacent sopho- 
more, began a loud harangue about the 
" highest office in the gift of a free people," 
the " responsibility of an oath," and other 
rhetorical platitudes ; — the needless pitch 



120 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



of his voice and dogmatism of his empha- 
sis, the complacency and elaboration of 
his manner and assumption of his tone, 
in connection with the meek attitude and 
deprecatory air of his auditor, made the 
tableau resemble a prosecutor and prisoner 
at the bar. The difference of age and the 
former relations of the parties, (Davis 
having by a runaway match married Gen- 
eral Taylor's daughter, who died a few 
months after,) and the utter novelty of 
the good old man's position, made the 
scene, to say the least, a flagrant violation 
of good taste not less than good feeling. 
It was one of those unconscious and 
therefore authentic revelations of charac- 
ter, which reveal a 



man's disposition and 
temper better than a 
biography. Though 
ostensibly doing him 
honor, the speaker 
seemed to half defy 
the gray-haired sol- 
dier, whose eyes were 
cast down, and whose 
hands were listlessly 
folded — to challenge, 
as it were, with his 
fluent self-confidence ^ 
the uneloquent but 
intrepid man of ac- 
tion, and ungracious- 
ly make him feel how alien to his habits 
and capacity was the arena to which pop- 
ular enthusiasm had elevated him 



the spot, and standing for several minutes 
apparently fixed to the place, hastily turned 
and left the chamber, exclaiming that he 
could stand it no longer, for he "felt his 
Fourth of July rising too fast." Would 
that all whose names are familiar with the 
scenes enacted in that Chamber in 1861, 
had been susceptible to the spell of that 
same great name. 



Witnessing and Dying: for the Truth in Mis- 
sissippi. 
About fifty miles from Natchez, Missis- 
sippi, lived an unflinching Union man. 
During the war, his residence was ap- 
proached by an armed gang of guerillas, 




Magic of Washing-ton's Name. 
While the disunion Senate of Maryland 
were in session in the State House at 
Annapolis, in 1861, a number of soldiers 
entered the ante-room and inquired if the 
Senate Chamber was not the place where 
General Washington once stood? An 
employee of the house answered that it 
was, and showed one of them as near as 
he could the very spot where Washington 
stood when he resigned his commission. 
The young man reverently approached 



Witnessing and Dying for the Truth. 



who soon succeeded in securing him as a 
prisoner, and told him, that if he did not 
immediately and in their presence, recant 
his former sentiments, and take an oath 
that he never by word or deed would 
again favor the principles that he had 
formerly all along adhered to, his fate 
would be instant death. His reply was : 

" In the sight of God and man, I am 
clear of the crime of treason to so glorious 
a nation as this was till your wicked and 
selfish designs have caused it to be what it 
is; and while I draw the breath of life, 
I intend never to give my children cause 
to brand me as a traitor." 

They then replied that they had a long 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



121 



time had him under their special notice, 
and that the words he had now uttered 
fixed their determination to make an ex- 
ample of him, in order that his doom might 
serve as a warning to others. Whereupon 
they immediately killed him, in spite of 
the entreaties, the agony and utter despair 
of his grief-stricken wife, and in the pres- 
ence of herself and children. 

Turning to the widow, they gave her 
ten days to get inside of the Yankee lines, 
and if she failed to do so, she would share 
the fate of her husband, — after which they 
rode away, leaving her to her gloomy fore- 
bodings and lonely wretchedness. The 
cries and sobs of her fatherless children 
fell in doleful accents upon her ear, which 
added, of course, still more to her Avretehed 
state. The sense of duty that she was 
now under to her children, together with 
the fortitude that woman is not unfre- 
quently known to exhibit in extreme cases 
of peril, nerved her to the task of con- 
signing her husband to his blood-wet grave. 
And then, remembering the words of his 
murderers, their parting threat also to her 
self, she procured an ox team, and after a 
trip of a few weary days, such as may 
easily be imagined, she arrived in Natchez, 
where she sold her oxen, and by the assist- 
ance of the Government procured trans- 
portation to her kindred in Indiana. 



outbreak, and did not consider their lives 
safe. Scarcely waiting to hear the words 
uttered, the General sprung to his feet, 
and with a voice and a look of almost 
superhuman energy, exclaimed, 



Union Men Safe in South Carolina in Jack- 
son's Day. 

What a scene it would have been, — 
said Edward Everett in one of Ins speeches 
before the citizens of Boston in the autumn 
of 1864, — to witness the flash of President 
Jackson's eye and to hear the thunder of 
his voice, when he heard of the attack on 
Sumter. What that scene would have 
been, the following anecdote of ' Old Hick- 
ory,' as related by Mr. Everett, will pretty 
fairly show: When the nullification phren- 
zy was at its height in South Carolina, the 
Union men in Charleston sent a deputation 
to Washington, to inform the President 
that they were daily threatened with an 




Edward Everett. 

" The lives of Union men not safe, while 
Andrew Jackson is President ! Go back 
to Charleston, and tell the nullifiers that 
if a hair on the head of a Union man is 
harmed, that moment I order General 
Coffee to march on Carolina with fifty 
thousand Tennessee volunteers, and if that 
does not settle the business, tell them (he 
added Avith an attestation that need not be 
repeated) that I will take the field myself 
with fifty thousand more." 

Purging- the Prayer-Book. 
The venerable Judge Pettigru, for four- 
score years one of South Carolina's noblest 
names, continued, to the day of his death, 
to bear witness to the value of the Union 
against the traitors who surrounded him. 
He had no faith in the practicability of 
their measures, and predicted from them 
the worst results to the State and the 
country. One day, while attending church, 
where, by his presence, he for so many 
years showed that the character of a states- 
man was most complete when religion gave 
it grace and solidity, he found that the ser- 
vices were purged (by nullification) of the 
usual prayer for the President of the Uni- 
ted States. The stern old patriot rose 



122 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



from his seat and left the church, thus giv- ! pay Major Bartling, Provost-Marshal at 



ing a silent but most pointed rebuke to 
treason in its most rampant locality. 



General Paine's Conversation with the "Wife 
of a Secessionist. 

General Paine, with fifteen hundred 
men, occupied the town of Mansfield, Ken- 
tucky, to the great delight of its loyal citi- 
zens. It is a place situated twenty-eight 
miles from Paducah, containing one thou- 
sand inhabitants and many fine residences 
and public buildings. Soon after taking 
possession, General Paine and his staif 
went to make a call upon Mr. John Eaker, 
an old resident of the town, and one of 
the wealthiest rebels in it. They all 
walked into the parlor and took seats, 
when the General turning to Colonel Mc- 
Chesney, said : — 

" Colonel, you will occupy this room as 
your head-quarters, allowing Mrs. Eaker 
and family the privilege of remaining in 
the house ten days, when she, her family 
and husband, if he can be found, will re- 
port to me at Paducah, and I will furnish 
them transportation to New Orleans, and 
thence to Central America, where they 
will live hereafter." 

" Madam, Mr. Eaker has been our ene- 
my ; he has done all that he could to de- 
stroy the Government of the United States 
— that Government which has raised him 
in the lap of luxury, giving him slaves, 
rich crops, tobacco warehouses — all that 
his heart could desire, and did he, could 
he, think that he could raise his two sons 
and send them out to murder that Gov- 
ernment, and yet go unpunished ? Is it 
possible that he could have been so insane ? 
Now, madam, I want you to send your 
husband word to report himself to me im- 
mediately, and I will spare his life and let 
him go with you ? " 

" General, won't you write to him ? " 
" No, madam, I have no correspondence 
with rebels, except at the cannon's mouth. 
You put your boy on a horse and send him 



Paducah, the sum of ten thousand dollars, 
which is the fine I have levied upon him. 
This money, madam, is to go to make up 
a fund that I am raising from you rebels, 
from which to pay something toward the 
support of the widows and orphans your 
husband has made. Five thousand of it 
will be paid to the widow Happy. You 
know, madam, how the old man was led 
out in the front yard, across the street 
there, and shot dead! not for having 
wronged any human being — no, not for 
this, — but because, and only because, he 
was unconditionally true to his Govern- 
ment. Oh ! madam, it makes the blood 
boil to think of these things." 

" General, I have a very sick child in 
the other room, and don't think I can pos- 
sibly move with it. Won't you let me 
visit my friends, five miles above Paducah ? 
I have a daughter living there." 

" No, madam, I cannot ; think of the 
four thousand widows in Illinois — think of 
their little orphan children coming to me 
for help and protection ! You must go 
with your husband. God and nature have 
ordained that Avoman links her fate with 
her husband, for weal or woe. You have 
shared his prosperity, you have sympa- 
thized with him in his rebellion, and now 
you must abide with him in his exile. I 
am sorry to say these things, to you, mad- 
am, but the outraged law must be aveng- 
ed. How can you expect to live in a 
country you have robbed and murdered 
as you have this ? Did you think that 
the hand of justice would never reach you ? 
Madam, you will pack your trunks, take 
all your silver plate, and your linen, bed- 
clothes, all your ready money, (except the 
ten thousand dollars which I fine you,) but 
your heavy goods, such as that elegant 
bedstead, and this sofa, you cannot take ; 
it would cost too much to freight them. 
All your lands and tobacco will go to.the 
United States, and this will be the end of 
John Eaker, his estate and family, in the 



to him to-day, and tell him that he is to | United States ; and you will not go alone, 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



128 



madam, one hundred families from Graves 
county will go with you — these rebels who 
cannot live under our Government must 
go out of it. And, madam, for every day 
your husband refuses to report to me after 
to-day, I shall increase his fine five hun- 
dred dollars." 

Then turning to Colonel McChesney, the 
General said : 

" Colonel, I want you to act as com- 
mander of this post. You must levy on 
as many men, white or black (not soldiers) 
as you may need, first to sink a well that 
shall supply all your wants ; then repair 
this railroad, so that trains can run regu- 
larly to Paducah ; after that, you will send 
your cavalry out with instructions to rebel 
farmers who have been raising crops to 
feed the southern army, to bring all their 
hay, com and oats, and fat cattle in here, 
and send to Paducah all the grain and 
provisions you collect, so that I can oper- 
ate my whole district free of cost to the 
Government. For I tell you, Sir, these 
rebels must pay the cost of this Avar, pay 
five hundred dollars for every widow they 
make or cause to be made, support and 
educate the orphan children of our soldiers, 
and finally go to Central America, South 
America, or the jungles of Africa, to eat 
the apple of their discontent, and die de- 
pised of men." 

a Good morning, madam." 
" Good morning, sh\" 



John duincy Adams Foretelling 1 the Future 
to Calhoun. 

One day, during the debate upon the 
Missouri bill in Congress, Mr. Calhoun, 
the great South Carolina leader, remarked 
to John Quincy Adams that he did not 
think the slave question, then pending in 
the nation's councils, would produce a dis- 
solution of the Union ; but if it should, the 
South would, from necessity, be compelled 
to form an alliance, offensive and defensive, 
with Great Britain. Mr. Adams asked if 
that would not be returning to the old 



colonial state. Calhoun said, " Yes, pretty 
much ; but it would be forced upon them." 

Mr. Adams inquired whether he thought 
if, by the effect of this alliance, the popu- 
lation of the North should be cut off from 
its natural outlet upon the ocean, it would 
fall back upon its rocks, bound hand and 
foot, to starve ; or whether it would retain 
its power of locomotion to move South- 
ward by land. 

Mr. Calhoun replied that in the latter 
event it would be necessary for the South 
to make their communities all military. 

Mr. Adams pressed the conversation no 
farther, but remarked, " If the dissolution 
of the Union should result from the slave 
question, it is as obvious as anything that 
can be foreseen of futurity that it must 
shortly afterward be followed by a univer- 
sal emancipation of the slaves. A more 
remote, but perhaps not less certain con- 
sequence would be the extirpation of the 
African race on this continent by the grad- 
ually bleaching process of intermixture, 
where the white is already so predominant, 
and by the destructive process of emanci- 
pation, which, like all great religious 
and political reformations, is terrible in its 
means, though happy and glorious in its 
end." 

Hard-TJp for a Blacksmith. 
On the 4th of March, 1864, the citizens 
of Fort Smith, Arkansas, raised a palmet- 
to flag in town, and one of the soldiers, 
private Bates, company E, First cavalry, 
went out and climbed up the tree upon 
which the flag was suspended, took it down, 
and brought it into the garrison. Captain 
Sturgiss ordered him to take it and put it 
back where he got it. He said he never 
would The Captain ordered him to the 
guard house, and in going he tore the flag 
in pieces. He was then ordered to be 
put in irons, and was sent to the black- 
smith shop for that purpose ; but the smith, 
a citizen, refused to put them on, and he 
was discharged in consequence. D com- 
pany, First cavalry, farrier, was then order- 



124 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



ed to put them on, and he refused, and 
was also sent to the guard-house. E com- 
pany, First cavalry, farrier, then put them 
on. The soldiery gave three shouts for 
Bates, and for the blacksmiths who refused 
to put the irons on. 



Reading the Amnesty Proclamation at 
"Buzzard's Roost." 

When Sherman's men were climbing 
the sides of " Buzzard's Roost," in their 
gallant and successful movement at that 
point, the rebels attempted to resist the 
advance by rolling down heavy stones 
from the cliffs and rocky sides of the 
mountain. The following story is told of 
the occasion, on the authority of a staff 
officer : 

A corporal of the Sixty-fourth Illinois 
halloed to the rebels, and told them if they 
would stop firing stones he would read 
to them the President's Proclamation. 
The offer was at first received with deri- 
sive yells, but they soon became quiet, 
and the corporal then read to them the 
Amnesty Proclamation. When he came 
to some part they did not approve, they 
would set up a fiendish yell, as if in defi- 
ance, and then sent down an installment of 
rocks by way of interlude. But the cor- 
poral kept on in spite of such uncivil de- 
monstrations, and finished the document, 
when there was another outburst of yells, 
mingled with laughter, and the old busi- 
ness of tumbling down the rocks and firing 
was again resumed. That corporal de* 
served an appointment as President Lin- 
coln's Secretary-at-large. 

Official Farewell to General Scott. 
An event of profound interest to the 
country occurred Oct. 31st, 1861, namely, 
the resignation of Lieutenant- General 
Scott, the veteran commander-in-chief. This 
was owing to his advanced years and va- 
rious bodily infirmities. The request, on 
such grounds, could not, of course, but be 
complied with, and General McClellan was 
at once notified that he had been selected 



as the successor of the late Commander- 
in-chief. 

The President, accompanied by every 
member of the cabinet, now visited Gen- 
eral Scott at his own residence, and read 
to him the order of retiracy, accompanied 
with highly eulogistic expressions of the 
national gratitude for his brilliant services 
in times past, and regret at the necessity 
of officially parting with him. The aged 
General stood up, and with him rose the 
President and the members of the cabinet. 
Deeply affected by the occasion, the old 
veteran said : 

" President, this hour overwhelms me. 
It overpays all services I have attempted 
to render to my country. If I had any 
claims before, they are all obliterated by 
this expression of approval by the Presi- 
dent, with the remaining support of his 
cabinet, I know the President and his 
cabinet well. I know that the country 
has placed its interests in this trying crisis 
in safe keeping. Their counsels are wise : 
their labors are as untiring as they are 
loyal, and their course is the right one." 

After these few words, overcome by 
emotion, and tottering from the effects of 
wounds and infirmities, the old hero sat 
down. 

The President and each member of his 
cabinet now bade farewell to the General 
and retired. 

Preaching- the Sword— and Using It. 

The following telegrapliic correspon- 
dence passed between a mother in Balti- 
more, and her son, the pastor of a church 
in Boston : 

Baltimore, April 17th. 

My Dear Son : Your remarks of last 
Sabbath were telegraphed to Baltimore, 
and published in an extra. Has God sent 
you to preach the sword or to preach 
Christ ? Your Mother. 

Boston, April 22d. 
My Dear Mother : " God has sent" 
me not only " to preach the sword," but to 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



125 



use it. When this Government tumbles, 
look amongst the ruins for your Son. 



Irish Military Imagination. 

The following took place at a flag pre- 
sentation in the Army of the Cumberland, 
May 1, 1863. The flag was presented to 
the Fifteenth Indiana Volunteers (on be- 
half of the young ladies of Hascall, Indi- 
ana,) by the chaplain, and received for the 
regiment by General Wagner. The regi- 
ment was in line, and the rest of the bri- 
gade assembled to witness the ceremony. 
The General, in the course of his speech, 
said : 

'• Tell the yo\mg ladies of Hascall that 
when the war is over their then sanctified 
gift shall be returned to them, unless torn 
to shreds by the enemy's bullets." 

"An' thin we'll take 'em back the pole !" 
cried an Irishman in the regiment. 

The brigade, officers and men, created 
a breach of discipline by laughing immod- 
erately, and Pat received a pass to go to 
town next day. 



Brownlow Prefers the *' Direct" Route to 

Hell. 

Parson Brownlow, at that time editor 
of the Knoxville (Tenn.,) Whig, was re- 
quested by General Pillow, in the early 
part of the secession movement, to act as 
chaplain for that General's brigade in the 
rebel service. The Parson replied in his 
usual scathing and trenchant rhetoric, as 
follows : " Sir — I have just received your 
message through Mr. Sale, requesting me 
to serve as chaplain to your brigade in 
the southern army : and in the spirit of 
kindness in which this request is made, 
but in all candor I return for an answer, 
that when I shall have made up my mind 
to go to hell, I will cut my throat and go 
direct, and not travel round by way of the 
Southern Confederacy." 



Legislative Scene for a Painter. 
The secret schemes of secession under- 
taken by certain members of the Ken- 
tucky legislature gave great impetus, at 



one time, to the rebel movements in that 
State, especially as it was known that 
John C. Breckinridge, one of the political 
idols of the Kentuckians, would, under 
certain circumstances, be found on the 
conspirators' side. During the session of 
that body, there appeared one day in the 
Legislative Hall, a patriarchal old farmer 
from a neighboring county, — one of that 
kind for whom Kentucky has an instinct- 
ive veneration, — who uncovered his snowy 




John C. Breckinridge. 

locks and sat down. At the first lull in 
the debate, he rose slowly and said lie 
had a word to say, but was aware it was 
out of order for him to speak before the 
legislature Avhile in session. His dignified 
and venerable appearance arrested atten- 
tion, and " Go on ! " " Go on! " from sev- 
eral voices, seemed to keep him on his 
feet. Again expressing his diffidence 
at speaking out of propriety — " Hear ! 
hear! " resounded generally over the room. 
The members' curiosity as well as respect 
for the appearance and manner of the 
man, was up, and a silence followed the 
" Hear ! hear ! " when the old hero de- 
livered the following eloquent but laconic 
speech : 

" Gentlemen ; I am delegated by my 
county to inform you, that if you hold a 
secret session here, as you threaten to do, 
not one stone of this capital will rest upon 
another twenty-four hours after — good 



126 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE EEBELLION. 



day," and he left. Alas ! that those words 
were derided, as they were, by that band 
of misguided men, and that Breckinridge, 
voluntarily falling from his high estate, 
should at last find himself an outlawed fu- 
gitive on a foreign shore. 



George Peabody Repudiating the Rebel 
Commissioner. 

Mr. Dudley Mann, one of the repre- 
sentatives of the rebel cause in England, 
waited in behalf of that cause on our 
countryman Peabody, who happens to 
hold some $300,000 of repudiated Missis- 
sippi Bonds, on Avhich there is due more 
than $600,000 of interest. Mr. Mann 
was very magnificent and grandiloquent, 
but withal, prosy ; and Peabody, suffering 
from gout and Mississippi Repudiation, 
lost his temper. Shaking his clenched 
fist at the rebel, he said, emphatically : 
" If I were to go on 'Change and hunt up 
the suffering and starved widows and or- 
phans who have been ruined by your infa- 
mous repudiation of honest debts, and 
proclaim that you are here to borrow more 
of our gold and silver to be again paid by 
repudiation, (as I believe it is my duty to 
do,) you would inevitably be mobbed, and 
find it difficult to escape with your life. 
Good morning, Sir." 



and took possession of the depot and cars. 
He inquired of the bystanders where the 
engineers were to be found. " There goes 
one," a man replied. Colonel Kinsman 
hailed him, and he approached. A con- 
versation ensued, which showed some, 
thing of the quality of the more demon- 
strative secesh. 




Stating the Exact Alternative. 
The active operations of General But- 
ler's army in Louisiana were confined, at 
first, to sudden incursions into the enemy's 
country, either for the purpose of rescu- 
ing Union men, who were threatened by 
their neighbors with destruction, or of 
breaking up camps and roving gangs of 
guerillas. The guerillas were numerous, 
enterprising, and wholly devoid of every 
kind of scruple. The first dash by the 
Federals into the inhabited country was 
made by Colonel Kinsman, who went fifty 
miles or more up the Opelousas railroad 
to bring away the families of some Union 
men who hod fled to the city, asking pro- 
tection. He crossed the river to Algiers, 



Stating the Exact Alternative. 

"Are you an engineer ? " asked Colonel 
Kinsman. 

" Yes." 

" Do you run on this road ? " 

" Yes." 

" How long have you been on this 
road ? " 

" Six years." 

" I want you to run a train of cars for 
me." 

" I won't run a train for any d — Yan- 
kee." 

" Yes you will." 

" No I won't." 

" You will, and without the slightest 
accident too." 

" I'll die first." 

" Precisely. You have stated the exact 
alternative. The first thing that goes 
wrong, you're a dead man. So march 
along with us." 

The man obeyed. Upon getting out of 
hearing of his townsmen, he appeared 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



127 



more pliant, and the conversation was re- 
sumed. 

" What is your name ? " 

" Pierce." 

" Pierce ? Why that is a Yankee name. 
Where were you born?" 

" In Boston." 

"Are you married ? " 

" Yes." 

" Where was your wife born ? " 

"At East Cambridge." 

" How lbng have you been at the 
South?" 

"About six years." 

"And you are the man who would'nt 
run a train for a ' — Yankee.' You 
are, indeed, a ' — Yankee.' Go home, 
and see that you are promptly on hand 
to-morrow morning." 

He was promptly on hand in the morn- 
ing, ready to run the train for his con- 
demned countrymen. But as competent 
engineers were found among the troops, it 
was thought best not to risk the success 
of the expedition by trusting the renegade, 
and the objects of the party were accom- 
plished without his aid. 



Senator Douglas's Last Message to his 
Sons. 

For a considerable time previous to his 

death, Senator Douglas was in a semi- 




somewhat. Lying at apparent ease in his 
bed, but with the marks of death upon 
his pale countenance, Mrs. Douglas, who 
sat, soothing him gently, by his bedside, 
painfully aware that the dreadful moment 
of final separation was approaching, asked 
him what message he wished to send to 
his sons, Robert and Stephen, who Avere 
then students at Georgetown. He an- 
swered not at first, and she tenderly re- 
peated the question. He then replied 
with a full voice, and emphatic tone — 

" Tell them to obey the laws, and sup- 
port the Constitution of the United 
States." 



Death Preferred to the Southern Oath. 

John Beman, a watchman on board one 
of the Western steamers, was deliberately 
hung at Mound City for his patriotic fidel- 
ity to the flag of his adopted country. He 
was a native of Norway, came to this 
country more than fifty years ago, and 
lived in Boston, where his children still 
reside. He was first examined by a 
"committee," was proven to have said 
that he hoped Lincoln would come down 
the river and take every thing ; that he 
would die rather than live in the South- 
ern States, and much more of the same 
sort. The committee proposed to forgive 
him if he would take an oath to support 
the Southern States. He indignantly re- 
pelled the proposition, and said he would 
die first. Finding that he was determined, 
beyond all appeals, they threw a rope 
over the limb of a tree, and, stringing the 
venerable patriot up twenty-five feet, they 
left him to a halter's doom. 



Mrs. S- A. Douglas. 



is condition ; but on the morning 



Nature in Council upon the Union. 
The Rev. Bishop Ames, of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, while preaching in 
his usual fervid manner at a Western 
camp-meeting, remarked that there had 
been one grand Union Convention, the 
proceedings of which had not been report- 
ed by telegraph. Said the eloquent Bish- 
op : " R was held amid the fastnesses of 



consciou 

of that event his mind and energies rallied 1 the everlasting hills. The Rocky Moun 



123 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



tains presided, the mighty Mississippi 
made the motion, the Alleghany Moun- 
tains seconded it, and every mountain and 
hill, and river and valley, in this vast 
country, sent up a unanimous voice — Re- 
solved, That we are one and inseparable, 
and what God hath joined together, no 
man shall put asunder." 

"Nothing- agin the Old Flag-." 
After the battle of Fort Donelson, one 
of the rebel prisoners was asked if he was 
not ashamed to fight against the Union, 
and the Government which had done so 
much for them. He replied, "I never 
fought agin the Union, and I never will." 
" What then Avere you doing at Fort Don- 
elson?" "I hugged the ground closer 
nor ever I did before in my life." " Yes," 
peeped up a little shrill voice by his side, 
" and you ran three miles to get out of 
the way. You ran until you got tired 
an 1 then sat down and rested, and ran 
a'Tain." "Were you forced into the 
army ? " " Wal, no, not exactly forced ; 
I knew I would be, so I j'ined. I thought 
I'd feel better to go myself! " " What do 
you expect to gain by the rebellion?" 
"We find our leaders have lied to us. 
Our big men wanted to get rich and get 
into office, and so they have got us into 
this mess by their lies. We have nothing 
agin the old flag. All we want is our 
constitutional rights, according to the in- 
strument under which our forefathers 
lived. They told us the election of Lin- 
coln would deprive us of these, and we 
believed them. But we now know that 
they were lies." 



Calhoun's Escape from the Gallows. 
The relative position of the National 
Government and South Carolina, and of 
the President of the United States and 
John C. Calhoun, in the winter of 1833, 
placed the latter in great personal peril, 
which his friends perceived and tried to 
avert. Among others consulted on the 
subject was Letcher, of Kentucky, Clay's 



warm personal friend. He knew that 
South Carolina must yield, on some terms, 
to the authority and power of the National 
Government, and he conceived the idea 
of a compromise by which, in so yielding, 
she might preserve her dignity. He pro- 
posed it to Mr. Clay, who, sincerely desir- 
ing reconciliation, entertained the idea, 
and submitted it to Webster. The amaz- 
ing intellectual plummet of the latter had 
fathomed the turbid waters of Nullifica- 
tion deeper than had even the brilliant 
Kentuckian, and he instantly said : 

" No ! — it will be yielding great princi- 
ples to faction. The time has come to 
test the strength of the Constitution and 
the Government." 

He was utterly opposed to compromis- 
ing and temporising measures with a rebel- 
lious faction, and told Mr. Clay so ; and 
from that time he was not approached by 
those who were willing to shield conspira- 
tors from the sword of justice. 

Mr. Clay drew up a compromise bill 
and sent it to Mr. Calhoun, by Mr. Letcher. 
Calhoun objected to parts of the bill most 
decidedly, and remarked that if Clay knew 
the nature of his objections he would at 
least modify those portions of the bill. 
Letcher then made arrangements for a 
personal interview between these eminent 
Senators, who had not been on speaking 
terms for some time. The imperious Clay 
demanded that it should be at his own 
room. The imperilled Calhoun consented 
to so there. The meeting was civil but 
icy. The business was immediately en- 
tered upon. The principals were unyield- 
ing, and the conference ended without 
results. Letcher now hastened to Presi- 
dent Jackson and sounded him on the sub- 
ject of compromise : 

" Compromise ! " said the stern old man, 
" I will make no compromise with traitors. 
I will have no negotiations. I will exe- 
cute the laws. Calhoun shall be tried for 
treason, and hanged if found guilty, if he 
does not instantly cease his rebellious 
course." 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



129 



Letcher now flew to M' Duffle, Calhoun's 
ardent friend, and alarmed him with a 
startling picture of the President's wrath. 
That night, after he had retired to bed, 
Letcher was aroused by a Senator from 
Louisiana, who informed him that Jackson 
would not allow any more delay, and that 
Calhoun's arrest might take place at any 
hour. He begged Letcher to warn Cal- 
houn of his danger. He did so. He 
found the South Carolinian in bed. He 
told him of the temper and intentions of 
the President, and the conspirator was 
much alarmed. 

Meanwhile Mr. Clay, and Senator Clay- 
ton, of Delaware, had been in frequent 
consultations on the subject. Clayton had 
said to Clay, while the bill was lingering 
in the House, " These South Carolinians 
act very badly, but they are good fellows, 
and it is a pity to let Jackson hang them ; " 
and advised him to get his compromise bill 
referred to a new committee, and so modify 
it as to make it acceptable to a majority. 
Clay did so, and Clayton exerted all his 
influence to avert the calamity which hung 
over Calhoun and his friends. He assem- 
bled the manufacturers who had hurried 
to the capital when they heard of the 
compromise bill, to see whether they 
would not yield something for the sake 
of conciliation and the Union. At a sacri- 
fice of their interests, these loyal men did 
yield, and agreed to withdraw all opposi- 
tion to the bill, and let it pass the Senate, 
providing all the nullifiers should vote for 
certain amendments made by the Lower 
House, as well as for the bill itself. The 
nullifiers in committee would not yield. The 
crisis had arrived. The gallows was 
placed before Calhoun. Clayton earnestly 
remonstrated with him. 

Finally, they concluded to vote as Mr. 
Clayton demanded, but begged that gen- 
tleman to spare Mr. Calhoun the mortifi- 
cation of appearing on the record in favor 
of a measure against which at that very 
time, and at his instance, troops were being 
raised in South Carolina, and because of 



which the politicians of that State were 
preparing to declare their secession from 
the Union. Mr. Clayton would not yield 
a jot. Calhoun was the chief of sinners 
in this matter, and he, of all others, must 
give the world public and recorded evi- 
dence of penitence, whatever his mental 
reservations might be. " Nothing would 
be secured," Mr. Clayton said, " unless his 
vote appeared hi favor of the measure." 

The Senate met ; the bill was taken up ; 
and the nullifiers and their friends, one 
after another, yielded their objections on 
various pretences. At length, when all 
had acted but Mr. Calhoun, he arose, pale 
and haggard, for he had had a most terri- 
ble struggle. He declared that he had 
then to determine which way he should 
vote, and at the termination of his brief 
remarks he gave his voice in the affirma- 
tive with the rest. It was a bitter pill for 
that proud man to swallow. The alterna- 
tive presented to him was absolute humili- 
ation or a course that would bring him to 
the gallows. He chose the former. With 
that act fell the great conspiracy to break 
up the government of the United States 
in 1832. 



Minister Faulkner and the Emperor Napo- 
leon on Secession. 

The following interesting conversation 
took place on New Year's day, 1861, be- 
tween the Emperor of the French and 
Mr. Faulkner, United States Minister to 
the French Government. The conversa- 
tion possesses a special interest in view of 
the fact that Mr. Faulkner, on his return 
home became himself an avowed and in- 
fluential secessionist, participating inti- 
mately in the counsels of the leading con- 
spirators. After the usual greetings, the 
Emperor said : 

"What is the latest intelligence you 
have received from the United States? 
Not so alarming, I trust, as the papers 
represent it?" 

" Like most nations, Sire," replied Mr. 
Faulkner, " we have our troubles, which 



130 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



have lost none of their coloring, as de- 
scribed in the European press." 

" I hope it is not true that any of the 
States have separated from the General 
Confederation," added Napoleon. 

" The States still form one common 
government, as heretofore. There is ex- 
citement in portions of the Confederacy, 
and there are indications of extreme 




Chas. J. Faulkner 

measures being adopted by one or two 
States. But we are familiar with the ex- 
citement, as we are with the vigor, which 
belong to the institutions of a free people. 
We have already more than once passed 
through commotions which would have 
shattered into fragments any other gov- 
ernment on earth; and this fact justifies 
the inference that the strength of the 
Union will now be found equal to the 
strain upon it." 

" I sincerely hope it may be so," re- 
joined the Emperor, "and that you may 
long continue a united and prosperous 

people." 

♦ 

Such a Sight as Thrills the Nerves. 
The vestry of Grace Church, Episcopal, 
in New York, was desirous that an Ameri- 
can flag should wave from the very apex 
of the spire of that magnificent structure, 
the height being two hundred and sixty 
feet from the ground. Several persons 
offered to undertake the dangerous feat, 



but on mounting by the interior staircase 
to the highest window in the steeple, 
thought they would scarcely have nerve 
to undertake it. At last, William O'Don- 
nell and Charles McLaughlin, two young 
painters in the employ of Richard B. Fos- 
dick, of Fifth avenue, decided to make the 
attempt. Getting out of the little dia- 
mond-shaped window about half way up, 
they climbed up the lightning rod on the 
east side of the spire, to the top. Here 
one of the men fastened the pole securely to 
the cross, although quite a gale was blow- 
ing at the time. The flag thus secured, 
the daring young man mounted the cross, 
and, taking off his hat, calmly and grace- 
fully bowed to the immense crowd which 
were watching his movements from Broad- 
way. As the flag floated freely in the air, 
they burst into loud and repeated cheers. 
It was a sight to thrill the nerves of any 
patriot. 

Clerical Prisoners of State. 

An event occurred one day during Gen- 
eral Butler's career in New Orleans, which 
brought that officer into such direct col- 
lision with the Episcopal clergy, that New 
Orleans was not considered by the Gen- 
eral large enough to contain both parties 
in the controversy. 

On a Sunday morning, early in October, 
Major Strong entered the office of the 
General in plain clothes, and said : 

'' I have'nt been able to go to church 
since we came to New Orleans. This 
morning I am going." 

Pie crossed the street and took a front 
seat in the Episcopal church of Dr. Good- 
rich, opposite the mansion of General 
Twiggs. He joined in the exercises with 
the earnestness which was natural to his 
devout mind, until the clergyman reached 
that part of the service where the prayer 
for the President of the United States 
occurs. That prayer was omitted, and 
the minister invited the congregation to 
spend a few moments in silent prayer. 
The young officer had not previously beard 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



131 



of this mode of evading, at once, the re- 
quirements of the church and the orders 
of the commanding General. He rose in 
his place and said : 

" Stop, sir. It is my duty to bring these 
exercises to a close. I came here for the 
purpose, and the sole purpose, of worship- 
ping God ; but inasmuch as your minister 
has seen fit to omit invoking a blessing, as 
our church service requires, upon the 
President of the United States, I propose 
to close the services. This house will be 
shut within ten minutes." 

The clergyman, astounded, began to 
remonstrate. 

" This is no time for discussion, sir," 
said the Major. 

The minister was speechless and indig- 
nant. The ladies flashed wrath upon the 
officer, who stood motionless with folded 
arms. The men scowled at him. The 
minister soon pronounced the benediction, 
the congregation dispersed, and Major 
Strong retired to report the circumstances 
at head-quarters. 

This brought the matter to a crisis. 
General Butler sent for the Episcopal 
clergymen, Dr. Leacock, Dr. Goodrich, 
Dr. Fulton, and others, who were all ac- 
customed to omit the prayer for the Presi- 
dent, and pray in silence for the triumph 
of treason. The General patiently and 
courteously argued the point with them at 
great length, quoting Bible, rubricks and 
history, with his wonted fluency. They 
replied that, in omitting the prayer, they 
were only obeying the orders of the Right 
Reverend Major-General Polk, their eccle- 
siastical superior The General denied 
the authority of that military prelate to 
change the liturgy, and contended that the 
omission of the prayer, in the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of the time and place, was an 
overt act of treason. 

" But, General," said Dr. Leacock, " your 
insisting upon the taking of the oath of 
allegiance is causing half of my church 
members to perjure themselves." 

" Well," replied the General, " if that 



is the result of your nine years' preaching; 
if your people will commit perjury so 
freely, the sooner you leave your pulpit 
the better." 

After further conversation, Dr. Leacock 
asked : 

" Well, General, are you going to shut 
up the churches ? " 

" No, sir, I am more likely to shut up 
the ministers." 

The clergymen showing no disposition 
to yield, General Butler ended the inter- 
view by stating his ultimatum : " Read 
the prayer for the President, omit the 
silent act of devotion, or leave New Or- 
leans prisoners of state for Port Lafay- 
ette." 

They chose the latter — Dr. Leacock, 
Dr. Goodrich and Mr. Fulton — and were 
duly shipped on board one of the trans- 
ports. 



Curiosity of Rebel Soldiers to hear President 

Lincoln's Message. 

A few days after the publication of the 
President's message and Amnesty Procla- 
mation, the fact of its promulgation having 
been made known to the rebel pickets 
of the Army of the Potomac, they man- 
ifested great curiosity to hear it, and one 
of the Union soldiers consenting to read it 
to them, quite a considerable party collected 
on the opposite bank to listen. While it 
was being read the utmost silence and at- 
tention were observed by the listening 
rebels ; and after it was finished one of 
them called out, " We'll go back to camp 
and tell the boys about it." Papers had 
been frequently exchanged by the pickets, 
but about this time the rebels told our men 
that their officers did not like them to get 
our papers, as " there was nothing encour- 



Slidell's Consolation. 
In one of the great imperial soirees at 
Biarritz, one of the courtiers of the Em- 
pire, seeing the emissary Slidell alone 
crossing one of the reception parlors, ex- 



132 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE KEBELLION. 



claimed: "Ah, Mr. Sliclell! you may show 
yourself as much as you please ; you will 
never be recognized." " I beg your par- 
don," said the Southern' diplomat, " I have 
been recognized long since for a patriot ; a 
few more Southern victories and I will be 
called the representative of a great nation. 
As to you, Sir, I acknowledge, you are too 
well known to need recognition ; and this 
is what consoles me for not being recog- 
nized!" Bah! 



rather more precious than flocks of slaves, 
" alone in his glory." 



Handsome Rebuke from an Alabamian. 

A highly instructive as well as amusing 
incident took place in a business house on 
one of the principal streets of Nashville, 
Tennessee, while a colored regiment was 
marching along to the music of the national 
airs. Several gentlemen were looking on 
the parade, among them a wealthy planter 
of Alabama, the owner of a large number 
of slaves. One of the group stepped out 
to the door, looking on for a few minutes, 
and then indignantly turning on his heel, 
addressed himself to the grave Alabamian, 
to the following purport: 

" Well, I'll be d— if that is not a burn- 
ing disgrace, which no decent white man 
can tolerate. Isn't that nigger regiment 
too great an insult?" 

The Alabamian jumped to his feet, and 
replied, while his eyes flashed fire : 

" Sir, there is not a negro in that regi- 
ment who is not a better man than a rebel 
to this Government, and for whom I have 
not a thousand times more respect than I 
have for a traitor to his country. I think 
that the best possible use the Government 
can make of negroes is to take them and 
make them fight against the rebels. No 
traitor is too good to be killed by a negro, 
no weapon too severe to use against the 
wretches who are endeavoring to overthrow 
the Government. Now, Sir, swallow that, 
whether you like it or not." 

The rebel stepped off in utter amaze- 
ment, without uttering a syllable in reply, 
leaving the sturdy Alabamian, who cher- 
ished the jewel of patriotism as something 



John Minor Botts between Two Fires. 
While the Third Indiana cavalry were 
engaged in one of the bloody skirmishes 
which fell to their lot in Virginia, Major 
McClure, seeing a hale-looking, oldish gen- 
tleman in a doorway by the roadside, hailed 
him, and inquired : " Which way did the 
rebel cavalry, that a moment since passed 
here, go?" " Sir," was the reply, " I am 
under parole to the Confederate Govern- 
ment to tell nothing I see. But, Sir, my 
name is John Minor Botts — as devoted a 
Union man as the world can find. I put 
no 'ifs' nor 'buts' in the case." 



Political Dialogue in Camp. 

In the rear of General Grants head- 
quarters at City Point was the camp of 
Head-quarters Cavalry Escort. While 
passing through said camp on a certain oc- 
casion, a visitor overheard the following 
dialogue-politico, coming from a group of 
soldiers lounging under a shelter of pine 
boughs: 

Says A. — " I tell you that a majority 
don't elect the President." 

Says B. — " I know better ; it does elect, 
and there ain't nothing else can elect." 

A. — " Well, it ain't so in our State, any 
how." 

B. — " Well, if the majority don't elect, I 
should like to know who does ? " 

A. — " Well, I'll tell you who does elect: 
it's the Pleurisy" 

B.— " The what-i-sy ? What the 

is that?" 

A. — " Well, I don't know exactly, but I 
know it ain't the majority" 

A. was right. He only got the pleurisy 
for ■plurality ; that's all. 



Money Couldn't Buy his Vote. 
Up in Morris County, New Jersey, lives 
old Uncle Pete, who always votes the 
ticket that bids the highest. A few even- 
ings before the presidential election of 1864, 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



133 



some Republicans went to his house to out- 
bid some Democrats who had been there. 
But Uncle Pete informed them he had 
sold his vote three days before to the Dem- 
ocrats for ten dollars He was told that if 
he would carry his ticket and the ten dollars 
back to the one who gave them, and vote 
the Republican ticket, they would give him 
twenty dollars, which offer Uncle Pete im- 
mediately accepted. Just as the party had 
left the house they heard a couple of men 
coming up whom they knew to be Dem- 
ocrats. Being convinced they were on 
their way to Uncle Pete's, they hid them- 
selves till the second party had passed into 
the house, and went back to listen. The 
Democrats had hardly become seated when 
Uncle Pete said : 

" Gentlemen, you called upon me the 
other day, and offered ten dollars if I 
would vote the McLellan ticket. I am 
poor and took your money and the ticket. 
Here are both ; take them back — I never 
sell my vote ! " 

They tried to induce him to stick to his 
first promise to them, but it was no go ; for 
Uncle Pete said . 

" There is no use to talk, gentlemen. I 
am a Lincoln man, and have been for over 
ten years ! " And getting a little warmed 
up at the thought of the twenty dollars, he 
continued, " No, gentlemen, there is no use 
trying to change my mind, as I always 
vote unflinchingly on principle, and money 
can't buy my vote. I am a Lincoln man, 
and have been a Lincoln man all my 
life!" 

The Democrats left in disappointment, 
the Lincoln men of course feeling sure 
of Uncle Pete's vote ; — unless a higher 
bid came before election ! 



Northern Present to Jefferson Davis. 
The editor of one of the newspapers 
published in Norwich, Connecticut, sent 
Jefferson Davis, the " President" of the then 
'* Six Nations," a pen-holder made from a 
rafter of the house in which liis forerun- 
ner, Benedict Arnold, was born. In closing 



his letter of presentation accompanying the 
gift, the editor said : — " I have taken occa- 
sion to present you this pen-holder, as a 
relic whose associations are linked most 
closely to the movement of which you are 
the head. Let it lie upon your desk for use 
in your official duties. In the ' eternal fit- 
ness of things,' let that be its appropriate 
place. It links 1780 with 1861. Through 
it, West Point speaks to Montgomery. 
And if we may believe that spirits do 
ever return and haunt this mundane 
sphere, we may reckon with what delight 
Benedict Arnold's immortal part will follow 
this fragment of his paternal roof-tree to 
the hands in which is being consummated 
the work which he began." 



Scene at Fort Warren: Exit of Mason and 
Slidell. 

On the receipt, at Fort Warren, Boston, 
of the news that Messrs. Mason and Slidell 
were to be surrendered to the British Gov- 
ernment, there was general dissatisfaction 
among both officers and men, and expres- 
sions very much against their personal 
safety were freely indulged in ; but upon 
reading the very cool and logical deduction 
of the Secretary of State, especially the 
latter part of his reply, where the insig- 
nificance of the worth of the custody of 
the Commissioners in this country is as- 
serted, and the fact that were it essential 
to the welfare or the safety of the Govern- 
ment they would be retained at all haz- 
ards, a general acquiescence was as freely 
manifested. 

On the morning of their departure, the 
battalion was called out as usual, at 8:45, 
for dress parade, and were kept upon the 
parade-ground, manoeuvring slightly, till 
after the rebels left. The guards were 
strengthened to prevent any from going 
upon the parapets, either soldiers or pris- 
oners, and thus they left as quietly as a 
dog could — perhaps with not so much no- 
tice as a noble specimen of the Newfound- 
land ordinarily attracts. As they passed 
down to the wharf, thpv w r ere accompanied 



134 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



by Colonel Dimmick, who kindly waved all 
ceremony at the guard-house, save to sim- 
ply turn out the guard — as our men were 
unwilling and doubtless would have re- 
fused to salute the Colonel, for in thus do- 
ing, they would have had to salute the 
rebels ; but when the Colonel came back, 
the thing was done to a nicety. 

When taking leave of Colonel Dimmick, 
Mr. Mason was somewhat affected, and 
said, " God bless you, Colonel ; God bless 
you ! " and cordially shook hands with him. 
Mr. Slidell shook hands with the Colonel, 
and said : " Under whatever circumstances 
and in whatever relations in the future we 
may meet, I shall always esteem you as a 
dear friend." 

During the morning many rebels 
thronged the rooms of Messrs. Mason and 
Slidell to get their autographs, and Mr. 
Mason's hand was so unsteady as to be 
noticed through the window out doors. 
Some of the political prisoners said to 
Mason : " We hope when you get to Eng- 
land you will represent our case, impris- 
oned on this island for no offence save 
differing from others hi political opinions." 
He replied that if ever he arrived in 
Europe he would faithfully represent their 
case. 



Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom. Each new morn 
New widows howl, new orphans cry; new sorrows 
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
As if it felt with Scotland and yelled out 
Like syllable of dolour. 

Mr. Lincoln leaned back in his chair ir. 

the shade after this passage was pronounced, 

and for a long time wore a sad, sober face, 

as if suddenly his thoughts had wandered 

from the playroom far away to where his 

great armies were contesting with the 

rebellion a vast empire. 

* 

Interceding- for her Father : Elizabeth Self 
and Jeff. Davis. 

Poor Hessing Self was one of the many 
loyalists in Tennessee who were imprison- 
ed and barbarously treated by the rebels 
because of their fidelity to the Stars and 
Stripes. He Avas told that a halter was 
in preparation for him, only a few hours 
previous to the time appointed. His 
daughter, who had come down to admin- 
ister to his comfort and consolation — a 
most estimable girl, about twenty-one years 
of age — Elizabeth Self, a tall, spare-made 



President Lincoln at the Play of Macbeth. 
One evening at the Washingtoit theatre, 
while Macbeth was being rendered upon 
the stage by Mr. Wallack and Mr. Daven- 
port, President Lincoln was observed to be 
present with his little " Tad " (Thaddeus 
Lincoln) with him. It being Mr. Lincoln's 
favorite play, one could not repress a cer- 
tain curiosity to know — though he was 
familiar with them as with stump-speaking, 
doubtless — how certain passages would 
strike him. When the following passage 
between Malcolm and Macduff was pro- 
nounced the audience was suddenly silent 
as the grave : 

Mai Let us seek out some desolate shade and there 

Weep our sad bosoms empty 

Mart Let us rather 

Hold fast the mortal sword and like good men 




Interceding for her Father. 

girl, modest, handsomely attired, begged 

leave to enter the jail to see her father. 

They permitted her, contrary to their usual 
j custom and savage barbarity, to go in. 

They had him in a small iron cage, a ter- 
i rible affair ; they opened a little door, and 
j the jailor admitted her. As she entered 

the cage were her father was, she clasped 
\ him around the neck, and he embraced her 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



135 



also, throwing his arms across her should- 
ers. They sobbed and cried ; shed their 
tears and made their moans. When they 
had parted, wringing each other by the 
hand, as she came out of the cage, stam- 
mering and trying to utter something in- 
telligible, she lisped the name of Mr. 
Brownlow, who was confined within the 
same walls. She knew his face, and he 
could understand as much as that she de- 
sired him to write a dispatch to Jefferson 
Davis, and sign her name, begging bim to 
pardon her father. Mr. B. worded about 
this : " Hon. Jefferson Davis. — My 
father, Hessing Self, is sentenced to be 
hanged at four o'clock to-day. I am living 
at home, and my mother is dead. My father 
is my earthly all ; upon him my hopes are 
centered ; and, friend, I pray you to par- 
don him. Respectfully, Elizabeth 
Self." Jefferson Davis, who then had a 
better heart than some of his coadjutors, 
immediately responded by commuting his 
sentence to imprisonment. 



Clerks of the President. 
Some clever patriot, anxious that things 
political should square a little more nicely 
with his ideas of the necessities of the 
public welfare, went to A\ r ashington, and 
there sought the occupant of the White 
House. He said to Mr. Lincoln, " Sir, 
you must get rid of Mr. Seward — throw 
him overboard." " Mr. SeAvard," said the 
President, " is Secretary of State. He 
conducts the diplomacy of the country. 
Have you read his diplomatic correspon- 
dence ? " '• Yes, Sir." " Have you any 
fault to find with it ? " " No, Sir." "Well, 
Sir, he is my clerk ; I got him for that 
purpose." " Well, but you should throw 
Blair overboard." " Sir, Mr. Blair is 
Postmaster General. Do you get your 
papers and letters regularly ? " " Yes, 
Sir." Well, Sir, he is my clerk for that 
purpose ; and /am President of the United 
States." That was pretty much the idea 
entertained by President Jackson of his 

cabinet. 

9 



" Mr. Lincoln Forgot It ! " 
The capture of Mason and Slidell creat- 
ed intense excitement throughout Europe, 
and in no country perhaps was this excite- 
ment more mercurial than in Paris. Pub- 
lic opinion was in painful suspense in re- 
gard to the forthcoming Presidential Mes- 
sage, which it was supposed would contain 
a broad and national enunciation relative 
to the event which held almost the whole 
world by the ears. The anxiously awaited 
document duly arrived, but no word did 
it contain about the affair of the Trent. 
The surprise of the volatile Parisians 
knew no bounds. A speculator at the 
Bourse, more spirituelle than his col- 
leagues, found an explanation of the enig- 
ma : " Mr. Lincoln forgot it ! " The word 
was taken up at once, and had an immense 
success. Here was England about to fall 
on the American coast with an armada 
such as the world had never seen, all Eu- 
rope was in consternation at the disasters 
that were to follow such a struggle, com. 
merce was already paralyzed, the funds 
were fluctuating like the needle of a ba- 
rometer before a storm, and — Mr. Lincoln 
had forgotten even to speak of the circum- 
stance ! The joke was too chilling ; and 
people swore while they laughed. Was 
there ever such a people on the face of 
the earth ? lis ne se doutent de Hen ' 

They fiddle while Rome is burning ! 

♦ 

Examining one of the Baltimore TJncon- 
querables. 

Considering the source from which the 
following narration comes — the columns of 
the Charleston Mercury — it may perhaps be 
regarded as 'drawn rather mild,' though the 
veraciousness of the affair, even as thus 
given, is more than doubtful. It however 
gives the rebels a chance to set off the 
" unconquerable spirit of the women of 
Baltimore," and this is at least instructive 
to the student of feminine benignity. But 
to the " unconquerable" : — 

A Mrs. W., of Baltimore, about to pay 
a visit of a few days to the country, to some 
relatives, was driving through the city in 



136 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



her own carriage, with her trunks strapped 
behind. Suddenly the vehicle was stop- 
ped by a policeman, who assured the lady 
she was under arrest, and would be obliged 
to repair immediately to the office of the 
Provost-Marshal. Mrs. W., somewhat 
indignant at the request, refused to go, 
alleging as an excuse, that such a public 
place was unfit for a lady to frequent ; she 
said that she would go to the Commanding 
General, Dix, at Fort McHenry, but if 
the policeman attempted to take her to the 
Provost Marshal she would shoot him. 

" As you please, madam ; I will get into 
the carriage and go to the fort with you." 

" You are mistaken," replied Mrs. W. ? 
" this carriage is mine, and if you attempt 
to get into it I will immediately fire upon 
you." 

The policeman took a seat with her 
coachman, in whom Mrs. ~W. confided as 
her protector, and they drove to Fort Mc- 
Henry. On reaching the Fort, she sent 
for General Dix, and seeing her he said : 

" Madam, J do not know how to address 
you." 

" It is time you did, Sir, since I am ar- 
rested, I suppose, by your authority." 

" Madam, you look wearied ; walk into 
my office." 

Ordering some regulars to bring in the 
trunk and search it, the General remarked 
to Mrs. W. : 

" This is a military necessity, madam, I 
would these things were not, but the Gov- 
ernment must be supported. ' United we 
stand,* you know. Madam, have you any 
sons in the Confederate army ? " 

" I have three, Sir." 

"• Did you aid and encourage them to 
enlist in that service ? " 

"General Dix, are you a married man ? " 

" I am, madam." 

" Then ask your wife what she would 
have done under similar circumstances." 

" Madam, you look faint and weary ; 
let me order you some refreshments." 

" What ! eat here ? I, a Southern wo- 
'vian, break bread with the Yankees ? 



Never ! while they are the miserable foes 
they have proved themselves. Every day 
I see more clearly the necessity of an eter- 
nal separation. And where the dividing 
line is fixed I want a wall built so high 
that a Yankee can never scale it ! " 

The trunk breakers having satisfied 
themselves that nothing objectionable to 
the Administration could be found, report- 
ed the same to General Dix, who, on con- 
sultation, determined to have the person 
of Mrs. W. searched. The gallant Gen- 
eral remarked : 

" Madam, it is necessary now that your 
person be searched ; you will not object, I 
hope ? " 

" Oh, no, Sir, if the person to perform 
that ignoble office is a female." 

" Oh, yes, madam, a lady, your equal." 

" Sir, you are mistaken — not a lady, 
nor my equal. Were she either, she 
would not do the degrading work you as- 
sign her." 

Mrs. W. was taken to a private apart- 
ment, and the search was begun. Find 
ing the woman delinquent, Mrs. W. threat- 
ened to report her, if she did not perform 
her duty faithfully. " Pull off my shoes," 
she continued ; " look well into them ; 
make a thorough search, and see if you 
can find a combination of red and M'hite, 
or anything inimical to the Union-savers ; 
look well, or I will report you." 

' The woman finding nothing treasonable 
upon Mrs. W., returned with her to the 
gallant General, telling him she would not 
search another lady for five hundred dol- 
lars : that such a persevering character 
she had never encountered. 

General Dix. shocked, no doubt, at 
Mrs. W's agitated appearance, again pro- 
posed refreshments, saying, 

u Madam, do have a glass of wine." 

" Only on the condition, Sir, that you 
will drink with me to the health and suc- 
cess of General Beauregard ! " 

The wine, it is believed, was not taken. 
Mrs. W. then, turning to General Dix, 
said : 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



137 



« Sir, I hope } r ou are satisfied that I have 
nothing traitorous to your righteous (!) 
cause. You thought to find the Confeder- 
ate flag in my trunk, or on my person ; in- 
deed, you are not good at hide and seek. 
Your soldiei-s are too little interested in 
your righteous cause to serve you faithful- 
ly. They searched my house a fortnight 
since for the flag. Both you and they 
have been foiled. I sent that flag to Vir- 
ginia ten days since under a load of wood ; 
it now waves over the glorious Confeder- 
ates at Manassas. Sir, it seems the Yan- 
kees' peculiar pleasure is to try to frighten 
women and children. They cannot gain 
battles, so they revenge themselves in this 
ignoble manner. And now, Sir, I imagine 
you have done." 

" I regret, madam, that we should have 
met under these unfortunate circumstances. 
I will detain you no longer." 

" Sir, I demand one thing of you, before 
I depart. I have been arrested on suspi- 
cion. I desire now an honorable dis- 
charge." 

" Oh, madam, that is unnecessary ; it is 
a mere form, and therefore useless." 

" I like forms, General Dix, particu- 
larly when connected with official docu- 
ments." 

The General, seeing Mrs. W. determin- 
ed, ordered the Secretary to write the dis- 
charge, and, handing it to Mrs. AY, said : 

" Madam, I believe that is all." 

"No, Sir, not all yet. I wish your 
name added. I believe that it is essential 
to such a document." 

The General, more reluctant to sign his 
name than to grant the discharge, was 
finally brought to the point. 

" And now, General Dix," said Mrs. 
W.," do you know what I intend doing 
with this discharge ? I shall send it to 
my sons at Manassas, and if they have 
any of the spirit of their mother, they will 
one day make you rue this encounter." 

After Mrs. W. left, they say the Gener- 
al vowed he would not see another woman 
for three years, three months, and three 



days, calling, no doubt, to mind, Richard 
Camr de Lion's famous truce with Saladiu 



Poor Pat's Idea of tlie Thing. 

There is a story told of an Irishman 
who, landing in New York harbor, was 
met and welcomed by a countryman who 
had been longer here. 

" Welcome, Pat," said the latter, " I'm 
glad to see ye ; you've come just in time, 
for to-morrow's election day." 

Pat and his friend took some refresh- 
ment together, and presently the newly- 
arrived began to make some inquiries 
about voting. 

" Ye'll vote for who ye plaize," said his 
friend, " sure it's a free counthry." 

" Well, thin, be-gorra," rejoined Pat, 
" I go agin the government — that's what 
I always did at home." 



Juvenile Political Sentiments. 

An artist from the North was sitting on 
a bluff, at New Orleans, making a sketch 
of a river scene, when a whole bevy of 
little children came round to watch him, 
conversing freely upon the merits and de- 
merits of the picture, with all the acute- 
ness and correctness of any full-grown 
critic. A conversation between the artist 
and the little ones soon commenced, and 
as the lighter the straw the better can be 
seen the way the wind blows, these little 
fellows gave the man of the pencil as good 
an insight into the real state of political 
feeling there as could have been obtained 
from the older and more wily population. 

a What are you all, youngsters — Union 
or Secesh ? " asked the artist. 

" Union, Sir," simultaneously exclaimed 
the half-dozen tiny voices, with a decision 
that was surprising. 

" Oh, yes, it's very Avell to tell me that, 
with all those blue-coats coming up the 
hill ; but were you not all Secesh yester- 
day?" 

"No, Sir! we were always Union," 
firmly replied the leader — the same who 
had been reading from the note-book — 



138 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



" we ain't afraid of your soldiers, either ; 
when they come here we know we are 
going to have something to eat." 

" Don't you have any tiling to eat, then, 
when the rebels are here ? " 

" Scarcely any thing, Sir ; there is'nt a 
thing they see they don't take ; " and then 
the Avhole of them began eagerly, at once, 
to give his individual experience of cases 
of extortion and oppression among poor 
families. 

" But though you are for the Union, my 
little friends," continued the artist, " I 
guess your parents are all Secesli." 

" No, Sir ; mine ain't," cried one. " they 
took the oath." 

" So did mine," chimed in all the oth- 
ers. 

" Don't you think your parents took it 
because they were afraid of us ? " asked 
the artist, turning to his young friend of 
the note-book. 

"No, Sir; father and mother were al- 
ways Union. I wish you could have seen 
how she took care of a sick Michigan 
soldier for three months; he used to call 
her mother, and the soldiers always loved 
father and mother. I wish I could show 
you my mother, Sir." 

The artist said he would be glad to see 
her, and shortly after set out with the boy 
to show him through the town, which he 
did most effectually, pointing out not only 
every building and thing of note, but 
every well-known Union or Secesli dwell- 
ing. The former appeared to be in a la- 
mentable minority; and others again he 
said had taken the oath, but he didn't 
think they were " good for much." 



Where are TheyP 
General Butler, during the interval of 
his military duties, made a visit to the 
White Mountains in New Hampshire, and 
while there he was compelled to make a 
speech. He enumerated the various 
points gained by the Union armies, and 
the work which had been accomplished, in 
the following strain : " The flao; of the 



Union to-day floats in every State of the 
Union but Texas. The rebellion came 
upon us when we were possessed of an 
army less than any other country keeps 
for an armed police. Traitorous hands 
had so disposed of it, and scattered our 
navy, that neither was available to imme- 
diately crush the incipient rebellion. But 
in two years we have seen three-quarters 
of a million of men raised." Before this 
last sentence was completed, one of the 
audience asked in a sneering tone, 

" Where are they now ? " 

" Where are they now ? " replied 
General Butler, with his customary prompt- 
ness, " Some of them lie sleeping beneath 
the sod ; and others are still fighting the 
battles of their country ; while you re- 
main at home aiding the cause of trai- 
tors ! " 



Rosecrans and Vallandigham coming' to an 
Understanding-. 

When Vallandigham arrived at Mur- 
freesboro', General Rosecrans went to see 
him. " I wanted to see you," said the 
General ; ' k I wanted to see you, Vallan- 
digham, to see if you had a rascal's face." 
Then changing the subject rather abrupt- 
ly, and bringing down the forefinger of his 
right hand in that rapier-like style which 
is a conspicuous feature of his gesticula- 
tion when he is in terrible earnest, he 
said : " Vallandigham, don't you corne 
back here. If — you — do — Vallandigham, 

I'll be , and may God forgive me for 

the expression — I'll be if I don't 

hang you ! " 

People will be pleased to remember 
that the General claims that he " never 
blasphemes, but sometimes swears." 



John Letcher's Views on a Very Personal 

Subject. 

When the boys of the Fifteenth West 
Virginia regiment went into Lexington, 
Va., they paid a visit to the home of Ex- 
Gov. Letcher, and among other things 
found in his dwelling was a composition 
read by him during his school days. As 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIYIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



139 



the composition is on a subject that might 
have proved of no small personal interest 
to the author, it is here given word for 
word, and letter for letter. The subject 
is that of Capital Punishment. 

The manuscript bears the following in- 
dorsement on its back, and is also signed 
by its author, viz : 

" John Letcher, Composition read Sept. 
25th, 1830. 

I have often thought if capital punish- 
ments were abolished, our Constitution 
would be rendered more wholesome. 

To hang a man looks too much like bar- 
barism among a people who call them- 
selves a civilized nation, when we con- 
sider the manner in which publick execu- 
tions are attended. They are generally 
if not always attended with riot and 
drunkenness, which is very prejudicial to 
morality, whereas if there were no publick 
executions this not be the case. A great 
multitude of people from a distance at- 
tend these executions whose families are 
on the eve of starving. 

It would have been better J. M. Jones 
had been confined in the penitentiary 
than to have been hung he would have 
had a chance to repent and the State 
would have been paid for keeping him the 
time he was confined in Lynchburg. Up- 
on the whole 1 am inclined to think if 
capital punishments were abolished our 
constitution would be rendered more 
wholesome. J. Letcher. 

September 24th, 1830." 



Government is right. You young men 
must sustain it. 

Col. E. — But I approve of the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation, and all. 

Gen. C. — So do I. Whether or not the 
President had the constitutional right to 
declare the slaves free, the President's 
friends do not strengthen the measure by 
claiming it to be constitutional. I do not 
deny that there is that in the Constitution 
to justify the act ; but the circumstances 
of the country clearly justify it. I do not 
fear its effect in the South — I only hope 
it will prove effectual. I cannot under- 
stand how any old Democrat can have any 
sympathy with the South; and I hope 
that if there are any persons in the North 
who would ever eonsent to a separation, 
they will not be permitted to have any 
position or influence. 

The old general and statesman showed 
a good stiff backbone. 



Mr. Cass's Backbone. 

Colonel Eastman of Chicago, having 
paid a visit to General Cass, narrates his I 
political conversation with that venerable | 
statesman, in substance as follows : 

Colonel Eastman — I have always ad- 
mired and supported you as a Democrat, 
but perhaps 3011 will not regard me as a 
Democrat now, as I have pledged my 
support to the present officers of the Gov- 
ernment, and to all the war measures. 

General Cass — You are right. The 



Cavender, the Martyr Preacher. 

There was in Van Buren County, Ten- 
nessee, an old Methodist preacher, of a 
great deal of ability, named Cavender. 
He was from the first, a most determined 
Union man, and as his influence in the 
County was great, they determined to 
make an example of him and get him out 
of the way. So the most rabid among 
the rebels took the aged and service-worn 
preacher out of his house, put a rope 
around his neck, and, setting him upon a 
horse, led him out into a forest. They 
then told him that unless he would pub- 
licly renounce his Unionism they were 
ready to hang him. Poor Cavender re- 
plied: 

" God gave me breath to bear witness 
to His truth, and when I must turn it to 
the work of lies and crime, it is well 
enough to yield it up to Him who gave 
it," 

They then asked him if he had any 
parting request. He said " he had no hope 
that they would attend to any thing he 
might ask." They said they would. He 



140 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION- 



then requested that they would take his 
body to his daughter with a request that 
she would lay it beside the remains of his 
departed wife. They then said : 

" It's time to go to your prayers." 

" I'm not one of the sort," he replied, 
'* who has to wait until a rope is around 
his neck to pray.'" 

"Come, old man ; no nonsense ; if you 
don't swear to stand by the Southern 
Confederacy you'll have to hang," at the 
same time tying the rope to a branch. 

" Hang away," said the old man. 

One of them then gave a blow with a 
whip to the horse upon which poor Caven- 
der sat — the horse sprang forward, and 
the faithful servant of God and his coun- 
try passed into eternity. As already re- 
corded, they said they would fulfil his last 
request. Well, they cut the flesh off his 
bones and threw it to the hogs ; his heart 
was cut out and lay in a public place till 
it rotted. 



heard from you ; and I am going to the 
field again, partly to get away from an 
atmosphere that tolerates such people." 
Secesh sympathizer dumbed. 



" God's Flag-." 
As one of the brigades of the reserve 
corps which came up to the rescue of Gen- 
eral Thomas at Chickamauga was march- 
ing through the town of Athens, a bright- 
eyed girl of four summers was looking 
intently at the sturdy fellows as they 
tramped by. When she saw the sun 
glancing through the stripes of dazzling red 
and on the golden stars of the flag, she 



Bad Atmosphere for a Patriot's Lung's. 

In one of the Chelsea (Mass.) horse 
cars, there one day exhibited himself an 
original k secesh ' sympathizer — and after- 
war Is a groaner, of course — who com- 
menced the usual doleful lament common 
to that class, about the great rise in prices 
in this article and that, with the gold groan 
as a clincher to the whole story. There 
was not a word of hope or cheer for the 
country ; nothing but the evils from which 
civil wars are inseparable, could he see. 
Presently a returned soldier spoke some- 
thing in this wise : — 

'• All you say may be true, sir, but Ave 
have no such sort of talk in the army. 
No man would be allowed to utter such 
sentiments by the troops who are fighting 
the battles of their country to save it. I 
have served in the field three years. My 
time has expired. I joined the army from 
patriotic motives — because I believe we 
have a country worth fighting for, and the 
Union is our only hope. I am sick and 
tired of hearing such talk as I have just 




exclaimed, clapping her hands : " Oh, pa ! 
pa ! God made that flag ! — see the stars ! 
— it's God's flag!" A shout, deep and 
loud, went up from that column, and many 
a bronzed veteran lifted his hat as he 
passed the sunny-haired child of bright 
and happy thoughts, resolving, if his good 
right arm availed anything, God's flag 
should conquer. What a sweet and happy 
christening the glorious ensign received 
from those artless lips — ' God's flag ! ' and 
so it is. 



Taking- his Choice. 
The proffering of the Union oath of alle- 
giance to the people of Tennessee, in the 
infected districts, proved a severe expert- 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



141 



mentum cruris to the professed patriotism 
of some of the people there. As a speci- 
men of the amusing scenes witnessed in 
the provost-marshal's office, the following 
will illustrate the ' situation : ' A surly 
planter presented himself, desiring to trans- 
fer himself or his goods to the North. 

" Certainly, sir ; " responded the mar- 
shal, " you will be obliged to take the oath 
of allegiance to the United States Gov- 
ernment." 

After some hesitation, and considerable 
inward squirming, the applicant gruffly re- 
marked — 

'•Well, I'll take it." 

The oath was propounded. As it was 
read out, the applicant's face assumed an 
expression of mingled surprise and indig- 
nation, almost sublime in its intensity. 

" Why, sir, I can not take that oath. It 
compels me to discountenance and discour- 
age secession forever." 

« Yes, sir." 

" And then it binds me to maintain the 
National authority over that of my own 
State. No, sir, I can not take that oath." 

" Very well, sir, there is no compulsion 
in the matter. But until you do, I shall 
be obliged to refuse you permission to 
leave town, or to ship or receive goods by 
the river." 



is not far distant. If you wish to hold us 
(meaning his brigade) prisoners very long, 
you had better send us further South, for 
before the month is out Memphis will be 
in our possession, and then the Mississippi 
valley will be lost to you and the back- 
bone of the rebellion broken." 



Object of the War on the Union Side. 

When the train from Corinth arrived 
at the Memphis and Charleston railroad 
depot, having on board General Prentiss 
and a portion of his brigade captured at 
the battle of Shiloh, a large crowd assem- 
bled to see the Yankees ; but no disrespect 
was shown them. On the contrary, bread, 
cakes, pies, tobacco and cigars were given 
them without stint. Said a rebel Colonel 
to General Prentiss : 

"What are the Federals fighting for?" 

" For the restoration of the Union as it 
was!' replied the General. 

" You don't think reconstruction is pos- 
sible, do you ? " continued the Colonel. 

" Yes," said the General, "and the event 



Object of the War on the Bebel Side. 
On the Louisville and Nashville rail- 
road, when the cars were conveying the 
gallant Union soldiers and the rebel pris- 
oners, a Union officer coming along said 
to a Confederate chap, " Will you answer 
me one question ? W^at are you fighting 
for ?" " What are yousV was the imme- 
diate reply of ' Alabammy,' and some 
others. " That is not answering my ques- 
tion. I asked you first," said the officer: 
At this there were mutterings of ' liberty 
bills,' ' abolitionists,' ' unconstitutional,' and 
some such expressions. " We are fighting 
for the rich marts niggers" finally spoke 
up an intelligent-looking Corporal, in a 
clear-ringing and decided voice. There 
were some 'constitutional' muttering^ 




IU M. T. Hunter. 

against this, on the Confederate side of 
the house, but they were entirely too fee- 
ble to neutralize the impression of truth 
fulness which the first remark made upon 
all the crowd, both Confederates and Un 
ionists. "That is all you need to say," 
observed the officer; "that short sentence 



142 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



covers the whole ground." In reply to 
the remark that " there would be a large 
number in the South who had never been 
in the habit of working before the war, 
who would be found to have learned to 
do so since," Reb. said: "Oh, yes, one 
good thing about this war is that it will 
teach many of the rich, lazy fellows how 
to work and take care of themselves, 
which they never knew how to do before." 
Had R, M. T. Hunter's famous pronuncia- 
mento to the people of Virginia been ac- 
companied with those last two lines, it 
would have been an antidote to his pol- 
ished falsifications that would have saved 
the " old mother State " from plunging 
into a four years' war that soaked every 
acre of her soil with blood — yea, would 
have deprived the Confederacy of its first, 
strongest and most vital foothold. 



Investigation by General Butler into General 
Phelps's Insanity. 

While in command at Fortress Monroe, 
some officers told General Butler that they 
had been conversing with General Phelps, 
and that he (Gen. P.) was manifestly 
crazy. General Butler, with his charac- 
teristic promptness, went over at once and 
conversed with General Phelps, and found 
him as usual quite sensible. A few days 
after that, some Vermont gentlemen ar- 
rived, to urge the appointment of General 
Phelps to some expedition. General But- 
ler said, with great solemnity, " But, gen- 
tlemen, have you not heard the sad re- 
ports of the insanity of General Phelps ? " 
The Vermont friends of Gen. P. were 
very indignant, and were denouncing the 
charge as malicious, when General Butler 
interrupted them by saying, " Stop, gen- 
tlemen, I have looked thoroughly into the 
matter of General Phelps's insanity, and 
find that it is only that he has become an 
Abolitionist two months before you and I." 



American Consul at Matamoras. The 
Mexicans, having previously learned of 
Ins intention to do so, decided to give him 
a public reception. A deputation was dis- 
patched to invite him to the Public Hall. 
The military were paraded, a salute was 
fired, and all the enthusiasm of a gala day 
was manifested. Speeches were made by 
Srs. Argues, Cartina, and others, express- 
ing their sympathy with the Federal cause 
in the United States, and their belief that 
the result would be favorable to the cause 
represented by General Banks. General 
Banks replied, hoping that Mexico would 
come out of her present troubles trium- 
phant, and, after a great many mutual ex- 
pressions of friendship and sympathy, the 
party adjourned to the office of the Ameri- 
can Consul. The citizens of Matamoras 
were highly pleased with the quiet, unas- 
suming manner of the American General. 
One poor fellow, however, seemed greatly 
disappointed. lie was an old Mexican 
soldier, had fought at Palo Alto and Re- 
saca de la Palma. He evidently expected 
to see something more than human. 

"Ah, Senor," said he, " the Americans 
are not what they were at Palo Alto. I 
remember them well there ; their horses 
were larger than elephants, and the head 
of a mounted American reached the 
heavens ! " 



American Soldiers Then and Now, 
After the capture of Brownsville, Texas, 
General Banks paid an official visit to the 



Unexpected Rebuff. 

Emerson Etheridge, formerly clerk ol 
the House of Representatives, at Wash- 
ington, was introduced to Brutus J. Clay 
of Kentucky, and immediately began to 
denounce the government. Mr. Clay, 
after hearing his tempest a few moments, 
replied: 

"Well, Mr. Etheridge, this is pretty 
rough. Before the war, when I was a 
Democrat, I used to hear of you down in 
Tennessee as an Abolitionist. You must 
have lately changed your views." 

This was somewhat wilting to the retir- 
ing clerk, who supposed that he had got ft 
man after his own heart. He plucked un 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



143 



courage, however, and went into another 
tirade. Mr. Clay, thereupon, with calm- 
ness mingled with manifest indignation, 
rising to his full height, interrupted — 

" Well, sir, this is our first meeting. 
Your language, sir, seems to me atrocious, 
and all I have to say to you is, that when 
men talk thus down in Kentucky, we re- 
gard them as secessionists, and treat them 
accordingly." 

Mutability of Public Reputation. 
The sudden changes in the popularity 
of our political and military chieftains 
have been most remarkable,— so much so 
as to lead to the inquiry, " What is lasting 
distinction ? " There are, for instance, not 
many people in Boston who will fail to 
recollect the part they bore in the sponta- 
neous triumph which overwhelmed Gen- 
eral Banks on his return to Massachusetts 
during the war. On the very day in ques- 
tion, that favorite of the people was con- 
gratulated by a friend on the hold which 
he had on the public favor. " Yes, mad- 
am," said he, with his grave and expres- 
sive smile, " and the first mistake I make, 




Sheridan. 



they will forget it all," — a prediction that 
more than one General's experience most 
amply verified during the struggle, not 
excepting the General who thus so philo- 
sophically expressed himself. But, what 
Banks, through unavoidable obstacles, 
failed to execute, of his well planned cam- 



paign in the Shenandoah, the gallant Sher- 
idan abundantly retrieved by his brilliant 
and successful tactics — his name and fame 
encrowned with ineffaceable splendor. 



Coming: Events Cast their Shadows Before. 
When Marcus Morton was Governor 
of Massachusetts for the first time, he one 
day addressed his Council in the executive 
apartment at the State House upon his 
intended appointments, and among other 
matters he alluded to a petition from a 
young man who desired to fill the situation 
of messenger to the Governor and Council. 
The applicant had then just commenced 
his public career, having spoken at polit- 
ical meetings with excellent effect. The 
Governor remarked with reference to the 
matter: "I have considered his case and 
I shall not appoint him, for he is too smart 
a man and too good a mechanic to fill the 
position." "What did you say was his 
name?" asked a councillor, who had not 
listened very attentively: "His name," 
replied the Governor, "is Nathaniel P. 
Banks." That General Banks was one 
of the truest-hearted, though not always 
the most successful, of patriots, in the hour 
of his country's wo, no one will deny 



Leng-th of the "War according- to Floridan 
Chronology. 

The sublime ignorance in which the 
poor non-slaveholding whites of the South 
are steeped is pretty fairly exemplified in 
the following: 

In the month of February, 1864, when 
the United States troops penetrated to 
Jacksonville, Florida, some Confederate 
soldiers were captured. A motley crew 
they were, whose picturesque variety of 
raggedness bore here and there some in- 
dications of aim at military style, but 
nothing of what could be called " uniform." 
Two men claimed exemption from cap- 
ture as being civilians. One of the two 
owned to having been impressed into the 
Confederate army, but alleged that he had 
trot his discharge and was then a civilian. 



144 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



"How long Avere you a soldier?" asked 
Captain Randolph. 

"Three years," replied the prisoner. 

" The Confederate army has been three 
years in the field — eh?" asked the Cap- 
tain. 

" No," answered the ' cracker,' " but I 
was in the State of Florida service part 
of the time." 




Length of the War. 

" How long were you a soldier for Flor- 
ida?" 

"Two years," said the ex-conscript. 

"And how long has the war been going 
forward?" asks the Captain again. 

" Well, I suppose going on fifteen years," 
replied the prisoner. 

"Are you sure of that?" his captor in- 
quired. 

" Now, I hain't kept no strict tally," the 
Floridan veteran answers, "but this I do 
know, sarten ; we've ben hangin' the darn- 
ed Ab'lishnists a darned sight longer time 
nor that ; well, 'bout's long's I kin remem- 
ber!" 



act of brutality to a high official, which in 
later days found its counterpart in Brooks's 
assault on Senator Sumner. 

The inauguration of the monument was 
marred by a brutal and cowardly assault 
on the President of the United States. In 
the early part of May, 1833, the steamer 
Cygnet was bearing Andrew Jackson, on 
his way from the Capital to lay its corner 
stone. The Cabinet and many guests were 
on board, and the beauty of the day, and 
the music of peace charmed the company. 
While he sat over his newspaper smoking 
in the cabin, a dismissed Lieutenant of the 
Navy suddenly attacked the President, 
striking the General in the face with his 
gloved hand, but was instantly seized by 
the bystanders. In the melee the table 
behind which the President sat was broken 
down. The old hero only remarked : " No 
villain has ever escaped me before, and he 
would not had it not been for the table." 
It seemed as if the saered ei-rand of the 
President Avas about to be defeated, but 
the boat sailed on and he accomplished his 
duty, as Avas his Avont, forgetful of himself. 



Interesting- Scrap of History. 
While on the hights of Fredericksburg, 
the attention of our men Avas often at- 
tracted by the shaft of an imposing mon- 
ument in full view, and many took occa- 
sion to visit and examine it. Though its 
commemoratiA'e object belonged, as is well 
knoAvn, to the past, there is a strange rem- 
iniscence connected Avith its history, — an 



Mrs. Polk Defining her Political Position. 

Much has been said of the secession 
proclivities of Mrs. Polk, the Avidow of the 
late President. A writer in one of the 
Avestern journals gives an account of an 
interview Avhich he had with that distin- 
guished lady, Avhile he Avas on a visit to 
Nashville, during high disunion times. He 
remarked to her: 

" Mrs. Polk, I have heard you accused, 
since I have been in Nashville, of being a 
bitter secessionist: how is this?" 

She quickly and Avarmly responded in 
substance as follows: 

" Mr. G , that is a AATongful accusa- 
tion. I never Avas a secessionist, and I 
don't think I ever will be one. I ahvays 
said there was no excuse for the course 
taken by my misguided Southern friends. 
I said that Mr. Lincoln was constitution- 
ally elected, and that that election should 
be acquiesced in by every true patriot. I 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



145 



go, Sir, for my Government — my whole 
Government." 

" In other words, Mrs. Polk, you go for 
that United States of which your late hon- 
ored husband was once the President." 

" Yes, Sir," she responded, with marked 
emphasis, "I do. I know my name has 
been placed before the public — once at 
least — in a connection that may have en- 
gendered in some mhids doubts of my loy- 
alty ; but was so placed against my wishes 
and remonstrances. But inasmuch as it 
was done for a humane and charitable pur- 
pose, I said nothing publicly about it. I 
do not deny," she added, " that my wo- 
manly sympathies are with the South, and 
that I often catch myself exulting over the 
success of the Confederate arms, but this is 
only when my reason is taken prisoner and 
my judgment temporarily suspended at 
the bidding of my sympathies, prejudices 
and affections. I was born in the South. 
From infancy to old age — for my days 
now, you know, ' are in the sere and yel- 
low leaf,' — my surroundings have all been 
Southern. My relatives, my friends, and 
more than all, my late loved and honored 
husband, were all of that 'sunny clime.' 
Is it, then, reasonable to suppose that, 'in 
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,' 
with the frosts of many winters upon my 
head, I can throw off, as I would a gar- 
ment, all the affections, all the endearing 
associations, all the prejudices (if you 
please) of a long life ? No! No! this can- 
not be. And yet, dear Sir, notwithstand- 
ing all this, I long, and pray, and yearn 
for a restoration of my distracted country 
to its former peaceful and happy condition ; 
for a restoration of the 'Union as it was.'" 

The words italicized in the above afford 
a pretty direct clue to the alleged disloyal 
proclivities of the venerable lady. 
♦ . 

Armstrong-, the Rebel Dominie, before Gen- 
eral Butler. 

One of the most interesting cases that 
came before General Butler to decide, in 
respect to loyalty, was that of Rev. Geo. D. I 



Armstrong, of Norfolk, Virginia, the same 
clergyman upon whom sentence of impris- 
onment at Fort Hatteras Avas pronounced, 
for his rebel sentiments. An aide of Gen- 
eral Butler conducted the first examina- 
tion, but the General himself afterwards 
made a careful personal investigation, 
cross-questioning Mr. Armstrong very 
closely. 

General Butler — I perceive that in your 
former examination you declined answer- 
ing the question : " Do you call yourself a 
loyal man in letter and spirit to day?" 

Mr, Armstrong — I do not decline to 
answer now ; if I were to put my own in- 
terpretation upon it, I should say I am ; 
but I don't know, Sir. 

General — Well, Sir, perhaps I car 
teach you. Now, Sir, what is the name 
of that gentleman who had taken the oath, 
and while coming out of the Custom 
House with you, made the remark that he 
"would like to spit upon the Northern 
Yankees?' 

Mr. A.— Mr. Charles Reid. I declined 
to answer on my former examination, be- 
cause I had not his consent to tell, Sir; 
but since that, I have seen him, and he 
has given me his consent to mention his 
name. 

General — Where is Mr. Reid? 

Mr. A.— He is in Norfolk. 

General — (to an aid) — Telegraph to 
Colonel Weldon, provost-marshal, Nor- 
folk, to arrest Mr. Charles Reid and send 
him here. He lives on Main street. 

General — He stated that as he came 
out from taking the oath? 

Mr. A.— Yes, Sir. 

General — With the oath fresh on his 
lips and the words hardly dry in his mouth, 
he said he " wanted to spit in the face of 
the Northern Yankees ! " 

Mr. A.— Well, General, he took it with 
the same view as I did. 

General — I agree to that, Sir. 

Mr. A. — I meant to say — 

General — Stop, Sir, I don't like to be 
insulted. You said, Sir, that that infernal 



146 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE EEBELLION, 



secessionist wanted to spit in the faces of 
loyal men of this Union, and that yon took 
the oath with the same view as he did, or 
rather he took it with the same view that 
yon did — it makes no difference which. I 
agree, Sir, that you did. I have treated 
you, Sir, during this interview, with pro- 
priety and courtesy up to this moment, 
and yet you, Sir, here tell me, in order to 
clear this vile wretch, who shall be pun- 
ished as he deserves, that you took the 
oath to my Government with the same 
view that he did. 

Mr. A. — Well, Sir, it was a mortifying 
fact to confess that we were a conquered 
people, and it was the irritation growing 
out of that fact. 

General — You have not helped it, Sir. 
You had not better go on in that direction 
any further, Sir, for your own sake. Now, 
Sir, while you did preach a very virulent 
sermon upon " The Victory of Manassas," 
at the recommendation of the Confederate 
Congress, have you ever since preached 
in your pulpit a sermon favorable to the 
Union cause, or one that would be likely 
to please the loyal, and displease the dis- 
loyal? 

Mr. A. — No, Sir, I never have. 

After some further sharp questioning, 
the examination was continued and con- 
cluded as follows: 

General — You said you looked upon the 
hanging of John Brown as just and right, 
because he interfered with the peace of 
the country. 

Mr. A.— Yes, Sir. 

General — Very good, Sir. Now, then, 
would you look upon the hanging of prom- 
inent rebels, Jefferson Davis, for instance, 
as just and right? You know that, the 
rebels have 'interfered with the peace of 
the country' and have caused rivers of 
blood to flow where John Brown only 
caused pints. What do you say to that? 

Mr. A. — I would not, Sir. 

General — Are your sympathies with the 
Union or the Confederate cause? 

Mr. A. — With the Confederates. 



The examination was terminated by the 
following order from the General : 

" Make an order that this man be com- 
mitted to the guard-house in close confine- 
ment, there to remain until further orders ; 
and send a copy of this examination to 
the officer in command there." 



A "Long-" Portrait. 

Some curious reminiscences attach to 
the career of Alexander Long, of Ohio, 
whose well-known pro-southern speech 
and course in Congi-ess, during the war, 
raised him to such bad eminence. 

He was a candidate for Congress dur- 
ing the dark days of 1862, when McClel- 
lan retreated from the Peninsula, when 
Pope transferred his head-quarters from 
the saddle to the fortifications at Wash- 
ington, and when Kirby Smith was be- 
sieging Cincinnati — Alexander's home. 
He was wonderfully patriotic ; was a mem- 
ber of the military committee of Hamil- 
ton County, and gave liberally toward the 
payment of bounty for recruits ; he made 
speeches urging men to enlist in the glo- 
rious cause .of his country ; talked war, 
and declared he was prepared to act war, 
if his bleeding country demanded such a 
sacrifice ; and, by way of earnest, induced 
a young law partner to enter the army ; 
he went around among his religious breth- 
ren — for Alexander the Long was a de- 
voted member of the church — and urged 
them to support him from personal con- 
siderations, as he was as good a war man 
as his competitor — Gurley, the then sit- 
ting member. 

He held tickets all day at the polls in 
his own Ward — the Eighth — in Cincin- 
nati ; and persistently importuned all his 
friends and acquaintances to vote for him, 
pledging his word that he was for the sup- 
pression of the Rebellion at all hazards, 
and declaring that to compromise with 
traitors would be dishonorable in the high' 
est degree. 

Gurley had many enemies among mem- 
bers of his osvn party, and the consequence 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



147 



was that Alexander the Long overreached 
his rival, and was accredited a Represent- 
ative from the lid Congressional District 
of Cincinnati, by a majority of a little ris- 
ing one hundred votes out of a poll of 
sixteen thousand. 

A few days after his election, a good 
brother in Alexander's church, Avho had 
always been a Republican, but who had 
voted for him out of personal considera- 
tions, upon solicitation, and a pledge that 
he was a good war man, called upon him 
to offer congratulations. Alexander prof- 
fered his hand, and vouchsafed one of his 
best smiles ; but ha was a little horrified 
when adced something about his views 
relative to the details of the war. 

'• I had better not talk toith you" said he ; 
"you are for war — I for peace ; we can't 
agree, and, as brethren in the church, we 
should, not quarrel" 

The ' brother ' left the Congressman, 
feeling that he had been completely sold, 
'•lid conveyed the intelligence to others, 
who, like himself, had been deceived; and 
they all resolved that never again should 
personal considerations induce them to 
vote for a doubtful candidate. The result 
was, that at the succeeding election for 
Governor, Brough, the straight Republi- 
can candidate, carried the District by 
about seven thousand majority. 



Chronicles of a Railway Trip. 

The ride over the Great Western road 
was amusingly diversified one day by the 
mouthing-; and antics of a big-whiskered, 
French-brogue jackanapes, who claimed to 
be a Southerner, and, of course, a rebel. 
He met his match, however, and a big dog 
under the wagon to spare, in the person 
of a plain, intelligent looking, and gentle- 
manly-appearing farmer from near Pon- 
tiac, Michigan. 

The " lordly Southron " opened the ball 
with the farmer, by leading off in a " for- 
ward two " movement upon the subject of 
the rebellion. The farmer sat directly be- 
hind the Southron, and the latter being 



anxious to know what " you Yankees think 
of us rebels," the farmer retorted by as- 
suring him that " we think you are a mis- 
erable set of rascals, and we mean to clean 
you out." This of course roused the ire 
of ye rebel, and he began to make a lusty 
display of tongue and muscle, — brandish- 
ing his arms wildly, pulling off his over- 
coat, advancing and then falling back gro- 
tesque^, and exhausting the rebel vocab- 
ulary of tirade and insult. The Michi- 
gander remained all the while as calm and 
composed as Bunker Hill monument, and 
although some of the occupants of the car 
were for holding back the French rebel, 
yet Michigan bade them let him advance 
just as soon as he pleased, or in any shape 
he pleased. 

Finding that bluff wouldn't win, the 
Frenchman began to plead that the sym- 
pathy of the car was against him, but 
boastingly said : 

" I' 1 be d — d if you can crush me, any 
more than Abe Lincoln and the d — d 
Yankees can crush the Southern Confede- 
racy." 

The old game of injured innocence and 
Northern cruelty here began to manifest 
itself, but it wouldn't work in the least. 
The Michigander carried too many Colum- 
biads for the chivalry, and beat him on 
every tack he took — muscle, cut-and- 
thrust argument, and every other way. 
Frenchy insisted that he must whip some- 
body, even after he had blown off two or 
three times, and apparently got cooled 
down to milk heat — a new degree of Fah- 
renheit, indicating a milk and water state 
of mental temperature. Michigan put a 
poser to him by inquiring : 

" If you are so full of fight, why don't 
you go back South, and help your friends 
out of their troubles ! " 

Frenchy said he had been in the South- 
ern service for fifteen months, and became 
so enfeebled that he was dischai'ged. (He 
presented a '■feeble' picture, he did!) 
Michigan assured him that from appear- 
ances he had thoroughly recuperated, and 



148 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



as he was so full of fight, he ought to go 
back again now, and re-enter the service, 
where he could have all the chance he 
wanted, to whip somebody. Frenchy 
couldn't stand this kind of ' lip,' and so lie 
culminated all the mean things that he 
could think of, by venting forth the fol- 
lowing against his Michigan friend : 

" My opinion of you is that you are a 
— miserable, ranting, black-hearted 
Yankee abolitionist." 

" My opinion of you is," retorted Mich- 
igan, " that you are a sneaking, cowardly 
rebel, and a God-forsaken man-stealer, and 
a thief" (accent particularly heavy on the 
last noun.) 

" Right ! " " right ! " exclaimed several 
who were within the car. The sympathy 
was evidently with Michigan, and Frenchy 
saw it and had to wilt. 

A spruce-looking little fellow ap- 
proached Frenchy after the worst of the 
storm was over, and informing him that he 
was on his way to join the Federal Army, 
and was anxious to obtain recruits, made 
a vigorous appeal to Frenchy to go with 
him and join our army, promising him a 
handsome bounty, and a splendid chance 
for a fight. This was the last feather up- 
on the camel's back, and it broke Frenchy 
" clean down." 



Billy Shelton, the Martyr Patriot Boy. 

The sway of the rebels in East Ten- 
nessee was characterized by a trail of 
blood which flowed from the veins of men, 
women and children alike. The case of 
poor little Billy Shelton, the patriot mar- 
tyr boy, will never cease to be remem- 
bered and wept over by every true Union 
heart. He was but a mere child, only 
twelve years old, but with five others was 
ordered to kneel and receive the assas- 
sin's fire. He implored the men not to 
shoot him in the face. " You have killed 
my father and brothers," said he^ "you 
have shot my father in the face ; do not 
shoot me in the face ! " He covered his 
face with his hands. The soldiers received 



the order to fire, and five more fell. Poor 
little Billy was shot in both arms. He 
then ran to an officer, clasped him around 
the legs, and besought him to spare his 
life : " You have killed my old father 
and my three brothers ; you have shot me 
in both arms — I forgive you all this — I 
can get well. Let me go home to my 
mother and sisters." His appeal was dis- 
regarded. The little boy was dragged to 
the place of execution ; again the stern 
word " Fire ! " was given, and he fell 
dead, eight balls having entered his 

body. 

♦ 

Memorable Interview at the White House. 

As a bit of political history that will 
always stand connected with the great 
money crisis during the rebellion, the 
change in the Treasury department caused 
by the resignation of Secretary Chase, 
may here be noticed, especially in its per- 
sonal developments, showing that ' all men 
are but mortal.' 

The President was very low-spirited on 
Thursday — the day on which he sent in 
the nomination of Dave Tod. The feel- 
ing, whether well-founded or not, was uni- 
versal in Congress, that for such a man to 
succeed Mr. Chase was ruinous to the fi- 
nances. On Thursday night Gov. Tod 
sent his declination by telegraph — the 
same as it was received by him. Mr. 
Lincoln went to bed upon it, and, as he 
said, before morning he was satisfied that 
Pitt Fessenden was the man. Early Fri- 
day he ordered the nomination to be made 
out, and Major Hay took it down to the 
Senate. Only five minutes after he had 
left, Senator Fessenden entered the Presi- 
dential apartment and was soon discussing 
the " situation." Mr. Lincoln did not tell 
him what he had done, but discussed Mr. 
Chase's resignation for a short time and 
then said : 

"Mr. Fessenden, I have made a new 
nomination this morning which I trust you 
will approve ; I have sent your own name 
in!" 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC, 



149 



The Senator was greatly surprised and 
amazed. He replied: 

'* You must recall it ; you can overtake 
Hay with a messenger now if you will. 
Please send for him at once for I can not 
possibly undertake it. My health will 
not permit me to think of it for a mo- 
ment." 

But the President was firm. "You 
must take it," he said, and later in the 
day he sent word as follows : u Tell Fes- 
senden to stick." Meantime telegrams 
from all parts of the country came pour- 
ing in upon him, congratulating him upon 
his admirable selection. At night Mr. 
Lincoln was in fine spirits, and he ex- 
claimed to Mr. Seward who was present : 

" The Lord has never yet deserted me, 
and I did not believe he would this 
time ! " 

The strain which the Ship of State 
suffered during this sudden financial com- 
plication will not be forgotten. 



place now, Massa John ; you is in a tight 
place now ! Good bye, Massa John ! " and 
Jim swung away at his usual limping gait. 



Master and Servant meeting 1 in a Strange 
Place. 

There is a quaint old negro to be seen 
every day in the City Building Park, Cin- 
cinnati, who is known and called by the 
name of James Morgan. He acts as a 
sort of Cerberus of the gates, or kind of 
Major Domo of the grounds, sprinkling 
water upon the grass Avhen needed, and 
clearing away the litter that accumulates 
in the paths. Well, James was originally 
a slave to the father of Morgan, the rebel 
chief, but some years ago he contrived to 
make his escape, and found his way to 
Cincinnati, where he has lived ever since. 
Hearing that his young master — the noto- 
rious guerilla Morgan — was in the city 
prison, he made application to the Chief 
of Police to see him, and was admitted. 
The General treated him Avarmly, shook 
hands with him, and congratulated him 
upon his having his freedom. "Yes, 
Massa John," broke in Jim, " you mout 
hab yourn too, if you hadn't gwine in to 
broke up de Union ; but you is in a tight 



Beauty of Nullification and of the Guillotine. 

Napoleon, on one occasion, when speak- 
ing of the French Revolution, called it 
' natre belle revolution' This will do to go 
along with a little occurrence in 1835, 
soon after the excited times of nullifica- 
tion. 

Mr. Calhoun, in a conversation with 
Senator — then Judge — Butler, repeatedly 
called nullification a ' beautiful remedy.' 
The assertion of State sovereignty, against 
an unconstitutional act of Congress, ap- 
peared beautiful in the eyes of Mr. Cal- 
houn. 

"Mr. Calhoun," replied Judge Butler, 
" I am as determined a nullifer as any one, 
and I am as ready to go as far in the as- 
sertion of State sovereignty as you can 
possibly be ;" (Judge Butler and many 
others had, indeed, preceded Mr. Calhoun 
in the open avowal of nullification,) but, 
to save my life, I cannot see the beauty 
of it. Nullification is all right, but as to 
its being beautiful that is another thing. 
It is not unreasonable to suppose that a 
man might have replied to Napoleon — 

" Sire, whatever the French revolution 
may have effected, leaving aside all dis- 
cussions of this sort — to save my life, your 
Majesty, as to the beauty of the guillotine, 
I have never been able to see that ! " 



Stanton and the "Old General." 
Secretary Stanton will be recognized 
by all who ever saw him when in his 
prime, by the following portrait : Stout, 
thick-set, about five feet eight inches high ; 
hair and beard very black, the latter worn 
thick and long ; head set very erect on his 
shoulders — if anything a little thrown 
back ; face round and solid in expression, 
with blunt features ; address prompt and 
practical — voice full, distinct and unmusi- 
cal. He never studied the art of pleasing 
and this left him without the gift of pay 



150 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



ing compliments in conversation. An ex- 
hibition of his thoughtlessness in this re- 
gard was exhibited when the officers of 
the army called to pay their respects to 
him on his induction into the War De- 
partment. An officer well sprinkled with 
gray, but yet with quite a vigorous step 
and clear eye, was presented to Mr. Stan- 
ton. The latter recognized him, and shook 
him warmly by the hand, saying : " I re- 
member you well. I saw you many years 
ago, when you were in the prime of life, 
and I was a little boy about so high," — 
and the new Secretary measured with his 
hand, as he said this, an imaginary lad of 
not over ten years old. The sturdy old 
General turned and walked off without a 
word in reply, evidently not disposed to 
regard himself so ' old' as Mr. Stanton's 
remarks would have implied. 

Quality of Secessionist Oaths. 

The following conversation, which oc- 
curred not far from Nashville, Tenn., will 
give some idea of the estimation in which 
the oath of allegiance to the United States 
is held by many of the chivalry. A 
wealthy secessionist, of high social posi- 
tion, was summoned as a witness before a 
military board : 

Officer. — Are you a loyal man ? 

Secessionist. — I have taken the oath. 

Off. — Are you a friend to the Federal 
Government ? 

Secess. — I cannot say that I am. 

Off. — Well, then, are you a friend of 
the Southern Confederacy? 

Secess. — Yes, I am. 

Offi — And you want its armies to whip 
ours ? 

Secess. — I have always lived in the 
South ; all my property is here, I have 
sons in the Confederate army, and it is 
natural that I should have a desire for our 
side to succeed. 

Offi. — So you want the Confederacy to 
succeed ? 

Secess. — Yes, I do. 

Offi. — Well, Sir, you have a strange 



misconception of your oath of allegiance. 
You have solemnly sworn to support the 
United States, and now you avow that you 
are for the Rebel Confederacy. This 
is nothing but perjury. I shall have to 
commit you for trial. 



Backing: the Commander-in-Chief. 
The story seems to have become quite 
a favorite one, that a well known Senator 
took it into his head to have a special in» 
terview with the President, in order to ask 
a change in a certain particular, relative to 
military operations. The President agreed 
that it was a good one, and promised that 
he would make it. Some time, however, 
intervened, and nothing was done, when 
the Senator again visited the executive 
mansion, and accosted the President with, 
" Well, I see you have not made the 
change.' " No, Sir, General Halleck 
woidd not consent." " Weli, then, why 
don't you dispose of Halleck, if he is al- 
ways in the way ? " " Well," said the 
President, " the fact is, the man who has 
no friends should be taken care of." The 
Senator retired, appreciating the Presi- 
dent's dry compliment to the Commander- 
in-Chief. 



Big- Job in Prospect. 

A brisk and spirited dialogue was that 
which took place between an East Tennes- 
seean loyalist and a Mississippi ' Butter- 
nut' who had been taken prisoner and 
brought into Federal custody. 

" What do you expect to do with us 
Southerners ? " asked the Mississippian. 

" Why, we mean to whip you, Sir ; we 
mean to whip you badly," replied the loy- 
alist. 

" But if you are so sure you can whip 
us, why is it that you have to call in the 
niggers to help you out of the scrape ? " 

" Why, our white men are too valuable 
to risk in battles against rebels. We 
want to save 'em, Sir ! But niggers are 
plenty good enough to shoot traitors with. 
We mean to save our white folks, and 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC 



151 



vrhip you, like the very devil, with your 
own niggers. And the niggers will do the 
job up brown. Before the war is over, 
they will knock the handsights off you, 
and we intend to stand by and see the job 

w^ll done!" 

* 

Garrison at the Grave of Calhoun. 
One of the most impressive scenes — be- 
cause so eminently historical — growing 
out of the war of the rebellion, was that 
of William Lloyd Garrison, the life-long 
Abolition Agitator, upon whose head a 
price in southern gold had for more than a 
quarter of a century rested, standing at 
the grave of the great Apostle of Slavery 
and Secession, John C. Calhoun. It was 
on the very morning, too, April fifteenth, 
18G5, when Abraham Lincoln died. The 
cemetery where the mighty senator's re- 
mains repose is a small one, opposite St. 
Philip's church, in the heart of the city 
of Charleston ; and the monument of the 
great advocate of slavery and nullification 
is built of brick and covered with a large, 
plain slab of marble, inscribed' with the 
simple name — Calhoun. He who sleeps 
beneath was the very soul of the " pecul- 
iar institution," when Garrison began his 
intense warfare against it. The latter 
had now lived to see the power of his 
great antagonist pass away, and just as the 
illustrious Emancipator, who gave to the 
system its final blow, was breathing his 
last, Garrison laid his hand upon the 
monument before him, and said, impres- 
sively, " Down into a deeper grave than 
this, slavery has gone, and for it there is 
no resurrection." It was a scene, take it 
for all in all, that a painter might well 
attempt to reproduce upon canvass. 



War Dispatches in Church. 
Having been requested by President 
Lincoln to proceed to Fort Sumter, and 
deliver an oration on the fourteenth of 
April, 1865, at the unfurling of the na- 
tional flag once more over that renowned 
spot, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher gave 
10 



notice of the fact from his pulpit, on 
the Sabbath previous, hi the following 
words : 

" I am called to accompany the mem- 
bers of the Government and the officers 
of the army, as they go to lift again, over 
the ruins of Fort Sumter, our national 
ensign. At other times, when the pros- 
pect of any such mission seemed to me 
almost visionary — remote, certainly — I 
spoke of it with some jubilation ; but as 
the thing itself draws near, it comes with 
solemn shadows to me. And the sense 
of the magnitude of the work that seem- 
ingly, then, like a girdle, will have clasped 
itself upon this nation, and buckled itself 
in peace, so impresses me, that the great- 
ness of the mission seems such that, 
though I am unaccustomed to tremor, my 
soul trembles within me. There will be 
many that will go to participate in that 
solemn and wonderful event in the history 
of this people ; and I should be sorry if 
there was one that went with any other 
feeling than that of the most profound 
Christian patriotism. And if any man 
goes, supposing that he accompanies me 
upon an errand of triumph and exaltation 
over a fallen foe, he does not know the 
first letter of my feelings. For I go as a 
brother, to say to brethren misled, ' I ap- 
peal to you from yourselves, and from the 
clay of your information to the better day 
of your knowledge.' I go, not to triumph 
over the South, but to say to them, ' Breth- 
ren, after four long years of blood and 
darkness, we bring back to you the same 
hearts of love that you smote at in the 
beginning of this conflict, and are your 
brethren still, if ye will.' If there be 
any minded in that spirit, let them go ; 
and those that may not go, let them tarry 
at home, praying the blessing of God to 
rest, not upon the North, but upon this 
whole undivided land." 

When he had closed the sermon of the 
morning — the subject of which was, the 
Body-man and the Soul-man, or, the Old 
Man and the New Man, — and sat down. 



152 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



and when the singing was about to com- 
mence, Mr. Beecher rose and said — 

" Stop ! Turn to ' America.' We will 
sing that; and I will read a telegraphic 
dispatch that I have just received, while 
you are finding the place ! " 

The reading of the dispatch — which 
was from the Secretary of War to Mr. 
Beecher, and which announced the trium- 
phant success of the National forces under 
General Grant — was greeted with pro- 
longed and enthu- 
siastic applause. — 
When the excite- 
ment, which was 
very intense, had 
subsided, and quiet 
was restored, Mr. 
Beecher said : — s= 
" The Old Man is ] 
being conquered, 
and the New Man 
of Liberty is going | 
to rule after this.'' -J 
America Mas then = 
sung with a depth 
of feeling such as 
the occasion may 
be supposed to have 
inspired, after which the congregation was 
dismissed, by the pastor, with these words : 

" In the name of Almighty God, of 
Justice, and of Humanity, now, men, go, 
and be worthy of your country ! " 



" Es this the Provo's offis ?" 

He was dressed in brown homespun, 
and had an old white wool hat on his 
head, tied on with a handkerchief, and he 
leaned on a brown stick. 

" Es this the Provo's offis ? I want a 
pass." 

Some one here attempted to explain to 
the old gentleman that he was in the 
wrong shop ; but the old fellow, who was 
a little deaf, it seems, mistook this as a 




Accommodating Himself to Circumstances. 

Immediately after the battle of Prairie 
Grove, some rebel officers of rank were 
sent up to Cane Hill, Arkansas, to nego- 
tiate for exchange of prisoners. It was 
during their visit that the amusing scene 
narrated below occurred : 

In a small building close on the only 
street of that crooked village, three Con- 
federate officers, in their best gray uniform, 
were sitting on one side of a table, and 
three Federal officers, in blue, on the other. 
An old gray-headed and gray-bearded man 
came to the door, and incontinently walked 
in, with the query — 



Accommodating Himself to Circumstances. 



hesitation to give him what he wanted. 

" I'm a good l'yal citizen. I've got my 
pertection papers. I've ben to get paid 
for my forage. It's all right." 

There was a slight inclination to laugh 
by sevei'al present; but the old gentleman 
continued to make the most earnest pro- 
testations as to his " l'yalty." 

" Look here, my friend," said Colonel 

W , with a smile, " you had better take 

care what you say about loyalty. Look 
at these gentlemen" — pointing over the 



table — " don't you see they are Southern 
officers ? " 

The old man's hand trembled as he 
now adjusted a dilapidated pair of spec- 
tacles to his eyes, and closely exam- 
ined the gray uniforms with the velvet 
collars and brass stars. His hands trem- 
bled more violently. For the time being 
he seemed to forget the place and surround* 



PATRIOTIC, POLITICAL, CIVIL, JUDICIAL, ETC. 



153 



ings in his fear and bewilderment. At 
last, in great distress, he turned to the 
gentlemen, and began to stammer out his 
explanations : 

" Well, gentlemen, I didn't think. I — 
I didn't mean any thing. I've allers ben 
a Southern man. I've jest got one son, 
and he's with Marmaduke. The only 
other man grown that's lit for sarvice is 
my darter's husband and he's with Rec- 
tor, and — and — " 

" Hold on, old fellow ! " cried Colonel 

W , " what about your being a loyal 

citizen?" 

" Will you inform me," asked Colonel 

P , who sat next to Colonel W , 

" who paid you for your forage ? " 

The old man turned to look at t'other 
side of the table. Again he adjusted his 
spectacles, and looked at the blue coats, 
and in an agony of distress he took off 
his spectacles and his handkerchief and 
hat, and while he leaned on both hands on 
the table, the tears ran down the wrinkles 
of his old face. 

"Well, well, gentlemen," he at last 
found words to say, " you go on an' fight 
it out among yourselves. I can live in 
any government." 



Important "Witness on the Stand. 
In a council held in the city of Charles- 
ton, just preceding the attack on Fort 
Sumter, two commissioners were appointed 
to go to Washington ; one on the part of 
the army from Fort Sumter, and one on 
the part of the Confederates. The Lieu- 
tenant who was designated to go for the 
Loyalists said it seemed to him that it 
would be of little use for him to go, as his 
opinion was immovably fixed in favor of 
maintaining the government in whose ser- 
vice he was employed. Then Governor 
Pickens took him aside, detaining, for an 
hour and a half, the railroad train that was 
to convey them on their errand. He 
opened to him the whole plan and secret 
of the Southern conspiracy, and said to 
him, distinctly and repeatedly — for it was 



needful, he said, to lay aside disguises, — 
that the South had never been wronged, 
and that all their pretences of grievance 
in the matter of tariffs, or anything else, 
were invalid. 

" But," said Governor Pickens, " we 
must carry the people with us ; and we 
allege these things, as all statesmen do 
many things that they do not believe, be- 
cause they are the only instruments by 
which the people can be managed." 

Governor Pickens then and there de- 
clared that the two sections of country 
were so antagonistic in ideas and policies 
that they could not live together, — that it 
was foreordained that northern and south- 
ern men must keep apart on accoimt of 
differences in ideas and policies, and that 
all the pretences of the South about wrongs 
suffered were but pretences, as they very 
well knew. 



Brief but Eventful History. 
The history of a Federal soldier, named 
Robert Lane, who entered the service as 
a private in Loomis's battery, has some 
features which characterize it as one of 
extraordinary qualities. Briefly summed 
up, Lane's chronicles, military and other- 
wise, may be given as follows: After 
being a member of the above-named com- 
pany nearly a year, he was discharged for 
physical disability. He then returned to 
the city of Detroit, where, however, his 
stay was limited, and the next heard of 
him he was in Nashville, connected Avith 
some sutler. Shortly after this he was 
acting as chief clown in a circus — swal- 
lowed the sword, and performed other 
gastronomic feats of more or less wonder- 
fid nature. After this, according to re- 
port, he entered a Kentucky regiment of 
cavalry, but soon closed his connection 
with this troop, whether by discharge or 
desertion is not known. When next heard 
from he was a sergeant in an Indiana regi- 
ment of Infantry, from which he deserted 
to enlist in another, in which greater boun- 
ties were paid. Another regiment, offer- 



154 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



ino - a still higher bonus, induced him to 
risk the chances again. He did so, and 
the next heard of him he was a prisoner 
in the Indiana penitentiary, awaiting court 
martial for his numerous enlistments. 
The trial resulted in conviction, and he 
was sentenced to be shot. The extreme 
penalty, however, was commuted by the 
President to one year's hard labor with 
chain and ball. 



Rather Dcmbtful Allegiance. 
The capture of the Confederate General 
Jeff Thompson revived many anecdotes 
of his eccentricities of speech and man- 
ner. The General is a great talker, and 
is bound to tell a good thing, no matter 
whom it hits. On his arrival at Pilot 
Knob, Missouri, as a prisoner, he had a 
long conversation witli General Fisk, the 
commander at that post. Jeff swore on 
his honor that the Confederacy was a sure 
thing, bound to succeed, and all that. He 
continued : " But confound these fellows 
in south-east Missouri ! When I was 
cavorting around Bird's Point two years 
ago they were all friendly enough ; but as 
I came through the country here as a pris- 
oner,' and told a few of them that I sup- 
posed they were right yet, hang me if they 
didn't have to stop and think which oath 
of allegiance they took last ! " 

No Heart in the Cause. 
A young man, about twenty years of 
age, of marked intelligence and pleasing 
address, made his appearance one day in 
Louisville, as a refugee from the South, 
and from the rebel army, into whose ser- 
vice he had been drawn. He described 
himself as of wealthy parentage, and, be- 
fore the war, was the idolized heir of a 
large plantation in the vicinity of Charles- 
ton, South Carolina. He served nearly 
two years in the rebel army, but, having 



no heart in the cause, he concluded to 
break off, leave his native sunny clime) 
and find a home beneath the colder skies 
of the North. With this determination, 
and having but a scanty wardrobe in his 
possession, he bade adieu to Charleston, 
and set out on foot on his weary journey 
North. He dared not travel on the public 
thoroughfares, for he knew the relentless 
conscripting officers would not let him 
pass. He therefore pursued his lonely 
journey along unfrequented paths, often 
making his bed on the ground, with only 
the starry canopy for a covering. Weary 
steps lengthened into weary miles, and he 
finally arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, 
having traveled the whole of the distance, 
excepting about forty miles, on foot from 
Charleston. 



Wash Liitchtiter, one of Morgan's Converts. 

Wash Litchtiter, of Indiana, was con- 
verted from secesh into a warm Union 
man. Wash had been flogged once or 
twice for cheering for Jeff Davis, but he 
stuck to his principles. One day Morgan 
and his band of thieves came along, and 
Wash gave them a cordial welcome. He 
brought out all the liquor he had and 
treated them well ; told them how he 
loved the South, and hoped that the Yan- 
kees would be whipped out. The banditti 
then asked him for money. He begged 
off, but Morgan said, " Come, old Butter- 
nut, shell out; Ave. want all the spondulics 
you've got ! " 

Wash had to put his nose to the grind- 
stone this time, and fork over; he was 
however so slow about it that they pitched 
in and gave him a thrashing, and then 
carried off everything he had. Wash 
went in for a ' vigorous prosecution of the 
war' ever after, and was mighty glad 
when Morgan went to the State prison, 
where all such fellows belong. 




PART IL— HO! FOR THE WAR J 



PART SECOND. 

ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION— VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, 
COMMUTING, SUBSTITUTING, DESERTING, ETC. 

Noble Instances op Rallying to the Ranks, and of Enlistment among the Aged and 
Young; Hearings, Ludicrous and Perplexing, before the Commissioners; Raw 
Recruits and Eccentric Characters ; Applicants for Exemption ; Ruses and Quib- 
bles to Escape Duty — Strange Phenomena of Nativity, Age, and Infirmities ; Be- 
wildered Surgeons; Luckless Conscripts; Rare Brokerage and Bounty Dealings; 
Flush Purses , Hardships and Miseries ; Side-shaking Gaieties, Jests, Puns, &c, &c. 



" Sound, bugle, sound ! and rally round 
The Star-flag of the Free ! " 

" Lock the shop and lock the store, 
Chalk this down upon the door — 
' We've enlistee/ for the war .' ' 

Put it through! " 
When the order came for me to join my company, sir, I was plowing in the same field in Concord where my grand- 
father was plowing when the British fired on the Massachusetts men at Lexington. He did not wait a minute ; and I 
did not, sir. — Concord (Mass.) Volunteer. 

I can't do anything for him, but I'll tell you what I'll do for you : In case he's drafted and gets killed,— I'll marry 
you myseli '— Gov. Tod, of Ohio, to an aged woman soliciting her husband' s exemption. 

He is my all, but I freely give him to my country.— Consent of a Maine mother for her ' only boy,'' a minor, to enlist. 



How does he Grow 'Em P 

old colored female 
one day approached 
Howard's column of 
Sherman's Georgia 
army, and entering 
into conversation, ex- 
pressed great sur- 
prise as to where 
they all came from. 
A wag informed her 
that old Lincoln had a very productive 
field away up North, where he raised them 
at the rate of a million per year. Turn- 
ing up her white eyes in blank astonish- 
ment, she exclaimed: — 

'* For de Lord's sake, you don't say so ! 
How does he grow 'em ? " 

'• Oh," was the reply, " that is very sim- 
ple. He gathers up all the dead rebels 




from the battle fields, plants them down 
in Massachusetts — after a while they be- 
gin to sprout, and the moment they see a 
chicken they make for it, when Lincoln's 
provost guard catches them and grafts 
them into the army." 

" Bless ye, say so ! And are you 'uns 
dead rebels ? " replied the bewildered 
creature, completely transfixed to the spot 
where she stood. 

" No, we used to be, but we're now live 
Yankees. I'm Bishop Polk, who preached 
down here in Dixie." 

" De debil you aire ! " exclaimed the now 
excited wench — " and what are you doin' 
here ? Come after Misses Bishop and de 
chilen ? " 

" No the children ! " was the 

profane reply ; " we've come to assist in 
whaling out of Jeff Davis." 

"You'll hab to cotch him fust," was the 



158 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



quick response; "guess it's done gone 
job." 

" Well, we'll see," said the soldier ; "it's 
a race between us and the devil, and may 
be O'd Nick will win the heat." 




" How does he grow 'em'" 

" Should'nt wonder. Dis nigger don't 
care neder," remarked the dusky matron, 
as she right-wheeled aud double-quicked 
it back to the house. 



Old Men Turning Out when , England 
Pitches In. 

The attention of travelers on one of the 
Western railroads was considerably at- 
tracted, one day, by the appearance of a 
rather oldish man among a company of 
recruits for the Seventeenth (Irish) Wis- 
consin regiment, who were on board the 
cars, on the way to camp ; he gave his 
name, as follows : — 

" My name is Rufus Brock way, and I 
am in the seventieth year of my age. I 
am a. Yankee from the State of New 
Hampshire ; was a volunteer in the last 
war with England for nearly three years. 
I have served under Gens. Izard, McNeil, 
and Macomb, being transferred from one 
command to another, as the circumstances 
then required. I was at the battle of 
Plattsburg, at the battle of French Creek 
in Canada, and at the battle of Chateau- 
gay, on the fourteenth day of October, 



1813, and was present at the surreuder 
of McDonough. 

I am now a farmer, in the town of Bea- 
ver Dam, Dodge county, and, with my 
son, the owner of three hundred acres of 
land ; my son was a volunteer in the Fed- 
eral army at the battle of Bull Run, had 
his nose badly barked and his hips broken 
in and disabled for life, by a charge of the 
rebel cavalry, and now I am going to see 
if the rebels can bark the old man's nose. 

I tell you (said the old man,) if Eng- 
land pitches in, you'll see a great many 
old men like me turning out, but the great- 
est of my fears is, that I shall not be per- 
mitted to take an active part in the present 
war." 

It was the opinion entertained by all 
those Avho listened to the old man's re- 
marks, that, if he ever should be '* per- 
mitted" to be in an engagement with the 
enemy, he would " take an active part," 
and not be found to have received any 
wound in the back, — but on the " nose " 
side, rather. 



Two Desertions— A Double Tragedy. 
A striking and most sad illustration of 
the effects of civil war in the domestic and 
atfectional sphere is that which the follow- 
ing event discloses. A lady had resided 
with an only daughter for many years in 
Alexandria. In the course of time, a 
mutual friend introduced a young gentle- 
man of his acquaintance, belonging to 
Richmond, to the family. The young peo- 
ple soon became quite intimate in their 
social relations, and, very naturally, fell in 
love. The parents on both sides consent- 
ing, the parties were betrothed, and thtf 
marriage day fixed for the fourth of July. 
In the meantime, however, the Virginians 
were called upon to decide on which side 
they would range themselves in the great 
political and military conflict then spread- 
ing its dark wings over the land. The 
ladies declared themselves heartily on the 
side of the Government, but the gentle- 
man joined the forces of his State. Such 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



159 



was the rapid and widening progress of 
events, that no opportunity was afforded 
for any interchange of sentiments between 
the young folks, or anything settled as to 
their future movements. Matters thus re- 
mained till the fourth of July, when, ex- 
actly within an hour of the time originally 
fixed for the marriage, intelligence was 
received at the residence of the ladies that 
the young man had been shot by a sentry 
two days before, while attempting to desert 
and join his bride. His betrothed did not 
shed a tear at this sudden and overwhelm- 
ing information ; but, standing erect, smiled, 
and then remarking to her mother, "I am 
going to desert, too," fell to the floor, while 
the blood bubbled from her lips, and she 
was soon in the embrace of death. 



Jenkins's Mode of Paroling- Deserters. 

Notwithstanding the sympathy excited 
in behalf of the people of Hagerstown, at 
the time of the rebel raid upon them, some 
of the inhabitants were observed to receive 
the rebels with joy, spreading before them 
the best to be obtained for the morning 
meal. 

On Tuesday, about noon, a lieutenant 
and five men, wearing the uniform of Un- 
ion soldiers, crept out of some of the 
houses of the town where they had been 
concealed, and delivered themselves up. 
When they made their appearance before 
General Jenkins, the following conversa- 
tion occurred : — 

Jenkins. — Halloa ! who are you, and 
where did you come from ? 

Lieutenant. — We belong to the Union 
army, or did belong to it, but we don't 
wish to fight any longer against our South- 
ern brethren ; so when our forces left here, 
we staid behind, and to-day we came out 
to he paroled. 

Jenkins. — What did you say about 

"Southern brethren?" By ! if I 

thought I had a twenty-fifth cousin who 
was as white-livered as you are, I would 
kill him and set him up in my barnyard to 
make sheep ow T n their births. I'll show 



you how I parole such pukes as you are. 
You are too miserable to be paroled in 
military style. 

So saying, he ordered a detail of six 
men and a sergeant — " good lusty fellows, 
with thick boots " — who paroled the re- 
creant federals to the west border of the 
town, where the paroling process ceased, 
and the detail and crowd came back highly 
pleased with Jenkins's mode of paroling 
cowards of that genus. Jenkins's military 
stomach was just then in poor condition for 
rabbit flesh. 



Marian and her Brave Boy in Blue. 

An affair which took place in connec- 
tion with the First regiment of Michigan 
engineers and mechanics, goes far to illus- 
trate the old and never-questioned proverb 
that " when a woman will, she will, depend 
on't,"&c. 

In the fall of 1861, a young man con- 
ceived the idea of joining the above-named 
regiment. He had previously formed the 
acquaintance of a young girl living in the 
same village, whose proper name was Ma- 
rian Green — and, in fact, became enamored 
of her. They were engaged to be mar- 
ried, and she protested against his going 
into the army. He, however, had made 
up his mind to go, and go he did. She 
threatened to follow, but was finally pre- 
vailed upon to remain at home, which, 
however, she only consented to do after a 
solemn promise that her " brave boy in 
blue " would ever cherish and regard her 
as his affianced. The following Decem- 
ber, Marian Green bade good-bye to her 
lover at Ypsilanti, having gone there to 
see him "off for the wars." 

Letters passed regularly, for months, 
between the parties, but Marian grew tired 
of being absent from her lover, and finally 
resolved to join him. This time she kept 
the matter a profound secret. An oppor- 
tunity was soon offered, and she set her 
wits to work to accomplish her long-desu ed 
wish. By an arrangement known only to 
herself and a certain surgeon, she man- 



160 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



aged to enlist in a detachment that was 
subsequently recruited for the regiment, 
and in the summer of 1862, she, together 
with many other new recruits, joined the 
main organization, then engaged in rebuild- 
ing some bridges on the Memphis and 
Charleston railroad. 

Although Marian had informed her 
parents that she was going to leave home 
on a visit to some friends in Illinois, she 
was soon missed, and anxious inquiries 
were made concerning her prolonged ab- 
sence from home. No tidings of her could 
be learned, and the sorrow-stricken parents 
remained ignorant of her whereabouts un- 
til she suddenly made her appearance in 
person, having apparently enjoyed soldier 
life amazingly. She, owing to her boyish 
appearance, while with the regiment man- 
aged to avoid the more arduous labors in- 
cident to that organization, and thus was 
enabled to bear up under the fatigue and 
exertions of a soldier's life. 

As letters written by her lover remained 
unanswered, save by her parents, he be- 
came sad and lonely. Could she have 
deserted him and eloped with another, after 
having so frequently assured him to the 
contrary ? lie could not, for a moment, 
entertain any such idea. That she would 
eventually prove true to her declarations, 
he felt no doubt. Strange forebodings, 
however, crept over his mind, and so 
worked upon his feelings that, in the fall, 
he was taken sick, and was sent to the 
hospital. 

But imagine his surprise, when, after a 
day or two in his dreary quarters, a familiar 
countenance there met his anxious gaze. 
It was none other than the one he cher- 
ished so much — that of Marian Green. 
What transpired at the recognition of each 
other at that time and place may possibly 
be imagined, but would be difficult to de- 
scribe. Suffice it to say, however, that 
mutual explanations followed never to re- 
veal the discovery then and there made. 
Months passed on, and still Marian Gi*een 
remained in the hospital, kindly nursing 



the patients. She kept her sex a secret 
for a time, and would doubtless have done 
so for the whole term of her enlistment, 
had not the young man himself proved 
recreant to his trust. He wrote a letter to 
her parents, informing them of the dis- 
covery, and they soon found means to 
bring home their long-lost daughter. She 
was loth to depart for home, but obedience 
to her parents rendered it necessary that 
she should lose no time in doing their bid- 
ding, especially since her sex had been 
discovered. 

In due course of time her lover returned 
home, and Marian Green, learning that a 
portion of the regiment had been dis- 
charged, proceeded to Detroit, where she 
met the idol of her heart. A justice of the 
peace was soon visited, and the happy pair 
wei'e made one. After the ceremony, they 
returned home to the inland town from 
whence they came, with their hearts full 
of joy and their pockets lined with green- 
backs. 

All this Avas accomplished by Marian 
Green's enlistment as one of Uncle Sam's 
" brave boys in blue." 



Taken In and Done For. 

An entertaining affair occurred at the 
Provost Marshal's office in Springfield, 
Massachusetts, illustrating the truth of the 
well-known adage, " the best laid schemes 
o' mice and men," &c. A citizen of that 
place, desiring to put a representative into 
the grand army, bargained for one at nine 
hundred and fifty dollars with the brokers 
who hung around the office, ready to " take 
in and do for" any timid wight wishing to 
be patriotic by proxy. Two or three can- 
didates were examined, and rejected, and 
the buyer was about to withdraw in de- 
spair, when the brokers announced that for 
nine hundred and seventy-five dollars they 
could " stop a man " — a healthy darkey, 
who was on his way North, but could be 
induced to enlist in Springfield, for the sum 
named. 

The money was promised, and soon the 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC 



161 



substitute elect was produced, bearing a 
letter from his employer — a Captain in a 
returned Massachusetts regiment — to the 
Provost Marshal, stating that the boy, his 
servant, brought from Dixie, wished to go 
as a soldier, and that the money he re- 
ceived was to be placed in a savings-bank 
for his benefit. This philanthropy on the 
Captain's part met the approval of the 
board of enrollment, the young contraband 
proved to be able-bodied, and, as the sequel 
shows, of sound and disposing mind also. 

While undergoing the usual sharp ques- 
tioning characteristic of the Marshal's of- 
fice, it came out that two hundred dollars 
was the sum total which he was to receive, 
while the disinterested Captain and the 
brokers were graciously to pocket the dif- 
ference, Furthermore, he did not wish to 
go as " sub " for any man, but it was his 
delight to march and fight as a Yankee 
volunteer, — and draw the bounties incident 
thereto. He was accordingly enlisted as 
he wished, and when the citizen and brokers 
came for their expected papers, they were 
politely informed that the intended " sub " 
was already a soldier in the service of the 
United States. The citizen cursed his 
luck, the brokers gave vent to their wrath 
in true Flemish style, and claimed the boy 
to return to the man who " owned him." 
Property in man not being recognized in 
the Marshal's office, he was not given up, 
and the brokers went their way, sadder 
but wiser men, threatening never to bring 
another " sub" to that office till " this mat- 
ter was made right." The lofty indigna- 
tion of the Captain on ascertaining the 
failure of his nice little project for filling 
his purse, would have overwhelmed any 
smaller men than those same United States 
officials', and the depth of his patriotism 
was sounded when he declared that he 
would not have allowed his servant to en- 
list had he been informed of the inten- 
tion. 

The new recruit was jubilant over his 
unexpected good fortune, and, determined 
to make the most of his opportunities, elected 



to go as a volunteer for one of the wards 
of the city, receiving thereby the ward and 
city bounties, which, with the State and 
Government bounties, made him up a 
purse of nearly one thousand dollars. 
Could he have now found a dark-skinned 
beauty, willing to have foregone the pleas- 
ures of honey-moon, he would have en 
tered into partnership, sharing fame and 
fortune, for the benefit of the State aid 
that a married man is entitled to. The 
last that was seen of the shrewd volunteer, 
he was marching through Boston with his 
" knapsack strapped upon his back," having 
given to his former master and Captain a 
generous gratuity as a " memento nigri." 



All a Mother Can Do. 
At the time of the first call for voluft 
teers to strike down the rebellion, a mn- 
ti'only lady, accompanied by her son, a fine 
youth of about nineteen years, entered a 
gun-store on Broadway, New York, and 
purchased a full outfit for him. Selecting 
the best weapons and other articles for a 
soldier's use, that could be found in the 
store, she paid the bill, remarking, with 
evident emotion, " This, my son, is all that 
I can do. I have given you up to serve 
your country, and may God go with you ! 
It is all a mother can do." The scene at- 
tracted considerable attention, and tearful 
eyes followed that patriotic mother and 
her son, as they departed from the place. 



Maiden, Wife, "Volunteer and "Widow- Love 
and Patriotism. ' 

An undaunted woman was Mary Owens. 
This remarkable person accompanied her 
husband to the army, fought by his side 
until he fell by the hand of his country's 
enemy, and then returned home in full 
uniform, to tell the adventurous tale of her 
devotion and sufferings. She was hi the 
service eighteen months, took part in three 
battles, and was wounded twice, — first in 
the face above the right eye, and then in 
her ann ; this required her to be taken tc 
the hospital, where she was obliged to con- 



162 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



fess her true sex and the circumstances 
of her being in the ranks. She had en- 
listed in the town of Danville, Montour 
county, Pennsylvania, under the name of 
John Evans, and gave as her reason for 
such a romantic and hazardous undertak- 
ing, the fact that her father was uncom- 
promising in his hostility to her marriage 




Lore aud Patriotism. 

with Mr. Owens, threatening violence in 
case she disobeyed his commands ; where- 
upon, after having been secretly married, 
she donned the United States uniform, en- 
listed in the same company with her hus- 
band, endured all the hardships of the 
camp, and the dangers of tbe field, saw her 
husband fall dead by her side, and return- 
ed home wounded and a widow — young, 
rather pretty, and, of course, the heroine 
of the neighborhood. Though of Welsh 
parentage, she was a genuine Yankee in 
patriotism and " smartness." 



• Got the Point Twisted Around "Wrong-. 

A rural conscript appeared before the 
Eastern Board of Enrolment, Providence, 
Rhode Island, and desired to be exempted 
forthwith, in order that he might return 
to his country home. " What are your 
claims ? " demanded the Doctor. '■'■I'm en- 
tirely dependent upon my mother for sup- 
t ortf" was the innocent reply, Where- 



upon, thus the Doctor rejoined, while a 
smile faintly illumined the face of the 
Board : " I am happy to assure you, my 
honest-hearted friend, that the Govern- 
ment is prepared at once to relieve your 
mother of so unsuitable a burden, and as- 
sume your entire charge and expenses 
during the next three years, without the 
slightest recourse to the maternal fount for 
support or succor." The young draftee 
appeared a little bewildered, and, referring 
to the papers to ascertain what was the 
matter, found that the humanitarian clause 
in the Enrolment Act was not precisely 
in his favor, though he had thought it to 
be. He had innocently got the point 
twisted round just contrary to its word 
and intent, and found, greatly to his — 
'satisfaction,' that he was just the kind 
of young buck to do his country a favor. 



No Fancy for Salt Pork, Hard Tack, and 
Iffinie Bullets. 

Katie Maxwell, with as loyal a spirit in 
her bosom as ever an American maiden 
owned, sat knitting alone in the parlor 
one evening ; she heard the bell ring, and 
knew by the sound whose hand had pulled 
the wire. Her fingers grew unsteady, and 
she began to drop stitches. So she let the 
stocking upon which she was at work fall 
into her lap. She sat very still now, her 
heart beating strongly. The heavy tread 
of George Mason was in the hall. Then 
the door opened, and the young man en- 
tered. She did not rise. In fact, so 
strong was her inward disturbance that 
she felt the necessity for remaining as ex- 
ternally quiet as possible, in order to keep 
from betraying her actual state of mind- 

" Good evening," said Mason, almost 
gaily, as he stepped into the room. Then 
pausing suddenly, and lifting both hands 
in mock surprise, he exclaimed, 

"Blue yarn and soldiers' stockings- 
blue yarn and soldiers' stockings ! Oh, 
Katie Maxwell!" 

Katie did not move nor reply. Her 
heart was fluttering when he came in, but 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



163 



in an instant it regained an even beat. 
There was more in Lis tone even than in 
his words. The clear^ strong eyes were 
on his face. 

" Ha ! ha ! " he laughed, gaily, now ad- 
vancing until he had come within a few 
feet of the maiden. Then she rose and 
moved back a pace or two, with a strange, 
cold dignity of manner that surprised her 
visitor. 

" "What a good actress you would make ! " 
he said, still speaking lightly, for he did 
not think her in earnest. "A Goddess of 
Liberty ! Here is my cane ; raise your 
stocking and the representation will be 
perfect." 

" I am not acting, George." 

She spoke with an air of severity that 
sobered him. 

"You are not?". 

" No ; I cautioned you this morning 
about trifling with things which should 
be held out of the region of trifling," she 
answered steadily ; " If you are not suffi- 
ciently inspired with love of country to 
lift an arm in her defense, don't, I pray 
you, hinder, with light words even, the 
feeble service that a woman's hands may 
render. I am not a man, and can not, 
therefore, fight for liberty and good gov- 
ernment, but what I am able to do I am 
doing from a state of mind that is hurt 
by levity. I am in earnest ; if you are 
not, it is time that you looked down into 
your heart and made some effort to under- 
stand its springs of action. You are of 
man's estate, you are in good health, you 
are not trammeled by any legal or social 
hindrances. Why, then, are you not in 
the field, George Mason ? I have asked 
myself a hundred times since morning this 
question, and can reach no satisfactory 
answer." 

Katie Maxwell stood before the young 
man like one inspired, her eyes flashing, 
her face in a glow, her lips firmly set but 
arched, her slender form drawn up to its 
full height, almost imperiously. 



" In the field ! " he said in astonishment, 
and not without confusion of manner. 

" Yes, in the field ! in arms for your 
country ! " 

He shrugged his shoulders with an 
affected indifference that was mingled with 
something of contempt, saying blandly — 
for he did not give himself space to re- 
flect— 

" I've no particular fancy for salt pork, 
hard tack, and Minie bullets." 

"Nor I for coivards/ " exclaimed Katie, 
borne away by her feelings; and she 
pointed sternly to the door. 

The young man went out. As she shut 
the door she sank into the chair from 
which she had arisen, weak and quivering. 
The blue yarn stocking did not grow un- 
der her hand that night ; but her fingers 
moved with unwearied diligence through 
all the next day, and a soldier's sock, thick, 
and soft, and warm, was laid beside her 
father's plate when he came to the even- 
ing meal. Very sweet were the approv- 
ing sentences that fell from his lips, and 
they had balm in them for the pain which 
had wrought at her heart for many hours. 



For Life, if the Nation will Take Me. 

On the Sunday afternoon after the fall 
of Fort Sumter, Theodore Winthrop was 
walking with a friend in the woods upon 
Staten Island, near his home. No man 
could have a clearer conception of the 
significance of that event. An American 
in the noblest sense, he felt that the time 
had come in which the nation's liberties 
could be maintained only as they were 
Avon. " To-morrow," said his friend, " we 
shall have a proclamation from the Presi- 
dent." " Then to-morrow," he answered, 
I shall enlist. I wish to enroll myself 
at once in the police of the nation, and 
for life, if the nation will take me. I do 
not see that I can put myself — experience 
and character — to any more useful use." 
In this spirit he acted, and such was his 
evident ability that in a month he was aid 



164 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



and military secretary to General Butler, 
and held at bis disposal a first lieutenancy 
in the army. He lost his life in the expe- 
dition that left Fort Monroe- June 9, 1861, 
at Bethel, the rebel riflemen stating that 
they several times took deliberate aim at 
him, as he was all the time conspicuous at 
the head of the advancing Federal troops, 
loudly cheering them on to the assault 
He was shot in the side. 



Making- a Family Matter of It. 
Before the departure of the Fourteenth 
Brooklyn regiment for the seat of war, a 
man who carried on- a blacksmith shop in 
connection with two of his own sons, went 
to head-quarters and concluded to enlist. 
He said that he could leave the blacksmith 
business in the hands of the boys — "he 
could'nt stand it any longer, and go he 
must." He was accepted. Next day 
down came the oldest of the boys. The 
blacksmith business " wasn't very drivin', 
and he guessed John would take care of 
it." " Well," said the old man, " go it." 
And the oldest son went it. But the day 
following, John made his appearance. He 
felt lonesome, and had shut up the shop. 
The father remonstrated, but the boy 
would enlist, and enlist he did. Now the 
old gentleman had two more sons, who 
" worked the farm," near Flushing. The 
military fever seems to have run in the 
family, for no sooner had the father and 
the two older brothers enlisted, than the 
younger sons came in for a like purpose. 
The father Avas a man of few Avords, but 
he said that he " would'nt stand that any- 
how." The blacksmithing business might 
go to the d — 1, but the farm must be looked 
after. So the boys were sent home. Pres 
ently one of them re-appeared. They had 
concluded, on the whole, that one could 
manage the farm, and had tossed up to see 
who should go with the Fourteenth, and 
he had Avon the chance. This arrangement 
Avas finally and definitely agreed to. But 
lo ! on the day of departure the last boy 
of the family Avas on hand to join, and on 



foot for marching. The old man Avas 
someAvhat puzzled to knoAv what possible 
arrangement could have been made which 
AA T ould allow all of the family to go, but 
the explanation of the boy solved the diffi- 
culty. " Father, said he, with a confi- 
dential chuckle in the old man's ear, " the 
fact is, I've let the farm on shares ! " 
Father and four sons went with the Four- 
teenth regiment. 



Something- to Cogitate Upon. 

The movements of the Mackerel Brig- 
ade have engaged to such an extent the 
pen of that eminent historiographer, Mr. 
Kerr, that no additional fact need be 
stated in speaking of their interest and 
importance with reference to the Avar, in 
which the brigade played so distinguished 
a part. One commemorative scene is thus 
portrayed : — 

KnoAving that the Mackerel Brigade 
Avas making preparation to entrap the 
Southern Confederacy at Molasses Junc- 
tion, I ascended to the upper gallery of 
my architectural steed, Pegasus, on Tues- 
day, in order that I might not be unduly 
hurried on my journey. Taking Accomac 
on my Avay to the battle-field, — my boy, — 
I called upon Colonel Wbbert AVobinson, 
Avho is superintending preparations for the 
draft there, and Avas Avitness to an incident 
suitable to be recorded in profane history. 

The draft in Accomac, my boy, is posi- 
tively to take place on the eleventh of 
September; but it is believed that the 
enrolment can be finished before the fif- 
teenth, in which case the draft must not 
take place on the twentieth. In fact, the 
Judge Advocate of Accomac states posi- 
tively that the conscription will take place 
on the first of October ; and \ T olunteering 
is so brisk that no draft may be required. 
At least, such is the report of those best 
acquainted with the more decisive plans 
of the War Department, Avhich thinks of 
joining the temperance society. 

The exempts Avere filing their papers 
of exemption with Colonel Wobert Wob- 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



165 



inson, my boy, and among them was one 
chap with a swelled eye, a deranged neck- 
tie, and a hat that looked as though it 
might have been an elephant's foot-pad. 
The chap came in with a weary walk, and 
says he : 

" Being a married man, war has no ter- 
rors for me ; but I am obliged to exempt 
myself from military affairs on account of 
cataract in my eyes." 

Colonel Wobert Wobinson looked at 
him sympathizingly, and says he : 

" You might possibly do for a Major- 
General, my son ; it is principally business 
that characterizes a majority of our pres- 
ent Major-Generals in the field ; but fear- 
ing that your absence from home might 
cause a prostration in the liquor business, 
I will accept your cataract as valid." 

The poor chap sighed until he reached 
the first hiccup, and then says he : 

" I wish I could cure this here cataract, 
which causes my eye to weep even in the 
absence of woe." 

" Do your orbs liquidate so freely ? " 
says the Colonel, with the air of a family 
physician. 

" Yes," said the poor chap, gloomily, 
" they are like two continual mill streams." 

" Mill streams ! " said Colonel Wobinson, 
meditatively ; " mill streams ! Why, then, 
you had better dam your eyes." 

I think, my boy, I say I think, that this 
kind advice of Colonel Wobert Wobinson 
must have been misunderstood in some 
way, for an instant departure of severally 
piously inclined recruits took place precipi- 
tately, and the poor chap chuckled like a 
fiend. 

It is a grate misfortune of your mother 
tongue, my boy, that words of widely dif- 
ferent meaning have precisely the same 
sound, and in using one you seem to be 
abusing another. 



ment. He had been urging the men to 
come forward and sign the roll, and told 
the women to hurry them up. At this, a 
woman arose in the meeting and addressed 
her husband substantially as follows : "Ira, 
you know that you said before you came 




Ira's Wife and his Breeches. 



here to-night, that you woidd enlist. If 
you don't do it, go straight home and take 
off those breeches, and let me have them, 
and I will go myself!" This brought 
| down the house and brought up Ira, who 
put his name down and became a volun- 
teer. 



Ira's Wife and his Breeches. 
While Mr. Ely was addressing a patri- 
otic meeting in Gosport, N. Y., a little 
scene occurred which created much merri- 



Hard Work for a Drafting-Colonel in Savan- 
nah. 

The scene which ensued on the occasion 
of the Confederate draft for four hundred 
men in Satannah, Georgia, to complete a 
requisition for troops, the requisite number 
not having volunteered, is thus amusingly 
described by an eye witness : 

Fifteen hundred of the business men 
and mechanics of the city were drawn up 
in a hollow square, on the parade ground, 
all in a high state of excitement. The 
Colonel now took his place in the centre, 
and from the back of a magnificent horse, 
in a few well-timed remarks, called for 
volunteers. He said it was a shame that 
a Georgian should submit to be drafted, 



166 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



ind dishonorable to a citizen of Savannah 
to be forced into the service of his coun- 
try. He appealed to their patriotism, their 
pluck, and their — pelf. He told them of 
good clothes, good living, and fifty dollars 
bounty ; and on the strength of these — as 
he thought — conclusive considerations, in- 
vited everybody to walk three paces in 
.front. Nobody did it. An ugly pause 
ensued, worse than a dead silence between 
the ticking of a conversation. 

The Colonel thought he might not have 
been heard or understood, and he repeat- 
ed his catalogue of persuasions. At this 
point one of the sides of the square opened, 
and in marched a company of about forty 
stalwart Irishmen, whom their Captain, in 
a loud and exultant tone, announced as the 
" Mitchell Guards ; we volunteer, Colonel, 
in a body." The Colonel was delighted. 
He proposed " three cheers for the Mitchell 
Guards," and the crowd indulged not inor- 
dinately in the pulmonary exercise. The 
requisite number did not seem to be forth- 
coming, however, and the Colonel made 
another little speech, winding up with an 
invitation to the black drummer and fifer 
to perambulate the quadrangle and play 
Dixie, which they did, but they came as 
they went — solitary and alone ; not the 
ghost of a volunteer being anywhere visi- 
ble in the Ethiopian wake. The Colonel 
looked as blank as if he Avas getting des- 
perate, and a draft seemed inevitable. 

As a dernier resort the Colonel directed 
all who had excuses to advance to the cen- 
tre, and submit them for examination. 
Those who have ever seen a crowd run 
away from a falling building at a fire, or 
toward a dog-fight, or a street show, can 
form some idea of the tempestuous nature 
of the wave that swept toward the little 
table in the centre of the square around 
which were gathered the four grave gen- 
tlemen who were to examine the docu- 
ments. 

It was a scene which, as an uninterested 
outsider, one could only hold his sides and 
laugh at. Hats were crushed into every 



imaginable misshape, ribs punched, corns 
smashed, clothes torn, and canes lest. 
Every hand held its magical bit of paper, 
from the begrimed digits of the individual 
just from a stable or a foundry, to the 
filbert-tapering and dainty-gloved extrem- 
ity of the dry goods clerk, just from his 
counter. Young and old, rich and poor.» 
neat and nasty, Americans, Englishmen, 
Irishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, 
Israelites, and Gentiles, all went to make 
up the motley mass. What a pretty lot 
of sick and disabled individuals there were, 
to be sure. Swelled arms, limping legs, 
spine diseases, corns and bunions, bad eyes, 
toothaches, constitutional debility in the 
bread-basket, eruptive diseases, deafness, 
rheumatism, not well generally — these, and 
a thousand other complaints, were repre- 
sented as variously and heterogeneously as 
by any procession of pilgrims that ever 
visited the Holy Land. 

And so the day progressed, nearly ten 
hours being consumed in the endeavor to 
secure a draft. In the afternoon, the ab- 
sentees were gathered together, and the 
efforts renewed, when, strange to say, every 
man who found the liability imminent of his 
being forced to enlist, protested that he 
was just on the point of doing so, and 
" willingly " put his name to the roll. The 
state of things in Savannah, in respect to 
volunteering in defence ol "• outraged South- 
ern rights," was about on a par with the 
feeling; hi other cities of the South. 



Settling: an Irish Volunteer Case. 

A buxom Irish woman came one day to 
the room of the Supervisors' Volunteering 
Committee, New York, with three Emerald 
lads in tow, about six, eight and ten years 
of age respectively. She pushed rather 
brusquely up to the table where sat Mr. 
Chairman Blunt, with all the qualities of 
lawyer, judge and jury blended harmoni- 
ously into one, and said : — 

"Is Misther Bloont within? Come 
along up here, ye childers," turning to her 
trio. 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



167 



" Yes, I am the man," says the jury, 
judge and counsellor. . 

" Wal, I've fetched the three boys for 
yees.' 

"Whose boys?" 

" Your own, to be sure. Take them and 
make the best ye can of them." 

Here was a nice pickle of fish. The 
clerks in the vicinity and the numerous 
spectators about pricked up their ears, and 
looked knowingly at each other and then 
at Mr. Blunt. 

The latter gentleman for a moment ap- 
peared a little staggered, looked about him 
generally, and ejaculated " Ahem." It was 
an interesting moment, and all waited for 
the next development. 

" My boys ! what do you mean ? " 

" Mane ? " said she ; " I mane that they 
are yer own, and ye must take the care 
of them, for I won't. Didn't ye enlist me 
husband here without me consent ? Put 
him in the nasty army, where I suppose 
he is shot by this time ? Yes ; he's left 
me and left me childers. As ye took him, 
so may ye take me boys, and support them, 
too He's the father of me childers, and 
he has left them and their mither, and 
without a cint to feed them with, and ye — 
ye — ye did it ! " 

" Oh ! be calm, my good woman," says 
Mr. Blunt ; " let us look into this matter. 
Your husband enlisted, did he ? " 

" Yees, sur." 

" Well, I do not enlist any one ; I only 
pay the bounty. Did he get his bounty 
money ? " 

" Yees, sur ; he did — three hundred dol- 
lars ; but niver a divil of a cint did he give 
to me. Ye had no business to give him 
the money. Ndw ye've got him, take the 
childers wid ye." 

'* Well, if you insist upon it, I'll take 
your children and put them in excellent 
quarters." 

" And what will ye did with them ? " 

"Why, put them in the Orphan Asy- 
lum." 

" The Orfen Asylum ! The divil ye 



will ! And do ye think I will have them 
in the Orfen Asylum, and their father isn't 
dead yit, and I am a living soul, their own 
honest mither, standing afore ye ? The 
Orfen Asylum ! " 

The very idea seemed abhorrent to her, 
and she still insisted on " Misther Bloont " 
taking upon himself the care of her " child- 
ers." 

" Have you not seen your husband since 
he enlisted ? " 

" No, sur." 

" How do you know I paid him three 
hundred dollars bounty ? " 

" Michael McGuire, who went with him, 
told me so." 

" Now, what is your name ? " says Mr. 
B. 

" Me name is Margaret Phelin." 

" And your husband's name ? " 

" Patrick Phelin ; and these are the three 
little Phelins — all we have." 

The Supervisor directed one of his clerks 
to refer to the books for that name. It 
was soon found, with the fact also that Mr. 
Blunt had, at Patrick's request, deposited 
the money in the savings bank to the credit 
of his wife Margaret. Here, then, was a 
discovery. Says Mr. B. to Margaret : 

" Patrick, you say, left you no money ? " 

" No, sur, and the more shame to him ; 
for he was a good man, Patrick." 

"What would you do with the three 
hundred dollars, if you had it ? " 

"Bless yer Honor, I'd put it in the 
praist's hands or the savings bank, and 
keep it safe for Pat and the boys." 

"You wouldn't spend it, nor fool it 
away ? " 

" In fath, I would not." 

"And you would bring up your boys 
well and send them to school ? " 

" Indade I would." 

" Well, my good Avoman, the money is 
all safe in the bank and belongs to you. 
I placed it there for you at Patrick's re- 
quest. It shows he is a good man, and you 
see to it that you make him a good wife 
while he is away." 



168 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



The woman was overwhelmed with 
astonishment as well as gratitude at this 
piece of unexpected good luck, and poured 
out her thanks upon him whom she was a 
few minutes before anathematizing, and in 
such a demonstrative manner as the native 
Irish alone can evince. The tables were 
fairly turned, and no father was wanted 
for the " childers." 



Girl-Recruit for the Cavalry. 
A dashing young woman in male attire 
visited the city of Rochester, New York, 
and sought admission to the army as a vol- 
unteer. She was dressed in dark clothes 
and wore a soft hat with a gilt cord around 
it, and had the general air of a soldier. 
She went to the head-quarters of the Third 
Cavalry, in the Arcade, and there made 
her application to Sergeant White, of Com- 
pany H, to be enlisted as a soldier. She 
stated to the officer that she had served 
eighteen months in the infantry, and had 
been wounded in one of her limbs, was 
put into hospital, and then discharged. 
Sergeant White thought she was rather 
Tight for the service, but said she might 
perhaps go in as bugler. She replied that 
it was just what she would like, and to 
show her capacity she whistled one or two 
calls. 

The Sergeant, not at all suspecting that 
he was dealing with a female, familiarly 
put his hands upon her chest and arms, 
and remarked that she was rather queerly 
made. Finally he started with her for the 
office of the surgeon, «o be examined, she 

having signed her name as Johnson, 

on the roll. Just before reaching the office 
of the surgeon, the recruit said to the Ser- 
geant that she could not be examined, and 
if she went in it must be without that. 
The Sergeant replied that the law was im- 
perative. She then disclosed her sex as a 
reason why she craved exemption from the 
customary examination. This ended the 
matter so far as Sergeant White was con- 
cernedo He introduced the recruit to a 
number of officers, and none of them sus- 



pected her sex. The Sergeant did not be- 
tray the confidence reposed in him by the 
girl, until she had time to get out of the 
way. One of the lieutenants of the Third, 
who conversed with this recruit, expressed 
his doubts as to the young man being old 
enough or tall enough for such service. A 
measurement, however, showed that he 
was over five feet high, and though he 
claimed to be eighteen years of age, the 
lieutenant protested that he could not be 
over sixteen. 



Fate of a Co-ward. 
The following is one among the many 
curious cases resulting from the draft. In 
the month of July, 1863, a man in Ames- 
bury, Massachusetts, was drafted, and on 
the 27th of that month he presented a 
claim for exemption as the only son of an 
aged and dependent mother. On this, an 
investigation took place, which proved 
that the woman he called his mother was 
only one who had adopted him, and the 
claim was not allowed. He then suggest- 




Fate of a Coward. 



ed that perhaps his teeth might exempt 
him ; but an examination caused that also 
to he dismissed. The next day or the 
day after he went to Newburyport and 
had eight teeth extracted, and in four or 
five days afterward he called at the office 
for exemption, and was duly exempted for 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



169 



loss of teeth. A short time after, these 
facts came to the knowledge of the pro- 
vost officers, the man was at once arrested, 
and the allegations substantiated. The 
case was now reported to the Provost- 
Marshal-General, who ordered that the 
man be held to service and assigned to the 
artillery, without the privilege of commu- 
tation or furnishing a substitute. He was 
soon on his way to Gallop's Island. 



" I likes de Job." 
A stalwart descendant of the Nubian 
race, buttoned to his chin with nine brass 
eagles, his Burnside hat surmounted with 
a feeble plagiarism of the " Prince's feath- 
er," his feet encased snugly in a pair of 
'' broadhorn " coal boots, built of leather, 
and his lips of a character not especially 
commented on in the " Song of Solomon," 
pleasantly vouchsafed to those around him 
the following little military apostrophe. 
Striking the most graceful attitude of Dick 
SAviveller, puffing a weed fresh from the 
remarkably choice stock of an army sutler, 
he cocked one eye condescendingly upon 
his listeners, as he defined his position : 
*' Yer see," said he, " dis life is diff'ent from 
what I used to live — no pickin' cotton in 
de field now — no sore sliins, no jeens 
clothes — no oberseer — no hckins. I'se a 
soger now- — thirteen dollars a month, plen- 
ty grub, and good clothes. I always 
'haves myself, and gits furlough. I likes 
de job, myself ! Ha, ha, ha ! " 



Sad Result of Patriotic Courage in a Youth. 

Robert was a conscientious, likely 

young man, who was one of those persons 
honored by the draft, in one of the pleas- 
ant villages of New England. His state 
of bodily health was such that he could 
have availed himself, if he had chosen, of 
one of the ' humane clauses ' of the origi- 
nal conscription act, but being patriotic 
and honest, he felt it to be his duty to 
obey the call of his government. Before 
leaving his village home, he married the 
girl of his choice, and then left her and 
11 



his doting mother to pray for his early re- 
turn to them. In the course of time it 
was rumored that the young soldier was 
sick in a Washington hospital. Now, 
Robert was never fit to enter the service, 
and the severe marches between the Po- 
tomac and the Rapidan were too heavy a 
tax upon his slender frame. Sure enough, 
he fell sick, and was lucky enough to get 
into a Washington hospital. One Sunday 
morning, afterwards, a friend went to 
Harewood hospital, to find Robert. In re- 
ply to his inquiries, he was told that the 
young soldier had recovered, and had been 
transferred to the invalid corps. The 
friend was rejoiced at this announcement, 
but as he was leaving, he met a surgeon, 
and asked him more particularly respecting 
the soldier in question. He replied very 
quickly, "You have been misinformed. 

Charles has been transferred to the 

invalid corps, but Robert died last night of 
typhoid fever ! " This is one of ten 
thousand incidents, of a similar kind, 
in the heart-history of America's great 
rebellion. 



Jim Morgan and the New Recruit. 

The arrival of new recruits always was 
taken advantage of by the old soldiers, as 
an excellent opportunity to gratify their 
love for jokes and sells, of which they did 
not fail to have an abundant and varied 
supply, to suit different cases and circum- 
stances. 

On one of these occasions of camp haz- 
ing, General James Morgan, from Illinois, 
and commanding a brigade in Davis's Di- 
vision, was drawn in as one of the dra- 
matis personce. The General being one 
of those men who would be very apt to 
be mistaken for a wagon-master, on ac- 
count of his plain and unassuming manner 
and dress, advantage was duly taken of 
this for a 'lark.' A new recruit of his 
brigade lost some books, and made inquiry 
of a Veteran where he would be likely to 
find them. Veteran informed him that 
the only thief in the brigade was Jim 



170 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Morgan, who did the teaming, and who 
occupied a tent near the blue flag. Away 
ran recruit to Morgan's tent, shoved his 
head in, and asked, 

" Does Jim Morgan live here ? " 
" Yes," was the reply, " my name is 
James Morgan." 

" Then I want you to hand over those 
books you stole from me " 

" I have none of your books, my man." 
« it's a — lie," indignantly exclaimed 
the recruit. The boys say you are the 
only thief in camp ; turn out them books, 
or I'll grind your infernal carcass into ap- 
ple sass." 

The General relished the joke much, 
but seeing the sinewy recruit peeling off 
his coat, thought it time to inform him of 
his relations to the brigade, — at which the 
astonished recruit walked off, merely re- 
marking, " Wall, — me if I'd taken you 
for a Brigadier. Excuse me, General, I 
don't know the ropes yet." 



"Wanted to Draw on the Blue Clothes. 

Commissioner Blunt, of New York, 
while superintending the local bureau of 
drafting in that city, received the following 
note in " fair and gentle lines :" — 

" O. Blunt — Sir : Pardon me for the 
liberty I have taken ; but I am an able- 
bodied woman, and if you will enlist me 
I will put on soldier's clothing and go. 
There shall never be any one the wiser 
until my time has expired, if I could se- 
cure the doctor, and that is done very easy, 
I suppose. I think I should make a bet- 
ter soldier than a great many who draw 
on the blue clothes, and are always talk- 
ing but won't fight. Yours, etc., 

Miss Hattie , 55 street." 

Of course the fair Hattie was allowed 
to dispense her charms in her accustomed 
sphere instead of donning the " blue 
clothes" and to show " fight" with her pen 
instead of with the sword or bayonet. 



Fannie and Nellie of the Twenty-fourth 
New Jersey. 

Miss Fanny Wilson was a native of 
Williamsburg, Long Island, and about one 
year prior to the war she went to the 
West, visiting a relative who resided at 
Lafayette, Indiana. While there, her 
leisure moments were frequently employed 
in communicating by affectionate epistles 
with one to whom her heart had been 
given and her hand had been promised 
before leaving her native city — a young 
man from New Jersey. After a residence 
of about one year with her western rela- 
tive, and just as the war was beginning to 
prove a reality, Fanny, in company with 
a certain Miss Nellie Graves, who also 
had come from the East, and there left a 
lover, set out upon her return to her home 
and family. While on their way thither? 
the two young ladies concocted a scheme, 
the romantic nature of which was doubt- 
less its most attractive feature. 




Fannie and Nellie. 

The call for troops having been issued, and 
the several States coming quickly forward 
with their first brave boys, it so had hap- 
pened that those two youths whose hearts 
had been exchanged for those of the pair 
who then were on their happy way toward 
them, enlisted in a certain and the same 
regiment. Having obtained cognizance 
of this fact, Fanny and her companion 



VOIUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



171 



conceived the idea of assuming the uni- 
form, enlisting in the service, and follow- 
ing their lovers to the field. Their plans 
were soon matured and carried into effect. 
A sufficient change having been made in 
their personal appearance, — their hair cut 
to the requisite shortness, and themselves 
re-clothed to suit their purpose, — they 
sought the looality of the chosen regiment, 
offered their services, and were accepted 
and mustered in. In just another compa- 
ny from their own, of the same regiment 
— the Twenty-fourth New Jersey — were 
their patriotic lovers, ' known though all 
unknowing.' On parade, in the drill, 
they were together ; they obeyed the same 
command. In the quick evolutions of the 
field they came as close as they had in 
other days, even on the floor of the dan- 
cing school ; and yet, notwithstanding all 
this, the facts of the case were not made 
known. 

But the Twenty-fourth, by the fate of 
war, was ordered before Vicksburg, hav- 
ing already served through the first cam- 
paign in Western Virginia ; and here, alas, 
for Fanny, she was to suffer by one blow. 
Here her brave lover was wounded. She 
sought his cot, watched over him, and half 
revealed her true sex or nature in her de- 
votion and gentleness. She nursed him 
faithfully and long — but he died. 

Next after this, by the reverse of for- 
tune, Fanny hei'self and her companion 
were both thrown upon their hospital cots, 
exhausted and sick. With others, both 
wounded and debilitated, they were sent 
to Cairo. Their attendants were more 
constant and scrutinizing. Suspicion be- 
gan to be excited, — the discovery of Fan- 
ny's and Nellie's true sex was made. Of 
course the next event in their romantic 
history was a dismissal from the service. 
But not until her health had improved 
sufficiently was Fanny dismissed from the 
sick ward of the hospital. This happen- 
ed, however> a week or two after her s*ex 
had become known. Nellie, who up to 
this time had shared the fate of her com- 



panion, was now no longer allowed to do 
so; her illness became serious, she was 
detained in the hospital, and Fanny and 
she parted — their histories no longer be- 
ing linked. 

Having again entered society as a mem- 
ber of her real sex, Fanny was next 
heard of en the stage of a theatre at Cai- 
ro, serving an engagement as a ballet girl. 
But this was for only a few days. She 
turns up in Memphis, even as a soldier 
again ! But she had changed her branch 
of the military service, having become a 
private in the Third Illinois cavalry. Only 
two weeks, however, had she been enlisted 
in this capacity, when, to her utter sur- 
prise, she was stopped by a guard and ar- 
rested fur being a woman in men's cloth- 
ing. She was taken to the office of the 
detective police and questioned until no 
doubt remained as to her identity, not 
proving herself, as was suspected, a rebel 
spy, but a Federal soldier. An appropri- 
ate wardrobe was procured her, and her 
word given that she would not again at- 
tempt a disguise. A brief description of 
Fanny would be that of a young lady of 
about nineteen years, of a fair but some- 
what tanned face, rather masculine voice, 
sprightly and somewhat educated mind — 
being very easily able to pass herself off 
for a boy of about seventeen or eighteen 
years. 



Table Turning: at the Recruiting- Office. 

The idea had become pretty general 
that no one was sharp enough to outwit 
or cheat a broker in bounties for army re- 
cruits ; but, in one instance at least, this 
illusion was dispelled in the goodly village 
of Gotham — sometimes known as the city 
of New York, — where one of the frater- 
nity was more than matched at the rooms 
of the municipal committee or commission 
on the draft. 

The broker in question attempted to 
take a man into the State of Connecticut 
as a substitute, for which act he confessed 
he was to receive the little sum of seven 



172 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



hundred dollars. He was on the point of 
being arrested, but earnestly declared that 
he did not know of any law against it, 
and, promising fairly for the future, was 
let off. His next effort was with a party 
to whom he offered to give five hundred 
dollars to go as a substitute. The parties 
appeared at the rooms of the city commit- 
tee ; matters looked all right ; the broker 
deposited the three hundred and thirty- 
five dollars with the committee, as usual, 
(which was of course to be paid over to 
the substitute when he had passed,) and 
he paid to the substitute, into his own 
hands, the balance, one hundred and sixty- 
five dollars, — which made the five hun- 
dred. 

They now proceeded to the surgeon's 
apartment, for examination of the man's 
bodily condition, the substitute in the 
meantime having quietly and secretly 
given his one hundred and sixty-five dol- 
lars ' hand money ' to some sly friend, who 
was probably hanging about for the pur- 
pose. The examination progressed in the 
usual manner, when the surgeon an- 
nounced that the substitute would not 
pass ! Substitute probably knew this be- 
fore he started. Now the broker wanted 
his one hundred and sixty-five dollars 
back again ; but the substitute had not 
got it — he had just sent it home to his 
wife. The wife was sent for ; she had 
seen no money from any quarter, and had 
received nothing but a black eye, which 
she said her husband gave her when a lit- 
tle how-come-ye-so. Substitute was again 
questioned, then stripped and thoroughly 
examined, but nothing turned up' but a 
certificate pledging him an extra hundred 
to go to Brooklyn ; " But," said substitute, 
" my honor was at stake, and I would not 
leave the city." 

The broker was of course dumbfounded 
and amazed — silent with sorrow that he 
had at last found a man who could " do " 
him. But he was "done" most effectual- 
ly — done out of his 'one hundred and 
sixty-five ' clean, and also out of the two 



hundred dollars which he would have se- 
cured from his principal. He withdrew 
his three hundred and thirty-five dollars, 
from the hands of the committe, bade an 
affectionate farewell to Supervisor Blunt, 
declaring that ' There were two things he 
never expected to see in his day, viz., any 
one getting ahead of the supervisor, or 
being himself cheated. The last sad 
event he had experienced to-day, much to 
his grief, the other might yet happen, for 
it now appeared there were sharper ones 
to look after than the bounty-brokers — 
farewell ! ' 

With a wave of the hand the honesv 
broker retired — to meditate, probably, 
over the gross and open-handed corrup- 
tions of the day. 

♦ 

Nervous Customer in the Red Tape Depart- 
ment. 

When Washington was being besieged 
by the rebel raiders, there came into the 
Adjutant- General's office a man anxious to 
serve the country. He was old and bent, 
long and gray of hair, coarse and strong 
j of features, nervous and trembling of hand, 
i slow and shambling of step, husky and 
uncertain of voice, quick and wandering 
of eye. " I want to go into the service ; 
aren't we to have a chance ? Isn't there 
j to be any call on the people of the city to 
I rise against the invaders ? " " Please step 
up to the Provost-Marshal-General's office, 
Sir," answered one of the clerks, as he 
winked at his neighbor. " But I don't 
want to run around — I want to go into 
service to help repel the invaders of our 
homes." " Certainly, Sir, certainly ; but 
you'll have to go up there to be enrolled," 
replied the clerk. The old man left. 
Half an hour later he was seen up stairs, 
talking with Colonel McBeever. " It's a 
damnable shame that the rebels have got 
into Maryland," said he ; " the invaders 
must be driven out, and I want to help do 
it. I am an old man, but I can handle a 
musket yet." " Certainly, Sir, certainly ; 
just step over to the Quartermaster's De- 
partment, and you'll find them organizing 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



173 



a company for immediate service, into 
which you can go at once. Shall I send 
a messenger to show you over there, 
Sir ? " " Oh, no— I'll find it ; I'll find it." 
He went out, muttering something about 
the invaders ; but showed his confidence 
in official movements and directions, by 
turning deliberately and going the other 
way from the Quartermaster General's 
Department. 



Career of Frank Henderson. 
The war produced many heroines, and 
turned up from the humbler walks of life 
many rough stones that proved to be the 
genuine diamonds. But probably no army 
ever opened so many doors for romance as 
did the army of the United States during 
the southern rebellion. Accounts pre- 



iilii'llM 




Career of Fr;ink Henderson. 

seated themselves almost daily to the eye, 
of the valorous deeds of females fighting 
in the ranks for months, without their sex 
being divulged ; and in most of these cases 
there was connected with, their history 
some love experience or matter of ro- 
mance that had an important bearing upon 
their action. The following case of triple 
enlistment shows a military penchant 
quite rare and remarkable. 



While our army was at Chattanooga, 
Colonel Burke, of the Tenth Ohio, went 
out to Graysville, Georgia, under flag of 
truce, with authority from General 
Thomas to exchange twenty-seven prison- 
ers in our hands for an equal number in 
the hands of the rebels, the preliminaries 
of which had been previously arranged. 
Among the number in the hands of the 
enemy was a member of the Ninetieth 
Illinois, who may be called Frank Hen- 
derson. 

Frank's history was briefly this : On 
the breaking out of the rebellion she had 
an only brother, the only relative, living 
in Chicago, Illinois. The brother enlisted 
in the Eleventh Illinois infantry, and be- 
ing left alone in the world she resolved to 
enlist in the service in order to be near 
her brother. She enlisted in the Eleventh, 
participated in its engagements, and on 
the mustering out of the regiment for the 
three months' service she was discharged, 
without her sex having been discovered. 
She next enlisted in the Third Illinois 
regiment, and served for several months, 
during which time she managed to retain 
her secret, and by her staid liabits won 
the universal esteem of the officers. 

Wounded in one of the battles in which 
she participated, she was discharged. But 
Frank's love for the service did not per- 
mit her long to pursue the inert life inci- 
dent to home, and the organization of the 
Ninetieth Illinois regiment offered her an 
opportunity to gratify her love for a mili- 
tary life. She enlisted as a private in 
Colonel O'Mara's regiment, and proved 
herself an excellent soldier. She served 
in all the battles of that regiment, and 
was present at the capture of Holly 
Springs by the rebels — denounced by her 
as a disgraceful proceeding on the part of 
our forces, who could have held the place. 
In the latter part of the summer, while 
the regiment was marching through Flor- 
ence, Alabama, she asked and obtained 
permission of her Colonel to enter a house 
1 in search of something to eat ; her regi- 



174 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



merit moved on, and while waiting for the 
supper to be prepared in the house where 
she Avas, two rebels crawled out from un- 
der a bed, and presenting themselves be- 
fore her, ordered her to surrender. 

Thus in their power, she was forced to 
yield herself a prisoner, and was taken to 
Atlanta, Georgia, and there placed in 
duress. In a few weeks after her arrival, 
Frank made a desperate attempt to es- 
cape, and when ordered to halt by the 
guard, paid not the least attention to the 
demand, and was fired upon. The ball 
took effect in her leg, and she continued 
to suffer from the wound. Colonel Burke, 
while out with the flag of truce, effected 
her exchange, among others, and she be- 
came an inmate of the hospital, where in 
due time she happily recovered from her 
wounds. From the time of her first en- 
listment, which was in June, 1#61, until 
some weeks after her capture, she kept 
her sex a secret from everybody, nor was 
there ever any suspicion excited in regard 
to her not being of the sex whose attire 
she wore. In personal appearance she 
was prepossessing, and her whole demean- 
or was such as would have done no dis- 
credit to the best man in the ranks- 



Fearful Ordeal for a Deserter. 

One of the privates in the Nineteenth 
Indiana regiment having deserted his post, 
was tried by a court martial, and found 
guilty, the punishment being death for 
such a crime. His execution was deferred 
for some time, and he was kept in a pain- 
ful state of suspense. At last, the time 
was fixed for his execution, and five regi- 
ments were drawn up in line to Avitness 
it, while a file of twelve men Avere in ad- 
A r ance to execute the sentence of death by 
shooting him. 

The prisoner was led forAvard blind- 
folded, and the usual Avords of preparation 
and command were given in a Ioav, meas 
ured tone, by the officer in charge of the 
proceedings. During the interval betAveen 
the orders, " Take aim," and " Fire," and 



before the last Avas given, a horseman rode 
rapidly up the road, waving in the air a 
paper, which was understood by all pres- 
ent to be a reprieve. Covered Avith dust 
and perspiration, the officer rode hurriedly 
up to the officer in command, and deliv 
ered to him Avhat really proved to be a 
reprieA*e. 

The shout, " Reprieve ! " fell upon the 
poor soldier's ear, which Avas already 
strained to the utmost in anticipation of 
hearing the last and final Avord that Avas 
to usher his soul into the presence of his 
Creator ; it Avas too much for him, and he 
fell back upon his coffin apparently dead. 
The bandage Avas removed from his eyes, 
but reason had taken its flight, and he be- 
came a hopeless maniac. He Avas dis- 
charged and sent home to his friends. 
His death had really never been intended ; 
but it AA'as deemed necessary for the good 
order and discipline of the army to make 
an impression not only upon himself, but 
the whole brigade ; for that purpose the 
forms of the execution Avere regularly 
gone through Avith, in presence of five 
regiments, and the reprieve arrived in 
good time, as it Avas intended. It Avas 
sought by this means to solemnly impress 
upon the Avhole assemblage of soldiers the 
necessity of a strict observance of duty 
and obedience, under the penalty of an 
ignominious death. It AA'as a fearful or- 
deal for the deserter, but it was certainly 
better than to have completed the tragedy 
by sending his soul into " that Avorld 
which no mortal doth knoAV." 

From Deck to Camp. 
As some of the prisoners captured from 
Grant's Virginia Army were halting, when 
on their way to the Libby Prison, a south- 
erner, observing a rather good looking for- 
eigner among. the number — and stepping 
up to him, said, "What! are you down 
here fighting us — you are no Yankee." 
"No, Sir," said the soldier, hanging his 
head. " Why, then, do you come to fight 
us," continued reb, " if you have no com- 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



n« 



mon sympathy with the Yankees ? " "Well, 
Sir," said the prisoner, "I will tell you. 
I am a foreigner. I landed in New York 
not more than a month ago. I got drunk, 
and the first thing I knew I found myself 
in camp." This shrewd make-up did not 
save him from entering the portals of the 
rebel prison-house. 



Noble Words and Acts of a Slavemaster. 
Hon. Mr. McClurg, the well known 
member of the United States House of 
Representatives from Missouri, showed his 
patriotism by giving written permits to 
several of his slaves to go into the army, 
securing to each of them whatever com- 
pensation he himself might be entitled to 
as a loyal owner, and stipulating that in 
case of the death of the men, their wives 
and children should receive the moi ey. 
He also wrote a letter to his "yellow 
man," Caswell, hi which he sa'd to him: 
" Make your own choice. If you go into 
the army, let me hear frequently from you. 
Make peace with your God and you need 
not fear death. Be temperate ; save your 
earnings. If you ever fight, fight with 
desperation, and never surrender. Enroll 
your name as Caswell McClurg, and try 
to give honor to it. In the army use 
your idle hours in learning to read and 
write." 



science would not allow her to use the 
money, and she had come all that distance 
to return it to the proper authorities, 
which, she besought Dr. Thompson to do 
for her. The Dr. took it to Colonel Rob- 
erts, of the second district, who however 
declined to receive it, on the ground that 
it had been paid to the recruit legally, and 
if he had committed any subsequent act 
that was not right, the return of his money 
would not inake it so. If arrested as a 
deserter, he ^rnild have to suffer the con- 
sequences. So the woman received back 
the money she had so conscientiously 
brought with her. 



Strong: Case of Conscience. 
A remarkable instance of honesty — re- 
markable especially on account of its con-, 
nection with the war and Government — 
happened in Cincinnati. A woman in al- 
most destitute circumstances came to that 
city, a stranger, from Canada, and being a 
Presbyterian herself, she sought out a 
minister of that denomination, Rev. Dr. 
Thompson, to whom she confided the fact 
that her husband had volunteered in the 
United States army, obtained Government 
and local bounty to the amount of three 
hundred dollars, and then deserted. He 
had left the money with her and then gone 
off, perhaps to enlist again. Her con- 



Poorer Pay but Better Business. 

The following remarks were made by a 

non-commissioned officer of the New 

York artillery, in a hotel in that city; 
The officer was at home on a twenty days' 
leave, given him on account of his remark- 
ably good conduct and bravery. Though 
he describes himself as a "loafer," no one 
will deny him the character of a true man 
and patriotic soldier. The conversation 
was started by the entrance into the room 
of a black French poodle. He said: 

" There's a French poodle, /know it is.. 
I used to be in the fancy dog business my- 
self, before I went to soldiering. Did I 
find soldiering pay better? Yes, I did! 
I always spend all I can get. I can't help 
it. You see I am a loafer, I am. I get 
my little seventeen dollars a month for the 
little place I have in the battery, and I 
spend it all and I fight for my country. 
Here, in New York, I used to get more 
money, but I spent it all and it didn't do 
me any more good than what I get now. 
And then I know all the time I am doing 
my country's work. You see there are 
soldiers and there are 'sogers?' I'm a 
soldier clear through. We have lost two 
batteries since this war began, and I have 
been all through the fighting from the first. 
We came out of one fight with seven men, 
and out of another with five. It seems 
strange to me that while I saw men laid 



176 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION, 



out all around me, who had wives, and 
mothers and babies, I shouldn't be hit. I 
am a loafer: I haven't got a mother, or a 
wife, or a baby, or a sister, or a brother. 
But they spared me, and killed hundreds 
of men who had lots of folks to mourn for 
them. I wish, sometimes, that I could 
have been laid out in the place of any of 
those poor fellows. Nobody would cry 
for me, but there would be some honor in 
dying for my country. I am going back 
in a few days, and if I sho^i get an arm 
or a leg shot off, I should have to come 
back to New York and beg for my living. 
I hope if they hit me they will kill me. 
I am ready to die any time for my coun- 
try." 

Had every man who enlisted in the war 
for the Union been of the above stamp, 
the conflict would have been a short one. 



Sole Condition for Re-enlisting?. 

While a visitor to General Butler's 
army before Richmond was threading his 
way through one of the camps, a good 
lor king, cleanly dressed, full bearded sol- 
dier attracted his attention by a gesture 
which was half salute and half beckon. 
Reining up, for there seemed to be a de- 
sire to speak, the soldier advanced, and, 
folding his arms and standing at his full 
length, began: 

" Sir, do I look like a beggar ? Look at 
me and say if I appear as if I were ha the 
habit of begging ? " 

The visitor answered in the negative, 
and desiring to know whether he had any- 
thing to beg for then, got his story. Said 
he— 

" Do you chew or smoke ? Now I don't 
know whether you are an officer, or a 
chaplain, or a sutler, or a quartermaster's 
clerk, but if you have any tobacco with 
you, for God's sake divide with me. You 
see I've not been paid for five months, so 
I can't buy any, and I must have a smoke 
— can't stand it any longer, am homesick 
as a school girl, be hanged if I haven't 
come confounded near deserting. (Here 



he stopped short to light a segar the vis 
itor had handed him, along with a more or 
less of Killikinnick.) When (puff,) I get 
back (puff, puff,) to Connecticut, I mean 
to raise (puff, puff,) raise tobacco by the 
acre, and, hang me, (puff, puff,) — hang me, 
if I don't give it all away to poor devils 
that haven't money to — (puff, puff, puff,) 
— poor devils that haven't money to buy 
any." 

In further conversation, he declared that 
he would re-enlist if he could be sure of 
obtaining tobacco regularly, and he would 
not re-enlist — not he! — unless he could be 
sure of it. 



After the Firing- on Old Sumter. 

"Well, father! the traitors have fired 
on old Sumter!" exclaimed Captain Grant, 
as he entered the store in Galena, on the 
morning of the loth of April, 1861. 

"What! fired on the American flag?" 

" Yes ! a body of seven thousand rebels 
have attacked Major Anderson in the fort, 
set the barracks on fire, and driven our 
brave boys out!" 

" Did Anderson give up the colors ? " 

"No, Sir: he has carried them with 
him, and brought them off in triumph. 
God bless him." 

"This is startling news, my son. What 
shall we do to restore the flag?" 

"I tell you Avhat I shall do, Sir! I shall 
volunteer ! " 

"Good. I like your pluck. I would 
do the same, if I were not too old. But 
what will your wife say to it?" 

"My family, father, are hi the hands of 
my God and my country. I believe that 
both God and country are calling me to 
volunteer; and I am not afraid to have 
my family in such good hands." 

In a few moments more our hero was 
across the threshold of his house. 

"AVife, what do you say? I am going 
again to war." 

There was an answering look that met 
his at that moment. It was more tender 
than that of the father in the store. Ita 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



177 



brief glance told a sweet story of home 
joys. The witnessing tears that gushed 
silently to the eyelashes, and trembled a 
moment there ere they were dashed gently 
away, spoke louder than the father's words 
had spoken. But a moment more, and 
the firm consent followed. It was such a 
consent as a hero's wife loves to give a 
hero. In yet another moment the mother 
steps quietly forward: 




General Grant. 

" Go, Ulysses, go, my dear son. And 
may the blessing of Jehovah of hosts go 
with you!" 

"I knew you would all consent," said 
the Captain, as he glanced his eye quickly 
and firmly tc where some portions of his 
former armor were suspended; "for, if 
ever there was a just cause for fighting, it 
is this in which I now volunteer." 

In a few hours more Captain Grant 
was on his way to the capital and gov- 
ernor of the State. 



Black, the Scotch Deserter at Leesburg. 
One of the Confederate soldiers in the 
Virginia army was a rough Scotchman 
named Black. His relatives were at the 
South, and, desiring to get to them, he 
had joined the Northern army, with the 
intention of deserting at the first oppor- 
tunity. When on picket guard at the 
river, therefore, he pretended to bathe, 
and being a good swimmer, dexterously 
struck out for the Virginia shore. When 



midway, the rogue turned and shouted: 
"Good bye, boys; I'm bound for Dixie!" 
"Come back, or we'll shoot!" answered 

the guard. "Shoot and be , you 

white livered nigger-thieves," shouted 
Black, and in the midst of a shower of 
Minie balls he reached his destination. 
He entered at once the Confederate ranks, 
and proved an active fighter. During the 
battle he performed many feats of daring, 
and at night formed one of a corporal's 
guard who escorted a full company of cap- 
tured Federals off the hotly-contested 
ground. As Black was laughing and 
joking, the Captain of the Federals re- 
marked to him! 

" I ought to know that voice ! — is that 
you, Black?" 

" That's me ! " jocosely replied the ren- 
egade Scotchman. 'T couldn't stay with 
you, you see ; it wasn't because I feared 
to fight, but I like to fight in the right 
cause always." 

Singular enough, Black was escorting 
his old company, officers and all. 



Hopeful Tackett— his Mark. 
Hopeful Tackett sang the inspiring na- 
tional anthem — 

"An' the Star-Spangler' Banger in triumph shall wave 
'. the Ian dov the free-e-e, an 1 the homov the brave, : ' 

as he sat on his little bench in the little 
shop of Herr Kordwaner, the village shoe- 
maker. Thus he sang, not artistically, but 
with much fervor and unction, keeping 
time with his hammer, as he hammered 
away at an immense " stoga." And as he 
sang, the prophetic words rose upon the 
air, and were wafted, together with an odor 
of new leather and paste-pot, out of the 
window, and fell upon the ear of a ragged 
urchin with an armful of hand-bills. 

"Would you lose a leg for it, Hope?" 
he asked, bringing to bear upon Hopeful a 
pair of crossed-eyes, a full complement of 
white teeth, and a face spotted with its 
kindred dust. 

"For the Banger?" replied Hopeful; 



178 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



"guess I would. Both on 'em — an' a head, 
too." 

" Well, here's a chance for you." And 
he tossed him a hand-bill. 

Hopeful laid aside his hammer and his 
work, and picked up the hand-bill ; and 
while he is reading it, take a look at him. 
Hopeful is not a beauty, and he knows it ; 
and though some of the rustic wits call him 
" Beaut," he is well aware that they intend 
it for irony. His countenance runs too 
much to nose — rude, amorphous nose at 
that — to be classic, and is withal rugged in 




Hopeful Tackett. 

outline and pimply in spots. His hair is 
decidedly too dingy a red to be called, even 
by the uttermost stretch of courtesy, au- 
burn ; dry, coarse, and pertinaciously ob- 
stinate in its resistance to the civilizing 
efforts of comb and brush. But there is a 
great deal of big, honest bone and muscle 
in him, which are of great value in a good 
cause. 

By the time he had spelled out the hand- 
bill, and found that Lieut. was in 

town and wished to enlist recruits for 
Company — , — Regiment, it was nearly 
sunset ; and he took off his apron, washed 
his hands, looked at himself in the piece 
of looking-glass that stuck in the window 



— a defiant look, that said that he wa> not 
afraid of all that nose — took his hat down 
from its peg behind the door, and in spite 
of the bristling resistance of his hair, • 
crowded it down over his head, and started 
for his supper. And as he walked he 
mused aloud, as was his custom, addressing 
himself in the second person, as follows : 

' Hopeful, what do you think of it ? They 
want more soldiers, eh ? Guess them fights 
at Donelson and Pittsburg Lannen 'bout 
used up some o' them ridgiments. By 
Jing ! (Hopeful had been piously brought 
up, and his emphatic declarations took a 
mild form.) Hopeful, 'xpect you'll have 
to go an' stan' in some poor feller's shoes. 
'Twon't do for them there blasted Secesh- 
ers to be killin' off our boys, an' no one 
there to pay them back. It's time this 
here thing was busted ! Hopeful, you an't 
pretty, an' you an't smart ; but you used 
to be a mighty nasty hand with a shot 
gun. Guess you'll have to try your hand 
on old Borey's (Beauregard's) chaps, an' 
if you ever git a bead on one, he'll enter 
his land mighty shortly. What do you 
say to goin' ? — you wanted to go last year, 
but mother was sick, an' you couldn't ; an' 
now mother's gone to glory, why, show 
your grit an' go. Think about it, any 
how.' 

And Hopeful did think about it — thought 
till late at night of the insulted flag, of the 
fierce fights and glorious victories, of the 
dead and the dying lying out in the pitiless 
storm, of the dastardly outrages of the 
enemy — thought of all this, with his great 
warm heart overflowing with love for the 
dear old " Banger," and resolved to go. 
The next morning he notified the "boss" 
of his intention to quit his service for that 
of Uncle Sam. The old fellow only opened 
his eyes very wide, grunted, brought out 
the stocking (a striped relic of the departed 
Frau Kordwaner,) and from it counted out 
and paid Hopeful every cent that was due 
him. 

But there was one thing that sat heavily 
upon Hopeful's mind. He was in a pre- 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



179 



dicament that all are liable to fall into — 
he was in love, and with Christina, Herr 
Kordwaner's daughter. Christina was a 
plump maiden, with a round, rosy face, an 
extensive latitude of shoulders, and a gen- 
eral plentitude and solidity of figure. All 
these she had ; but what had captivated 
Hopeful's eye w T as her trim ankle, as it 
appeared to him one morning, encased in 
a warm white yarn stocking of her own 
knitting From this small beginning, his 
great heart had taken in the whole of her, 
and now he was desperately in love. Two 
or three times he had essayed to tell her 
of his proposed departure ; but every time 
that the words were coming to his lips, 
something rushed up into his throat ahead 
of them, and he couldn't speak. At last, 
after walking home from church ■with her 
one Sunday evening, he held out his hand 
and blurted out — 

"•Well, good-bye. We're off tomor- 
row.'' 

"Off! Where?" 

4i I've enlisted." 

Christina didn't faint. She didn't take 
out her delicate and daintily perfumed 
mouchoir to hide the tears that were not 
there. She looked at him for a moment, 
while two great real tears rolled down her 
cheeks, and then — precipitated all her 
charms right into his arms. Hopeful stood 
it manfully — rather liked it, in fact. But 
that is a tableau that may be left to the 
imagination, — the tears and embraces, pro- 
testations of undying affection, promises 
of eternal remembrance, etc. 

The next morning found Hopeful Avith 
a dozen others, in charge of the Lieuten- 
ant, and on their way to join the regiment, 
and as he went through the various duties 
and changing experiences of soldier life, 
he would say, " Hopeful, the Banger's took 
care of you all your life, and now you're 
here to take care of it. See that you do 
it the best you know how." But in his 
case the path to glory was not amid the 
roar of cannon and muskets, through a 
storm of shot and shell, over a serried line 



of glistening bayonets — it was only a skir- 
mish, a bushwacking fight for the posses- 
sion of a swamp. A few companies w r ere 
deployed as skirmishers, to drive out the 
enemy. 

" Now, boys," shouted the Captain, 
" after 'em ! Shoot to kill, not to scare 
'em!" 

" Pin": ! Pinsr ! " ran"; the rifles. 

O O o 

" Z-z-z-z-oit ! " sang the bullets. 

On they went, crouching among the 
bushes, creeping along under the banks 
of the brook, cautiously peering from be- 
hind trees in search of " butternuts." 
Hopeful was in the advance ; his hat was 
lo~t, and his hair more defiantly bristling 
than ever. Firmly grasping his rifle, he 
pushed on, carefully watching every tree 
and bush. A rebel sharpshooter started 
to run from one tree to another, when, 
quick as thought, Hopeful's rifle was at his 
shoulder, a puff of blue smoke rose from 
its mouth, and the rebel sprang in the air 
and fell back — dead. Almost at the same 
instant, as Hopeful leaned forward to see 
the effect of his shot, he felt a sudden 
shock, a sharp burning pain, grasped at a 
hush, reeled, and sank to the ground. 

" Are you hurt much, Hope ? " asked 
one of his comrades, kneeling beside him 
and staunching the blood that flowed from 
his wounded leg. 

" Yes, I expect I am ; but that red 
waraus over yonder's redder'n ever now. 
That feller w r on't need a pension." 

They carried "Hope" back to the hos- 
pital, and the old surgeon looked at the 
wound, shook his head, and briefly made 
his prognosis : — 

M Bone shattered — vessel injured — bad 
leg — have to come off. Good constitution, 
though ; he'll stand it." 

And he did stand it ; always cheerful, 
never complaining, only regretting that he 
must be discharged — that he was no longer 
able to serve his country. 

Once more Hopeful is sitting on his lit- 
tle bench in Mynheer Kordwaner's little 
shop, pegging away at the coarse boots, 



180 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



singing the same glorious prophecy that he 
was first heard singing. He had but two 
troubles after his return. One, the linger- 
ing regret and restlessness that attend a 
civil life, after an experience of the rough, 
independent life in camp. The other 
trouble was when he first saw Christina 
after his return. The loving warmth with 
which she greeted him pained him ; and 
when the worthy Herr considerately went 
out of the room, leaving them alone, Hope- 
ful relapsed into gloomy silence. At 
length, speaking rapidly, and with choked 
utterance, he said : 

" Christie, you know I love you now, as 
I always have, better'n all the world. But 
I'm a cripple now — no account to nobody 
— just a dead weight — an' I don't want 
you, 'cause o' your promise before I went 
away, to tie yourself to a load that'll be a 
drag on you all your life. That contract 
— ah — promise — an't — is — is hereby re- 
pealed ! There ! " 

And he leaned his head upon his hands 
and wept bitter tears, wrung by a great 
agony from his loving heart. 

Christie gently laid her hand upon his 
shoulder, and spoke, calmly and slowly — 

" Hopeful, your soul was in that leg, 
was it?" 

It would seem as if Hopeful had always 
thought that such was the case, and was 
just receiving new light upon the subject, 
he started up so suddenly. 

" By Jing ! Christie ! " 

And he grasped her hand, and — but that 
is also one of those scenes to be left to the 
imagination. And Christie promised the 
next Christmas to take the name, as she 
already had the heart, of Tackett. Herr 
Kordwaner, too, had come to the conclu- 
sion that he wanted a partner, and on the 
day of the wedding a new sign was to be 
put up over a new and larger shop, on 
which " Co." would mean Hopeful Tackett. 
In the mean time, Hopeful hammered 
away lustily, merrily, whistling and sing- 
ing the praises of the " Banger." Occa- 
sionally, when resting, he would tenderly 



embrace his stump of a leg, gently patting 
and stroking it, and talking to it as to a 
pet. If a stranger was in the shop, he 
would hold it out admiringly, and ask : 

" Do you know what I call that ? I call 
that '■Hopeful Tackett — his mark ! v " 

And a mark of distinction — a badge of 
patriotism and honor — it might well be 
called. 



Substitute Broker Sold— " Indians " for the 
Army. 

Along the dock near the foot of First 
Street, Detroit, is a large wooden figure 
of an Indian, embellished with all the trap- 
pings of a Chippewa chief, and leaning 

against the warehouse of . Well, one 

day a stranger appeared in front of the 
provost-marshal's office, and beckoning to 
one of the substitute brokers hanging around 
there, said to him, " You are in the substi- 
tute business, I believe ? " Being answered 
affirmatively, he continued, " Do you take 
Indians ? " " Oh, yes," said the broker. 
" Well," inquired the stranger, " what will 
you give me if I tell you where you can 
get one, sound in every respect, not liable 
to draft, and will go as a substitute, if 
accepted?" "Give you?" replied the 
broker, every feature in his face beaming 
with delight at the prospect of making a 
lucky strike, "give you ! why, I'll give you 
a hundred dollars in greenbacks." " It's a 
bargain," said the stranger, and here they 
clasped hands fraternally over it. " Here's 
my name,' he continued, handing the 
broker a card, on which was pencilled 

" Enoch Ketchum." " Take this to , 

near the foot of First street, and tell them 
that I sent you after that Indian ; they will 
understand it ; and don't forget the hundred 
dollars when you get him through." "All 
right," shouted the broker, as he jumped 
on board of a street car, on his way to the 
foot of First street. Having reached the 
warehouse, he presented his card, and in- 
formed the attendants of his mission. " Go 
right through the back door on to the dock, 
and turn to the left, and you will find the 



VOLUNTEERING-, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



181 



only Indian that I know anything about in 
this neighborhood," said the attendant. 
Having followed directions, he soon came 
face to face with the Chippewa chief here- 
tofore referred to. Fully realizing the joke 
which had been played upon him, he went 
back to the warehouse, and finding the 
party laughing at his expense, he bawled 
out : " That was — well done, but that 
wooden Indian is better than some live 
men that have gone in as substitutes,'' and 
left said dock in a hurry, occasionally cast- 
ing a furtive glance around to see if any 
one he knew was interested in the sell. 



Union Recruits among the Negroes. 

Some queer things now and then turn 
up, and the following is a pretty fair sam- 
ple of the best : 

A Tennessee slaveholder from the coun- 
try approached an old acquaintance, also 
a slaveholder, residing in Nashville, and 
said in quite a friendly and confiding man- 
ner : 

" I have several negro men lurking 
about this city somewhere. I wish you 
would look out for them, and when you 
find them, do with them for me as if they 
were your own." 

" Certainly, I will," replied his friend. 

A few days afterward the parties met 
again, and the planter asked — 

" Have you found my slaves?" 

" I have." 

"And where are they?" 

"Well, you told me to do with them 
just as if they were my own, and, as I 
made my men enlist in the Union army, 
1 did the same with yours." 

The astonished planter thoughtfully ab- 
squatulated. 

» 

Putting his Hand to the Roll. 
In one of the counties of Indiana a 
meeting was held by the patriotic citizens, 
for the purpose of getting volunteers, by 
the usual means of encouragement and 
promise. After the matter had progressed 
some time in the usual manner, a pleasant 



incident occurred which seemed to warm 
and gladden every loyal heart. A young 
lady stepped from the crowd, went up to 
her betrothed, took him by the hand, and 
led him up to the stand, where the recruits 
ing officers were taking the names of those 
who desired to enlist in the service of 
their country. Having done this, and 
without seeming in the least abashed in 
the presence of the large assembly, the 
fair girl kissed him warmly, and then with 
her own plighted hand gracefully placed 
his hand on the roll, for him to sign his 
name. It was the rarest scene and sub- 
ject for a painter — a fair and beautiful girl 
inspiring her lover to go forth to noble 
deeds for their common country ! There 
was enthusiasm in that meeting. 



Beauties of Rebel Conscripting. 

Early in the morning of Nov. 6th, 1861, 
the outside picket belonging to our army 
at Newport News, on the river, was hailed 
by a man who approached in a skiff of 
small size ■ he proved to be a Virginian, 
by the name of Peter White, who escaped 
from a rebel prison at Williamsburg, Va., 

He used to own a little schooner, the 
Maria Louisa, and traded up and down the 
James and York rivers, especially during 
the oyster season. He hardly ever slept 
on shore, making the schooner his real 
home, having his wife and two children 
with him. In April, 1861, when the en- 
listment in the rebel army was progressing 
favorably, some one made overtures to 
White about enlisting Being at heart a 
Union man, he did not feel inclined to do 
so , yet he wished, if possible, to save the 
schooner and its contents, that being all 
the property he owned in the world. He 
therefore ran into a little bay in the Chic- 
kahominy river, a small branch of the 
James, where he found a safe hiding-place. 
At this time his wife died, and he had a 
good excuse in the care of his children 
for refusing to accept the offers of enlist- 
ment, which were still occasionally made 
to him. 



182 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



He remained at this place until the 9th 
of September, when he ventured out of 
his retreat, to go up to Jamestown, hoping 
that, as the patriotic enthusiasm among 
the Southerners had considerably died 
away, he would be granted the necessary 
pass for following up the oyster business 
at Hogg's Island. However, poor Peter 
soon found himself mistaken on this score. 
The authorities at Jamestown, in pursuance 
of Governor Letcher's mandates, under 
confederate law, at once demanded that 
he should unconditionally enlist in the 
army, and when he refused to do this they 
confiscated his schooner with all its con- 
tents, including $150. in gold, and sent 
him as a prisoner to Williamsburg. Here 
he remained for forty two days, without 
being once permitted to have a fair hear- 




Gov Letcher 

in" - . He was confined in a cell next to 
three negroes, who had previously at- 
tempted to run away, and with their 
assistance, a hole was dug sufficiently 
large, under tire wall, to admit one man 
at a time. 

On Thursday evening he made good 
his escape. That night he walked twelve 
miles, and during Friday hid himself in 
a cornfield. Towards midnight he reached 
the house of Becky Simpson, an old ac- 
quaintance of his, and a woman with 
strong Union feelings, who offered him 
shelter, and further volunteered to go, on 



the following Monday, to Williamsburg to 
endeavor to bring his children back. He 
consequently remained at her house, pur- 
posing to await her return ; but on Sun- 
day he saw a certain Mr. Slader, a well 
known slave hunter in those regions, come 
towards the house, and knowing that a 
price of $500 had been put upon his head, 
he thought it best to ' vamose ' as quickly 
as possible ; therefore, when he came in at 
the front door Peter ran out at the back, 
and, it being dusk at the time, he safely 
reached the shore, where he soon found a 
skiff, and pushed off into the river. In 
thirty-two hours he rowed between forty 
and fifty miles. 



Effect of Crinoline on 'Union' Sentiments. 
William Growman, a rebel deserter, who 
was drafted in Michigan, escaped from the 
provost-marshal by concealing himself un- 
der the crinoline of his intended. After 
the marshal left, it was hard to persuade 
the man to run the risk of coming for;h 




Effect of Crinoline. 

from his hiding-place, fearing, so he said, 
that the officer was still on the look-out 
for him. But when he did finally emerge 
from the friendly shelter thus afforded him, 
he wanted — out of gratitude, probably — 
to marry the girl on the spot, and did so 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



183 



the next clay, after paying his three hun- 
dred dollars commutation. He thus, at 
least in a constructive sense, proved him- 
self a prompt ' Union ' man. 



Married Applicants for Exemption. 
Commissioner. — " What have you to 
say?" 

Applicant. — " I'm forty-eight years old." 

" Where were you boni ? " 

" Don't know." 

" How old were you when you came to 
this country ? " 

" Don't know." 

" How do you know you are forty-eight 
years old ? " 

" I know it. I'm sure of it." • 

The Commissioner, after various inef- 
fectual trials to make applicant show what 
reasons he had for his belief, now asks, 
"Are you married ? " 

(Applicant very sulky, but no answer.) 

"I asked you if you are married. Did 
you hear?" 

" I don't wish to be insulted." 

" No one wishes to insult you. Are 
you married?" 

Applicant, in a very loud voice, — " Of 
course I am ! " 



No Appeal Left. 
At Newport, R. I., on mustering in the 
new companies for military service, several 
minors were finally rejected, because they 
did not produce the certificate of consent 
from their parents. One young man — his 
mother a widow — had first enlisted and 
then went to his mother with a certificate 
for her signature. But she, not being 
willing for him to go, withheld her consent, 
yet finally, after much persuasion, said she 
would agree to do it on one condition, 
namely, that her son should thrust his 
finger at random through the leaves of the 
closed Bible, and the language of the text 
upon which it rested should decide her ac- 
tion in the matter. He did as she requested, 
and his finger, when the Bible was opened, 
was found resting over the two following 



verses: 2d book of Chronicles, 20th chap- 
ter, 16th and 17th verses: " To-morrow 
go ye 'down against them: behold they 
come up by the cliff of Ziz ; and ye shall 
find them at the edge of the brook before 
the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not 
need to fight in this battle ; set yourselves, 
stand ye still, and see the salvation of the 
lord with you. O, Judah and Jerusalem : 
fear not, nor be dismayed ; to-morrow go 
out against them ; for the Lord will be 
with you." The thing was settled — the 
mother consented. There was no appeal 
from the very pointed text which had 
been resorted to as the arbiter. 



Enlistment of Stonewall Jackson in the 
Union Army. 
One morning, a young farmer from Og- 
densburg, N. Y., applied at the recruiting 
office in Brooklyn for a place in the Union 
ranks. The attending surgeon gave a favora- 
ble opinion of applicant's physique and he 
was accepted. When asked to sign his name 
he wrote, in very legible characters, "Stone- 
wall Jackson." The commissioner very 
naturally asked him, on seeing the signa- 




Stonewall Jackson 

ture, if that was really his name. " Every- 
body asks me that question," said the young 
volunteer ; " it riles my blood. It is my 
name, and I mean to let the rebels know 
that there is a Stonewall Jackson North." 
We would like to adorn these pages with a 
likeness of that noble youth, side by side 



184 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION 



with that of his epauleted but treacherous 
namesake who threw away his valuable 
life in so ignoble a cause. 



Commissioner Deciding a Question of Age. 

Commissioner, (a young lawyer, looking 
very grave and dignified): "Well, Sir, 
how do you claim to be an exempt?" 

Applicant, (an Irishman, in the prime 
of life, with a bewildered look): "I am 
forty-six years old." 

" Where were you born ? " 

" Don't know." 

" How old were you, when you left Ire- 
land?" 

" By Gorra, I don't know." 

" How do you know you are forty-six 
years old ? " 

" I am grandfather of four children." 

" I don't see what that has to do with 
your age." 

" By Gorra, I believe you don't know 
much about it (eyeing the Commissioner 
contemptuously, as if he were a boy). 



Billy Wilson's Zouaves Extraordinary 

Scene. 

Billy Wilson's Zouaves composed a reg- 
iment made up from what are called the 
" Roughs " or " B'hoys," of New York 
city, and were formally mustered at Tam- 
many Hall, the evening before their de- 
parture for their encampment at Staten 
Island. On this occasion the following 
extraoi'dinary scene was enacted : 

The men were ranged round the hall 
three deep, with Colonel Wilson and the 
other officers in the centre of the room. 
The men had all clad themselves in the 
gray shirts and pantaloons which had been 
provided for their uniform, and which was 
completed by a common brown felt hat, 
brogans and leather belt. They carried 
a short knife, about seven inches in length, 
between a sort of bowie knife and butcher 
knife in shape. Many also had revolvers, 
— one or two being intended for the arms 
of each man, as well as a slung shot and 
a Minie rifle. 



All the men being ranged against the 
walls, Colonel Wilson, with a drawn sabre 
in one hand and an American flag in the 
other, stood forth uncovered, and addressed 
his men amidst deafening cheers. After 
a short adjuration to the flag, for which he 
declared his devotion, he called upon all 
to kneel and swear with him. Waving 
the banner and flourishing his sabre, he 
knelt on one knee. All present knelt with 
him and repeated the oath which he put 
to them to support the flag, and never 
flinch from its path through blood or death. 
He said he would lead them to Baltimore, 
and they would march through it or die ; 
at which they all arose with a tremendous 
yell, flung up their hats, and brandished 
their glittering knives, amidst prolonged 




Colonel Wilson. 

and frantic cheers. He then denounced 
death to the Baltimore traitor secessionists 
and Plug Uglies, and said they would 
leave a monument of their bones in the 
streets of Baltimore. Amid yells of 
'•Death to the Plug Uglies!" he said, 
though he might be the first man slain, he 
had but one thing to ask, which was that 
each one of his followers should secure his 
man and avenge his blood. That they 
would do so, he again called upon them to 
swear, and marched around the hall hold- 
ing up the flag and his sword, and accom- 
panied by two officers, the one on the 
right bearing a banner inscribed — "The 
Union Battalion of Zouaves : Death 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



185 



ro Secessionists ! " — while the other 
officer, on his left, held up, in both hands, 
a bowie knife and revolver. Wilson 
shouted to them to swear, and they re- 
sponded with shouts of " Blood ! " " Blood ! " 
"Blood!" "We swear!" 



Governor Tod and the Applicant for Ex- 
emption. 

A good thing is told of Governor Tod, 
of Ohio, whose labor in the great work of 
suppressing the rebellion may be charac- 
terized as of the heartiest and most telling 
character. An old lady, between fifty and 
sixty years of age, entered the Governor's 
office, and made an effort to induce that 
personage to exempt her husband from 
the draft. Mr. Tod looked at her an in- 
stant and exclaimed, 

" Why, the old gentleman is exempt, 
isn't he ? " 

" Ah, but he ar'nt an old gentleman," 
added the applicant, " he's only 35 ! " 

"In that case," said the Governor, "I 
can't do anything for him, but I'll tell you 
what I'll do for you; in case he's drafted 
and gets killed, — I'll marry you myself." 

This seemed to satisfy the old lady, and 
she accordingly departed. 

Quite the Youngest Recruit for Uncle Sam. 

One of the principal recruiting factories 
was once on a time enlivened by one of 
those amusing episodes which help the 
appetite and spirits. 

" So, Sir, you've clapped your dirty 
sojer trappings on my husband, have you ? " 

" Who is your husband ? " asked the 
officer. 

" Billy McCurtee, an' shore, an' a bould 
boy he is, so plaze ye. But it's a dirty 
thing of ye, my pretty man, to take him 
from his wife an' childers." 

" Can't be helped," said the officer ; "it's 
too late now." 

" Then take the baby, too," she cried, 
as she forced the little one into the arms 
of Lieutenant Adams : " Take them all — 
I'll send ye four more to-day." 

Off she ran at a ramd ^ace. leaving the 
12 




Quite the youngest recruit for Uncle Sam. 

unfortunate officer with the squirming and 
squalling recruit in his arms. Doubtful 
of its services to Uncle Sam, he sent it 
home by its father. 



Happy Ending- to a Sad Mistake. 
One day, during the stringent pressure 
for men to fill the ranks and the rigid ac 
tivity to prevent the draft being baulked, 
Captain Maddox, of Brooklyn, New York, 
sent a provost guard to arrest a German, 
a deserter, whose name sounded very much 
like Ferral, and who was at work some- 
where in South Second street, near the 
residence of Mr. John Ferral. The guard 
took it for granted that Mr. Ferral was 
the man they had been sent to take into 
their custody, and straightway made known 
to him that his bodily presence was re- 
quired at the office of the Provost-Mar- 
shal. Mr. Ferral, who was just in the 
act of sitting down to a most toothsome 
dinner, which it seems had been prepared 
with especial pains, " didn't see it ; " he 
thought there must be a mistake or a joke 
somewhere. He was told that it was so- 
ber earnest. Then he said he would see 
Mr. Maddox very cheerfully, but — he 
must see his dinner first. But the guard's 



186 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



instructions were positive, and nothing 
would do but that Mr. F. should go forth- 
with. So he was duly marched off, ac- 
cording to the manner provided for de- 
serters and similar culprits, between two 
muskets, down to the office of Captain 
Maddox, of whom he demanded an ex- 



said, " You will pass, Sir ; a dollar, if you 
please." " But, doctor," said the man, 
" let me run down stairs once more, and 
then try me." The doctor said " Oh, yes ; " 
the man ran down stairs again, but this 
time with such increased velocity that he 
forgot to come back. 




Drafting Scene 



planation. The Captain was much amused 
at the mistake, which he explained to Mr. 
F. The latter couldn't see the joke of 
the thing, but concluded to make the best 
of it, and a hearty '• smile " all round rec- 
tified everything, even to the loss of a good 
dinner, — or rather it was worth the loss 
of that savory meal to have the matter 
turn out a mistake instead of a reality, in 
those times. 



Unintentional Trick taught by an Examin- 
ing Physician. 
An applicant for exemption in one of 
our towns, on account of physical dis- 
ability, informed the examining physician 
that he was troubled with heart disease. 
The doctor told him to run up and down 
the stairs leading to his office once or twice. 
This the applicant did, Avhen the physician, 
after listening to the motions of the heart, 



Western Zeal in Volunteering-. 
Soo;i after the formation of Camp Mor- 
ton, m Indiana, an old man of sixty years 
of age, with gray hair and flowing white 
beard, presented himself at head-quarters, 
full of the fire of patriotism, and offered 
himself as a volunteer soldier in defence 
of his country's flag. The officer in com- 
mand was obliged, however, to refuse the 
old patriot's offer, on account of his ad- 
vanced age ; whereupon, quick as thought, 
ho went to a barber's, had his beard crop- 
ped, and his hair and beard dyed, and 
again applied for admission to the coveted 
ranks of his country's defenders. Not be- 
ing detected, he was at once received, and 
being asked his age, for enrolment, mod- 
estly replied, "Rising thirty-five." At 
the same camp mighlt have been seen a 
young man on horseback, looking wishfully 
upon the scene before him. Speaking to 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



187 



the crowd ho said : " If I could only dis- 
pose of my wife and children, I'd go in a 
minute." A gentleman who knew him 
well stepped up and said, " I'll look after 
them ! " " Hold my horse," cried the 
other, and with, one hound he was in the 
camp, and a volunteer. 



Wisconsin Body-Guard for the President. 

" Brick " Pomeroy, an editor — and wag 
— in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on heing in- 
vited to assist in forming a body guard for 
President Lincoln, after due consideration 
decided to " go in," provided the following 
basis could be adopted and rigidly adhered 
to throughout the war. 

The company shall be entuely composed 
of colonels, who shall draw pay and rations 
in advance. 

Every man shall have a commission, 
two servants, and white kids. 

Each man shall be mounted in a cov- 
ered buggy, drawn by two white stallions. 

Under the seat of each buggy shall 
be a cupboard, containing cold chicken, 
pounded ice, and champagne, a la mem- 
bers of Congress and military officers at 
Bull Run. 

Each man shall have plenty of cards 
and red chips to play poker with. 

The only side-arms to be opera glasses, 
champagne glasses, and gold-headed canes. 

The duty of the company shall be to 
take observations of battle, and on no ac- 



emy's country, two miles a week shall be 
the maximum, and no marches shall be 
made except the country abound in game, 
or if any member of the regiment object. 

Kid gloves, gold toothpicks, cologne, 
hair-dressing, silk underclothes, cosmetics, 
and all other rations, to be furnished by 
the Government. 

Each member of the regiment shall be 
allowed a reporter for some New York 
paper, who shall draw a salary of two 
hundred dollars a week, for puffs, from 
the incidental fund. 

Every member shall be in command, 
and when one is promoted all are to be. 

Commissions never to be revoked. 



Roiled because he could not Fig-ht. 

James Leonard, of Upper Gilmanton, 
N. H., who had been rejected as a volun- 
teer on account of his being over forty- 
five years of age, thus expressed his views 
of his own case and the et ceteras pertain- 
ing thereto : — 

"After accepting several men over 
forty-five years of age, and several in- 
fants, such as a man like me could whip 
a dozen of, I was rejected because I had 
the honesty to acknowledge I was more 
than forty-five years of age. The muster- 
ing-officer was a very good-looking man, 
about thirty-five years old, but I guess I 
can run faster and jump higher than he ; 



also take him down, whip him, endure 
count shall it be allowed to approach i m0 re hardships, and kill three rebels to 
nearer than ten miles to the seat of war. ! his one." 



Behind each buggy shall be an ambu- 
lance, so arranged as to be converted into 
a first-class boarding house in the day- 
time, and a sumptuous sleeping and dress- 
ing room at night. 

The regimental band must be composed 
of pianos and guitars, played by young 
ladies, who shall never play a quickstep 
except in case of retreat. 

Reveille shall not be sounded till late 
breakfast time, and not then if any one of 
the regiment has a headache. 

In case of a forced march into an en- 



Poor Jeems ought to have been allowed 
the chance of trying his hand — at least 
on the last-mentioned class. 



Mrs. Smith's Husband to be Exchang-ed. 
At the battle of Ball's Bluff, one of the 
gallant boys of the Twentieth Massachu- 
setts regiment was taken prisoner, and 
confined with many others at Salisbury, 
N. C. His name was — say Tom Smith — 
and he had a wife and children living not 
a thousand miles from New Bedford. 
"When it became pretty certain that there 



188 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



would be a general exchange of prisoners, 
some kind friend, desirous of relieving the 
terrible anxiety of the wife, called and in- 
formed Mrs. Smith that her husband 
would probably be exchanged. " Well," 
said the lonely woman, " I love Tom, and 
— the children love Tom, and I don't want 
him exchanged. I wont have a rebel hus- 
band, so noiv." The poor woman thought 
the exchange was a swap, and that she 
was to have some chap from the South hi 
lieu of her real husband. Tom, however, 
reached home by-and-by, to the great de- 
light of Mrs. S., who was afraid that ex- 
change, in this case, was to prove robbery 
— and worse than that 



A Mother Puts Out the Eyes of her own 
Son to keep him from the "War. 

A deed to make humanity shudder was 

enacted in the neighborhood of Terre 



sea. He endeavored to pacify her, and 
left home for a time. On his return, find- 
ing her in the same melancholy frame of 
mind, he threatened, in jest, that if she 
made further reference to the matter, he 
would enlist voluntarily. 

Mrs. Eastwick, doubtless laboring under 
some hallucination, or uncontrollable oper- 
ation of her mind, seems now to have re- 
solved upon the sad act of mutilating her 
son in such a manner as to prevent his be- 
ing accepted for military service, whether 
as a volunteer or conscript. She deliber- 
ately pressed a burning coal upon his right 
eye, while he slept upon a lounge, and the 
optic nerve was thus destroyed with but a 
momentary pang of pain to poor Stark. 
He became entirely blind. It may well 
be supposed that this unfortunate issue 
from her fears did not contribute to the 



mother's peace of mind. On the contrary, 
r I insanity took hold upon her, her sane mo- 
ments being marked by melancholy regret 



recruits for the army. Mrs. John East- 
wick, the wife of a respectable farmer, was 
the mother of seven children, all boys. 
In the early part of the war, two of these 
enlisted and served with General Buell in 
Kentucky. One of them, the eldest, Ezra, 
died of exposure in camp, and his brother 
Thomas soon after suffered an amputation 
of the right leg, from injuries received in 
a cavalry skirmish. These casualties 
operated upon Mrs. Eastwick's mind to 
such a degree that she lost all fortitude 
and presence of mind, and sat during 
whole days weeping and full of forebod- 
ings. Among her premonitions was a cu- 
rious one, namely, that her third son, 
Stark, would also die in battle. As the 
war advanced and conscription began, Mrs. 
Eastwick's fear on this point grew intense. 
Finally, the first draft came ; the State 
had filled its quota in almost every district, 
and Stark promised his mother that, under 
no circumstances, would he go to the field. 
But a second draft being projected, the 
mother's fears and excitement augmented. 
She endeavored to persuade her son to 
leave the country and make a voyage to 



at her frenzied act. 



My Gift to My Country. 

From more than one heart — yea, from 
multitudes — came forth the same sweet, 
sad sentiments of domestic love mingled 
with patriotic self-sacrifice, which utter 
themselves so earnestly in the following 
sentences : — 

It was little more than three years ago 
that I met him for the first time. Alike 
in thought, feeling and action, Ave seemed 
exactly united to each other ; at least, 
we thought so ; and hope painted the fu- 
ture with roseate hues. Our home might 
be an humble one, but love and confidence, 
with a mutual trust in our Heavenly 
Father, and each other, would well make 
up for the lack of worldly fortune ; and 
many a bright hour did we spend together} 
dreaming fairy dreams of the future. 
But, thank God, we did not set our hearts 
upon them, for both of us had learned to 
say, "Thy will be done!" Together Ave 
studied God's holy word, and " walked to 
the house of God in company "; together 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING; DESERTING, ETC. 



189 



we courted the society of the Muses, and 
many a glad hour have we passed writing 
for each other. He was everything to me ! 
Many friends are very, very dear, but none 
can fill his place i It is vacant now. 

It was a beautiful summer evening, 
nearly midnight ; the moon sailed majes- 
tically overhead, and seemed to look laugh- 
ingly down upon us, as, arm in arm, we 
wended our way home from spending the 
evening with a friend ; but my heart was 
very heavy, for the call for six hundred 
thousand more soldiers had just been 
made, and we had been speaking of a 
draft. My only brother is not a Christian 
and it lay heavy on my heart that perhaps 
he might be taken from us, and die with- 
out hope. I said some such words, and he 
(I cannot write the familiar name yet), 
drew me closer to him, and said earnestly, 
" If the draft comes, I will go instead of 
Ben." 

The draft did not come, for bravely, and 
of their own free wills, the sons of New 
Jersey responded to the call of their Pres- 
ident, and hundreds left their pleasant 
homes to go forth boldly and fight the battles 
of their country. Oh, methinks I can still 
see his proud, elastic step ; still feel the pres- 
sure of his warm hand as we said our last 
good-bve ; still see the dear form as he 
rose in the stern of the boat to call it yet 
once more to the sad little group on the 
shore ; still see the boat dwindling in the 
mist as it bears him away from me forever 
— the gift I gave my country ! O, Fred- 
ericksburg ! thou that didst drink the blood 
of my cherished one ! 

They have laid him to rest near Fal- 
mouth ; but he is not there. Sometimes 
in the shadowy twilight, I feel him near 
me, and he seems to whisper sweet 
thoughts of another meeting, I can not 
see him, but I feel his presence. "When I 
speak his name it dies in a hollow echo ; 
but I hioio he hears it, and will some day 
answer My gift to my country — I gave 
thee freely ! Heaven has accepted the 
sacrifice ! We'll meet again — ah, yes ! 



Gottlieb Klobbergoss on the Draft. 
I dink muchs about de war und de draft? 
und de rebils, unci all about dese dings. I 
dinks about 'em more as about anyding 
else. Sometimes I sets mits myself all 
day on de front stoop, und schmokes, mid 
drinks hard cider, und does noting else 
only drink ; den my vife she gifs me de 
teufel for drinkin so much, und ses I vas 
petter go und see atter Jacop, our hired 
man, und not bodder my head mit more as 
I can understood. But I tells her what 
shall vomens know about war ? better she 
goes und mindts her own piseness. I 
drubles myself more about Abraham as 
about Jacop. 

Ven I gits tired mit drinkin on my own 
stoop. I goes doAvn to Hans Butterfoos's 
tavern, und I drinks dere, und I tells my 
obinion, und some oder one tells his 
obinion, und we makes him out togedder. 
De oder day begins de draft. Dat bod- 
ders me agin. Some goes in for de draft, 
mostly dem as is too olt, and von't be took 
demself; some goes agin de draft; und 
some don't know vich vay to goes, but ony 
goes roundt und roundt, und gits boddered 
like dam so as I do. 

But, nefer mind, I dinks I must find dis 
ding out, und down I goes to Hans But- 
terfoos und hears de fellers bio. I don't 
make notin mit dat ; dey all bios some 
uder vay, und I don't dink dey hef him 
rite in dere own mind to. So I begins 
und asks a questchun ; und I ses to Bill 
PufFenshtock : 

"Vot you dinks von de draft, dat it is 
rite ? " 

And ses Bill : " No, I dinks et ain't 
rite." 

Yell, I don't believes him, caus he 
sheated me vonce mit a plind mare he sells 
on me. So I dries agin und shpeaks mit 
Fritz Hoerkenshphcer. 

" Vot you dinks von de draft, Frith, ef 
it's rite or not ? " 

And Fritz, he ses, dat he " Dinks it is 
shust so as it ought to be." 

But I don't believes him neder, 'cause 



190 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



lie run'd aginst me last year for de peace 
of shustice, und dey makes him de peace 
— dat is de shustice. Und he is no more 
good for shquire as my old cat. So I gifs 
up askin somebody, und makes him out 
myself. I dinks in dis shtyle ; de reason 
dey go mid de draft, is becos dey want 
sojers. Ef dey don't git no sojers den 
dey can't bring on de war. Ef dey don't 
bring on de war den dey don't licks de 
rebils. Ef dey don't licks de i-ebils, den 
de rebels licks dem. Ef de rebils licks 
dem den we all go to ter tuyfel. Dat's 
pooty straight. So much. 

Now I must dink of some more ; vot is 
de next ding ? I dink dat's all rite ; but 
now I shtops, someding else comes doe. 
Let me sees. Oh, yes ; dry hunderd tol- 
lars — dat's de ding — dey all bios about 
de dry hunderd tollars. I dinks so my- 
self. Dry hunderd tollars don't licks de 
ribils no more as dry hunderd cenths. 
Vot's de goot mit tollars ? Petter a good 
shmart sojer, like my Shorge, he licks de 
rebils more tan shix hunderd tollars, yes. 
Now, I know more as Bill Puffershtoek 
und Fritz Hoekenshplicer, both togedder. 
We want de sojers, not de tollars. Dat's 
where de bodder is. We pooty soon 
makes money enuff; but paper sojers is 
ony goot mit wooden guns, so when de 
draft comes und ven men ses, " here is dry 
hunderd tollars," I shtays behindt und 
dont fight de rebils, den if I was de draft 
I takes dat man by his preeches und I ses, 
" Go to ter tuyfel mit your tollars und 
come along mit me like some oder man as 
has got no tollars und don't like to go so- 
jerin so bad as not you do," den pooty 
soon I gits so much as I vants ; dat's my 
ideas. I tells my olt voman, if dey drafts 
me I goes myself. To be sure, I don't 
dink dey will, 'cause I am more as feefty 
years ; but nefer mindt. I should go a 
long while, like my Shorge, ony deres two 
dings I don't like, und one is de marshin 
r und de oder is de fitin. I sooner marshes 
down to Hans Butterfoos und fites dere. 
Ef Sheff Davis comes dere on me, I gifs 



him dam, you petter had believe ; but ef 
I goes to Richmond, may be Sheff Davis 
gifs me dam. So onyhow, I shtays home. 
De oder day, my Shorge he comes back 
mit a furlow. He is so much a corporal 
as ever he vas, und I shpeaks mit him 
about dese dings, und I gifs you now what 
he ses : 

" Shorge," I asks him, " you've bin mit 
de rebils und mit de army, und mit Olt 
Abe, und dese fellers ; vat you dinks von 
dis draft dat all de beeples bios about ? " 
Und he ses to me, " Oh, tunder ! " 
Well, dats his obinions. May be he 
shall know somedings to. He's pooty 
shmart sence he goes for a sojer. He 
shwears like a man shix foots high, und 
calls mudder " olt voman," und he calls me 
" cap," and he kisses de glials, and he calls 
Jacop " dam phool." I dinks he gits some 
high offis before de war is gone. 

Gottlieb Klobbergoss. 



Quid Pro Quo. 
Before the close of the " peace " inter- 
view between President Lincoln and the 
three Richmond Commissioners, in Feb- 
ruary, 1865, " Vice President" Stephens 
spoke to President Lincoln on the subject 
of the exchange of prisoners, and asked 
him what was proposed to be done in the 
matter. The President replied that every 
thing connected with that subject had 
been confided to the care of General 
Grant, and that all information must come 
from him, through the regularly estab- 
lished channels of communication. Mr. 
Stephens then said he had a favor to ask 
of Mr. Lincoln, and which, if he could 
grant, he would esteem a personal obliga- 
tion. The President, of course, incuiired 
what the favor Avas. Mr. Stephens said 
it was in reference to a nephew of his who 
had been taken prisoner some time ago, 
and still continued in the North. His de- 
sire was to have him released. 

" Well," said Mr. Lincoln, after a little 
reflection, " I don't think I have the power 
to do that ; but I will give you a note to 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



191 



General tyrant, who will, no doubt, do all 
he can to oblige you. But, by the way," 
he added, " there is, I believe, a young 
man, a Union Lieutenant, in one of your 
prisons in the South, of about the same 
rank as the young man you wish to get 
released. If you will try and get him 
out of prison I will use my influence for 
the liberation of your nephew, and they 
can be easily exchanged one for the 
other." 

Mr. Stephens asked the name of the 
young Lieutenant, and, on being mformed, 
borrowed a pencil, and, tearing a slip of 
paper, took a note of it, saying that he 
would do what he could in the matter. 

" Very well," said Old Abe ; " send him 
to us, and your nephew shall go down to 

you." 

• 

" I've Enlisted, Sir." 

A wealthy citizen of Philadelphia had 
been supplied with butter twice a week 
by a young farmer living on the edge of 
Philadelphia county. He came on one 
of his usual days to the house with his 
butter, received his pay, and then asked 
for a brief interview with the head of the 
household. The gentleman complied with 
the request thus made, and the young ag- 
riculturalist was duly ushered into the 
parlor. 

"I just wished to thank you, Sir, for 
your custom for these three years, and to 
say that after to-day I can not longer serve 

you." 

" I'm sorry for that. Your butter and 
eggs have always been very fine. What's 
the matter ? " 

" Tve enlisted, Sir." 

" Enlisted ? " 

" Yes, Sir. A mortgage of eleven hun- 
dred dollars has been hanging over my 
place. I purchased it from a lady — 
Mrs. B." 

" Yes. I know her very well." 

" Well, Sir, she holds the mortgage. 
She offered, last Saturday, if I would en- 
list as a representative substitute for her, 



and transfer my bounty to her, she would 
cancel the mortgage and present my wife 
with two hundred and fifty dollars in 
greenbacks." 

"And you accepted the offer ? " 

" Indeed I did, most gladly. I go for 
one year. I come back with a farm clear 
of incumbrance. My wife and boy can 
take care of it for a year. My pay will 
keep me, and my family can live without 
me for at least that time. Besides, I am 
glad to go. I wanted to go all along, but 
couldn't leave my folks." 

"And you are glad to go ! " 

" Indeed I am. I feel just as contented 
and free from care as my red cow when 
Sally is milking her. If I can be with 
Grant when he goes into Richmond, it 
will be the very happiest day of my 
life." 



Representative Recruit for President Lin- 
coln. 

President Lincoln caused himself to be 
represented in the great army of which, 9 
by virtue of his office, he was Command- 
er-in-Chief, by obtaining a recruit — Mr. 
John S. Staples. Mr. S., arrayed in the 
uniform of the United States army, and 
accompanied by General Fry, Provost- 
Marshal-General, Mr. N. D. Larner, of 
the Third Ward, Washington, and the 
recruit's father, was taken to the Exec- 
utive Mansion, where he was received 
by President Lincoln. General Fry in- 
introduced him by saying : " Mr. Pres- 
ident, this is the man who is to repre- 
sent you in the army for the next year." 
Mr. Lincoln shook hands heartily with 
Mr. Staples, remarked that he was a 
good-looking, stout and healthy-appearing 
man, and believed he would do his duty. 
He asked Staples if he had been mus- 
tered in, and he replied that he had. Mr. 
Lanier then presented the President with 
a framed official notice of the fact that he 
had put in a representative recruit, and 
the President again shook hands with Sta- 
ples, expressing to him his kind personal 



192 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



regard, and the hope that he would be one 
of the fortunate ones in the conflict in 
which he had entered. 



Cheers and a Tiger for Harry Bumm. 
There was at one time a hitch in the 
management of affairs in Philadelphia, 
producing difficulty and delay in paying 
out bounties to the fresh volunteers. Be- 
sides, there was no very great amount of 
money to be found in. the treasury. On 
the whole, the duties of Mr. Henry Bumm, 
the popular treasurer of the Quaker City, 
were more difficult than those of any pre- 
vious incumbent of the office. Under 
these circumstances, Captain Cameron, 
with a hundred and seventy-five recruits, 
marched one day to Mr. Bumm's office to 
draw their bounty. The aggregate was a 
large sum. The treasury was something 
like the Susquehanna at low water — its 
bottom was plainly visible. Mr. Bumm, 
however, did not keep the gallant boys 
3 waiting. They stepped up, one by one, 
and received their emerald-backed por- 
traits of Secretary Chase. When all 
had been paid, a color-sergeant stepped 
forward and called " Three cheers for 
City Treasurer, Mr. Harry Bumm." All 
mouths opened, and the cheers were given 
loudly and lustily. This done, Captain 
Cameron said, " Boys, three more, if you 
like." The three more were given, when 
all hands put in the largest " tiger " seen 
since Van Amburg's caravan left Phila- 
delphia. The men then formed into line, 
giving another feu de joie of cheers as 
they moved off. 



Deserting a Bad Cause. 
Lieutenant Foster, of the Third Maine 
Heavy Artillery, arrived at Philadelphia 
with forty rebels who had taken the oath 
of allegiance to the Union. One of these 
had one thousand dollars in genuine Con- 
federate scrip, of one hundred dollars 
each. He supposed they were worth 
nothing in Philadelphia, and on being told 



that possibly some of the sympathizers of 
the South, in that city, might buy them, 
he replied that of all classes of people 
they were the worst, and should receive 
merited condemnation. He was asked 
what he did for a living before the war 
broke out. He replied that he was a 
clerk at Atlanta, Georgia. He was then 
told— 

" Perhaps you can get a clerkship in 
Philadelphia." At this, he looked thought- 
fully for a moment, and then said, 

" No, no ; do you think any sensible 
man would trust me with his business af- 
fairs, believing that I am a deserter ? I 
have deserted the Confederate army ; 
most of us have done the same thing. If 
I can get work at laboring, I shall be sat- 
isfied. I want to go to some remote place, 
where I shall never hear the word ' war ' 
mentioned." 

" Could you make yourself useful on a 
farm ? " interrupted an elderly man from 
New Jersey. 

" Yes Sir," replied the rebel oath- 
taker. 

" I will give you plenty to do," respond- 
ed the farmer, " get into my wagon." 

The repentant got into the wagon, and 
was soon on the sandy soil of New Jer- 
sey. 



.Equal to the Emergency. 

Secretary Stanton is stated to have set- 
tled a little point with the President of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as fol- 
lows : 

President — The draft has fallen with 
great severity upon the employees of our 
company. 

Stanton — Indeed ! 

President — If something is not done to 
relieve us, it is hard to foresee the conse- 
quences. 

Stanton — Let them pay the commuta- 
tion. 

President — Impossible ! The men can't 
stand such a tax. 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



193 



Stanton — They have a rich company at 
their back, and that's more than other 
people have. 




Equal to the Emergency. 

President — They ought to be exempted, 
because they are necessary to the work- 
ing of the road for the Government. 

Stanton — That can't be. » 

President — Then I will stop the road. 

Stanton — If you do, I will take it up 
and carry it on. 

The discussion is said to have been 
dropped at this point, and the very worthy 
president still worked the road as success- 
fully as ever. 



Anglo-African Daughter of the Regiment. 
While the Twelfth Rhode Island regi- 
ment was on duty in the town of Lancas- 
ter, Kentucky, a chubby young Anglo- 
African, answering to the name of Tom- 
my, came into camp, and desired to enter 
the service of some one of Uncle Sam's 
officers, and was taken by one of the Cap- 
tains as a body-servant. In this capacity 
the fugitive followed the regiment through 
all the experiences and vicissitudes of the 
campaign, and then home to Rhode Island, 
always faithful, attentive, cheerful. But 
the refinements of civilized life were too 
much for Tommy, and the Captain's body 
servant proved to be a veritable daughter 
of the regiment, — a bona fide girl of less 
than twenty summers, — who had been 



able, during all the period of her military 
service, successfully to conceal her sex in 
the guise of a boy. 



Yankee Forever! 
Colonel Lawson, like every other loyal 
prisoner in the hands of the rebels, was 
not unwilling to accept the privilege of 
parole in lieu of a dose of cold lead. The 
Colonel was taken prisoner by a gang of 
Missouri guerillas, who at first proposed a 
little target practice upon him with their 
rifles, but at last concluded to let him off 
on his parole. Upon investigation, how- 
ever, it proved that of the rebels who 
then had him in charge — about a dozen — 
not one could write a parole, nor any 
thing else. Through their whole youth 
they had never been subjected to the per- 
nicious influence of free schools. At last 
they requested Colonel Lawson'himself to 
make out the parole and sign it. He im- 
mediately wi'ote an agreement, solemnly 
pledging himself never to take up arms 
against the United States of America, or 
in any way give aid and comfort to their 
enemies, — signed it, and was set at lib- 
erty. He made the best of his way to 
our lines, and was not overtaken. 



Mr. S., the Countryman, and his Substi- 
tute. 

During the drafting time in New York, 
a Mr. S., from Putnam County, arrived in 
New York city full of hope, and eager in 
pursuit of a good substitute to take his 
place in the army, and four hundred dol- 
lars in his pocket to pay for hini. Of 
course he did not call at the rooms of the 
Supervisors' Committee. Had he done 
so he would have been made by Mr. Blunt 
a wiser, if not a better, man, and also 
saved his money. But he preferred going 
into the street, into the highways and by- 
ways, and through an ' honest' agent or 
broker succeeded in a way not altogether 
agreeable. The active and persevering 
agent whom S. secured to aid him, soon 
found a capital fellow — strong, hale and 



194 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



hearty, and an alien — just what he want- 
ed, and moreover named Stander — a good 
name, under the circumstances. 

The agent did all the business for S., 
made his own bargain with Stander, and 
received from S. four hundred dollars in 
cash. How much of this the substitute 
was to receive was a secret between him 
and the agent. 

S. was delighted. He took possession 
of his substitute and started in the first 
train for Putnam County ; but before he 
reached the Provost-Marshal's office there 
was a sergeant of marines after him, who, 
notwithstanding the remonstrances of S., 
took him by force of arms, and conveyed 
liim back to New York and to the naval 
rendezvous, where he had already enlisted 
for the navy. S. was of course disconso- 
late. He had lost his substitute, lost his 
four hundred dollars, and .lost sight of the 
agent who had fleeced ihim. Neither 
knew he of his whereabouts, or even his 
name. All was gone, and he had nothing 
to do but to cast about for another substi- 
tute or £0 into the ranks himself. 



Rebuff to a Trafficker in Exemption Papers. 
At Plattsburgh, New York, while the 
drafting was going on, a man of no very 
great loyal pretensions called on a widow 
and informed her that her only son was 
drafted, and then hastened to assure her 
that he could secure his exemption if she 
would certify that she was a widow, and 
that he was her only son, upon whom she 
made her dependence for support. The 
patriotic lady made the following Spartan 
reply to the mercenary : " I can certify to 
no such thing. I am not dependent on my 
son for support, and I never expect to be. 
Besides, I think he ought to go, if he is 
able to perform military duty, and so ought 
every other able-bodied man, till this 
wicked rebellion is put down. Nothing 
but the necessity of wearing these skirts 
has kept me from going." And the patri- 
otic trafficker in white-livered merchandize 
evaporated. 



Cause for Rejecting a Recruit. 
One of the recruiting agents in the city 
of New York carried a finely proportioned 
man to the surgeon for examination, telling 
the man to return to the ward room as soon 
as he had been passed. In due time the 
man arrived at official head-quarters, bring- 
ing his own rejection. There was indig- 
nation among the recruiting committee, 
who immediately began to feel of the mus- 
cles of this really promising specimen of a 
man, and point out the beauties of his 
structure. Loud were the complaints and 
bitter their denunciations of Dr. H — , and 
what overt act they might have committed 
it would be impossible to tell, had not a 
bystander asked the man what cause the 
Doctor gave for rejecting him. " Well, I 
believe," calmly replied the man, " that he 
said I had the itch." The wardroom was 
clear in a moment — muscle-feelers and 
all. 



Puzzling- a Draft Commissioner. 

Commissioner : " Well, young man, have 
you come to volunteer?" 

Applicant — a bright French boy of nine- 
teen : " No, Sir ; I'm exempt. I am not 
a citizen — I am a French subject." (Hand- 
ing to the Commissioner the certificate of 
such fact, signed by the French Consul.) 

Commissioner: "You speak English 
well. Where were you born?" 

Applicant : " In New York, Sir." 

Commissioner : " Then you are an Amer- 
ican citizen." 

Applicant : " No, Sir ; I am not." 

Commissioner : " Why not ? " 

Applicant : " My father was naturalized 
before I was born." 

Commissioner : " Well, what has that to 
do with making you a French subject ? " 

Applicant : " Why, when he was natu- 
ralized, I was not in the country." 



Fig-htin' ober a Bone. 
The following dialogue actually took 
place in war times, between a guest at one 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



195 



of our metropolitan hotels and a sable 
waiter connected with the establishment : 

Guest : " Well, Jim, you are going to 
join a colored regiment at once, I sup- 
pose ? " 

Jim : " Me, Massa ? O no, me nebber 
tink ob it at all." 

Guest: "Never thought of it? I am 
surprised ! I supposed all your people 




Fightin' ober a Bone. 

would embrace the first opportunity to take 
up arms eagerly. But why are you not 
going to fight ? " 

Jim : " Well, Massa, I tell yer. Did 
yer ebber see two dogs fightin' ober a 
bone ? " 

Guest : " Yes, of course ; but what has 
that to do with it ? " 

Jim : " Why, don't yer see, Massa ? de 
bone nebber fight ; de bone take no part in 
de conflic'. De Norf an' Sonf are de two 
cloys jiylitivL ober a bone ; we niyyers are 
de bone : toe don't take no part in de con- 
jiic'!" 



Q.ueer Drafting: in Maryland. 
The enrolling officer for Salisbury Dis- 
trict, Maryland, was very active and thor- 
ough in the performance of his duties. 
One day he went to the house of a coun- 
tryman, and finding none of the male mem- 
bers of the family at home, made inquiry 
of an old woman about the number and 



age of the " males " of the family. After 
naming several, the old lady stopped. u Is 
there no one else?" asked the officer. 
" No," replied the woman, " none, except 
Billy Bray." « Billy Bray ! where is he ? " 
" He was at the barn a moment ago," said 
the old lady. Out went the officer, but 
could not find the man. Coming back, the 
worthy officer questioned the old lady as to 
the age of Billy, and went away, after en- 
rolling his name among those to be drafted. 
The time of the drafting came, and among 
those on whom the lot fell was the verita- 
ble Billy Bray. No one knew him. Where 
did he live ? The officer who enrolled him 
was called on to produce him ; and, lo and 
behold, Billy Bray was a Jackass (not a 
human one, like the enroller, but with four 
genuine legs and ears of the usual length) 
— regularly recorded on the list of drafted 
men as forming one of the quota of Mary- 
land. 



Complimentary Salutations to his General. 
The Thirty-eighth Ohio Regiment once 
on a time went home as veterans. They 
obtained many recruits, among whom was 
a young man recruited hi Dayton. He 
was paid the usual Government and local 
bounties, dressed out in a suit of blue, and 
after a good time on furlough, returned to 
the front. On Saturday his Regiment was 
on picket, and our new recruit was put on 
an outpost, as he was rather a sharp fellow. 
Soon, however, he was missed, and it was 
found he had deserted to the enemy. In 
a short time, nothing more was thought of 
it. The matter was someAvhat revived, 
however, when, with the flag of truce that 
subsequently came in, there were brought, 
among other things, the compliments of Cap- 
tain , late of Johnson's Island, to Gen- 
eral Band. He was one of the escaped 
prisoners, who had taken this means of 
again getting among his friends in Dixie. 
He was also too well posted not to be able 
to give the rebels almost as much valuable 
information as they could obtain from a 
northern newspaper. 



196 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Indiana "Volunteer Ninety-two Years Old. 
Indiana has accorded to her the honor 
of furnishing the oldest volunteer of any 
State in the Union. Mr. Bates, of Pen- 
dleton, ninety-two years old, volunteered 
with a company from Madison County, 
and went into Camp Morton on Saturday, 
full of patriotic fire. Of course he was re- 
jected, on account of age. When asked 
why he volunteered, he replied that he 
wanted to show the young men that old 
men were not afraid to fight, and ex- 
pressed his determination to remain with 
the company, if permitted to do so. Men 
ninety-two years old are seldom to be found 
in these days, and especially in a military 
camp. Mr. Bates is said to be the father 
of twenty-two children. No wonder that 
he feels some interest in preserving the 
nation from destruction. 



Deaf and Dumb Soldier. 
Connected with the Springfield City 
Guard, Captain Lombard, Tenth regiment 
of Massachusetts volunteers, stationed at 
Camp Brightwood, Virginia, was a deaf 
mute, named John Donovan, who was a 
regularly enlisted soldier, and detailed as 
the regimental tailor. He learned the 
trade of tailor in Brooklyn, N. Y. He 
went to Springfield, Massachusetts, from 
which city he enlisted at the commence- 
ment of the rebellion. His infirmity, of 
course, precluded him from performing the 
ordinary military duties of a soldier ; and, 
being employed as the regimental tailor, he 
had many leisure moments, which he im- 
proved by the practice of a natural gift for 
drawing. In that art he was a self-taught 
man, and in it he attained a truly aston- 
ishing degree of proficiency. An accurate 
draft of Camp Brightwood was made by 
him, and subsequently lithographed. John 
was always spoken of in the highest terms 
of praise by the officers of his regiment, 
and, notwithstanding his infirmity, was 
fully equal, bodily and mentally, to the 
rank and file of the gi^and army of the 
Union. 



Donning- the Breeches. 
In Clinton county, Ohio, there is a cer- 
tain township, Richland, which, at the 
opening period or year of the war, had 
not, it would seem, raised a very large crop 
of patriotic young men, — judging from the 
proceedings of a meeting of irate females 
held there to consider the call made upon 
the country for troops. It was stated that 
not more than two volunteers had been 
furnished by the township up to that time, 
and the resolutions adopted and the speeches 
made at the meeting referred to, not only 
called the patriotism but the courage of the 
men of Richland in question. So stung were 
the female population by what they termed 
the disgraceful and unmasculine spirit man- 
ifested by the male population — the young 
men, especially, — that seven young ladies, 
determined if possible to retrieve the char- 
acter of the community and set an exam- 
ple befitting the crisis through which the 
country was passing, stepped forward and 
requested to have their names then and 
there enrolled as volunteers in defence of 
the nation. They added, that as soon as 
they could be furnished with uniforms, they 
would leave their clothing to the young 
men, who lacked the manliness to defend 
the flag of their country when it was as- 
sailed. 



Recruiting' Extraordinary. 
At the time when the Federal troops 
were quartered at Blue Licks, Kentucky, 
the monotony of camp-life was broken by 
a rather romantic incident. Several re- 
cruits were coming in daily, and were im- 
mediately sworn into service, but one 
spruce little fellow arriving Sunday even- 
ing, refused to take the oath on the Lord's 
day, wishing to postpone it until next 
morning, which modest request was grant- 
ed. The young recruit sauntered leisurely 
around among the men, apparently perfect- 
ly at home. When the time came to " turn 
in," he was shown a bed with three or four 
soldiers in the same room, which he read- 
ily accepted. His fellow-lodgers attempted 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



197 



to converse, but found him quite silent, 
and, observing him kneel for prayer be- 
fore retiring, they concluded he was too 
pious for a soldier, but was perhaps to be 
chaplain. Next morning the surgeon was 
sent to have a conversation with the recruit 
before the oath was administered, and he 
being rather observing than otherwise, con- 
cluded, after a short " confab," that the 
young soldier was a very pretty female. 
After considerable blushing, she acknowl- 
edged the fact, stating that her intended 
was in the ranks, and that she was deter- 
mined to accompany him. It seems that 
" cruel parients," as usual, were the cause, 
they having refused to let the young folks 
marry, and, in the desperation of the mo- 
ment, the young swain sought the army, 
and a night or two following, the love- 
stricken maiden donned a suit of her bro- 
ther's clothes, and joined her lover at Camp 
Blue Lick. The Colonel discharged the 
young Romeo the next morning, and that 
evenino; the fortunates were made one. 



Why John Rawley became a Substitute. 
During the battle of Olustee, Florida, 
Jerome Dupoy, of Company D, Seventh 
C. V., was shot in the back of the head, 
evidently by some one in his own ranks, 
and suspicion fell upon a substitute for a 
drafted man, named John Rawley, of the 
same company, who had a quarrel with 
Dupoy and been stabbed by him. Ser- 
geant Broes charged Rawley with the 
crime, when he confessed, and is reported 
to have made the following statement: 
Well, Sergeant, I did kill Dupoy; he 
stabbed me at St. Helena ; I swore if ever 
I got a chance I'd kill him. I had one at 
Olustee, and I killed him. Nor is he the 
only man I have killed or caused to die. 
I cut out the entrails of a sailor on a guri- 
boat, since this war begun; and I killed, 
by stabbing, a man in New York, which 
caused me to leave my family and go as a 
substitute for a drafted man last Fall. 
But the ghost of Dupoy is the only one 
that ever troubled me. Since the battle I 



have dreaded night, for they are horrible 
nights. When on picket I always see 
Dupoy stand a little way front, his face 
all bloody, and the bullet hole in his head. 
At night, when in my dreams, he stands at 
the entrance. I awake, he is there, pale 
and bloody, but vanishes as soon as I see 
him. I could not keep the horrible crime 
a secret any longer. 



Pat's Compliments to "Desarters." 
The following dialogue really took place 

between Lieutenant A. C. C d, then 

recently of the United States Texan army, 
and Pat Fletcher, one of the privates of 
the Second Cavalry at Carlisle, but then 
near Fort Bliss : — 

Officer — Well, Pat, ain't you going to 
follow the General (Twiggs) ? 

Pat — If Gineral Scott ordhers us to 
folly him, Sir, begor Toby (Pat's horse) 
can gallop as well as the best of 'em. 

Officer — I mean, won't you leave the 
abolition army, and join the free South ? 

Pat — Begor, I never enlisted in th' abo- 
lition army, and never will. I agreed to 
sarve Uncle Sam for five years, and the 
divil a pin mark was made in the contract, 
with my consint, ever since. When my 
time is up, if the army is'nt the same as it 
is now, I won't join it agin. 

Officer— Pat, tha "Second" (Cavalry) 
was eighteen months old when you and I 
joined. The man who raised our gallant 
regiment is now the Southern President ; 
the man who so lately commanded it, is 
now a Southern General. Can you re- 
main in it, when they are gone ? 

Pat — Well, you see, the fact of the 
matter is, Lieut. C, I ain't much of a 
scholar; I can't argue the question with 
you, but what would my mother say if I 
desarted my colors? Oh! the divil a give- 
in I'll ever give in, now, and that's the 
end of it. I tried to run away once, after 
enlistin', but a man wouldn't be missed 
thin. It's quite different now, Lieutenant, 
and I'm not going to disgrace naither iv 
my countries. 



198 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



Officer — Do you know that you will 
have to fire on green Irish colors, in the 
Southern ranks ? 

Pat — And won't you have to fire on 
them colors, (pointing to the flag at Fort 
Bliss,) that yerself and five of us licked 
nineteen rangers under ? Sure, it isn't a 
greater shame for an Irishman to fire on 
Irish colors, than for an American to fire 
on American colors. An' th' oath'll be on 
my side, you know, Lieutenant. 

Officer — D n the man that relies on 

Paddies, I say. 

Pat — The same compliments to desar- 

ters, your honor. 



Worse than being Drafted. 
One of the earliest names drawn in the 
South District of St Louis, Missouri, for 
the war, in the draft of 1864, was that of 
George R. B — , a young man who had 
recently commenced business in the city, 
and who not long before had married a 
very respectable young lady. At noon 
on the day of the publication of the list 
of drafted men, in which his name ap- 
peared, he received notice from a substi- 
tute agent, that he — the agent — had eight 
hundred dollars in hand with which a sub- 
stitute was to be procured. This seem- 
ingly eccentric proceeding was no cause 
of surprise to the young man, inasmuch as 
he had from his very cradle been the re- 
cipient of bounties from an unknown 
source, having been left an orphan by the 
ravages of the cholera in 1848, and placed 
in one of the benevolent institutions of the 
city. He was put in the best schools as 
soon as he arrived at a proper age, and ever 
since he had been supplied with a sufficiency 
of means, the institution which had guarded 
his infancy being the trustee of the funds. 
Since commencing business he had been 
able to live independently, and whatever 
sums he was informed were placed to his 
credit at his alma mater he generously 
donated to the charity fund. But when 
he was drafted his hopes' of the future be- 
came clouded. His wife wept upon his 



bosom, and his heart sank within him at 
the prospect. Too poor to pay a substi- 
tute, he saw nothing left to him but to be 
put in the front and fight, perhaps die, 
just as life was blooming into the bright- 
ness of springtime. Under these circum- 
stances, the notification above referred 
to, brought sunshine back to the young 
and despondent couple. But the strangest 
point in all this experience was yet to be 
developed — one, too, partaking largely of 
the romantic. Two days after the exam- 
ination of the young man, at about the 
hour of nine, a carriage drove up to the 
door of his residence, and the driver placed 
the following note in the hero's hands : 
"October 21, 1864. 
" Come with the bearer of this. A dy- 
ing friend wishes to see you. Be quick, 
or you may be too late." 

L. G." 
^Bidding his wife adieu, telling her busi- 
ness called him away for a short time, he 
stepped into the carriage, and after driving 
for near half an hour, stopped in front of a 
comfortable-looking cottage in the suburbs. 
In a few moments he was ushered into a 
room in which was every evidence of a 
tasteful but modest luxury. On a low 
couch in the centre of the room lay an 
emaciated woman, of perhaps forty years 
of age, who, roused from an unrestful doze, 
opened her languid eyes and looked upon 
the young man as he neared her. A wild, 
peculiar expression lit up her countenance, 
and she seemed deeply affected. But the 
interview was short, for her strength was 
fast failing. Said she : 

"George, I am dying. You are my 
son. I have been wicked, but suffering 
has purified me ; and because I am worthy 
to hope for God's forgiveness, I have sent 
for you to-night to see you, and let you 
know the mystery and history of your life. 

Father , who is here, will tell you 

all. I have supported you all your life, 
and to me you are indebted for your ex- 
emption from the draft. All I ask is, that 
you will not curse the memory of your 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



199 



mother. For years I have lived secluded, 
and endeavored to retrieve the errors of 
other days. Be virtuous ! " 

The dying woman here became ex- 
hausted beyond the power of utterance, 
and not long after breathed her last. The 
young man learned that she had been a 
notorious character in St. Louis, and was 
divorced from her husband soon after her 
son's birth, the father having died about 
two years after, previously placing the 
boy in the orphan asylum spoken of. 
Knowing the whereabouts of her son, how- 
ever, she superintended his education and 
furnished means for his proper mainte- 
nance, by her vicious course, but at last, 
with amended life, dying in the hope of a 
happy future. But the young man was 
so deeply affected by this knowledge, that 
his reason for a time was almost over- 
thrown. The next day, without even in- 
forming his wife, he left the city for parts 
unknown. 



Chang-ed his Mind. 

A tall and good looking fellow made his 
appearance before Supervisor Blunt, in 
New York, intending to volunteer. To 
all appearance, he was well to do in the 
world, and, passing through most of the 
forms usual in enlisting, lie reached the 
chairman of the committee, of Avhom he 
expected to get his bounty. At this point 
another character stepped upon the scene. 

A tidy looking young woman, who 
claimed to be, and doubtless was, his wife, 
appeared unexpectedly before the would- 
be recruit, and in a modest, yet determined 
manner, protested against his taking the 
money. She appealed to him with tears 
in her eyes, to remain at home with her 
and the children. "You know, John," 
said she, " that I am not strong," and her 
delicate frame indicated this to be true, 
" and what can I do without you ? How 
can I take care of and support myself and 
our three dear, dear children, without you 
to assist ? The three hundred dollars will 
soon be gone, and then where shall we be, 



and you perhaps dead — dead?" Her 
poor little heart seemed ready to burst 
with grief, and her sobs were painfully 
affecting. Flinging herself upon his neck 
she again exclaimed, " John ! do not, do 
not leave me." Then she repeated her 
tale of sorrow, present and prospective, to 
Mr. Blunt. But John, as most self-willed 
husbands are, they say, was stoical and 
indifferent to all these feeling appeals, un- 
moved and unimpassioned. Mr. Blunt 
looked on all this, while hesitating what to 
do. Finally, without paying the bounty, 
he allowed them both to pass out of the 
surrounding crowd into the more private 
apartments provided for the new recruits, 
there to consult together alone on the sub- 
ject. 

With what arguments she assailed her 
John here, what appeals she made, or 
what witchery she practised, are not 
known ; but, like most intelligent women 
who accompany their strong protestations 
with a copious flow of tears — real tears — 
she triumphed at last. She obtained his 
consent to remain with his fond wife and 
family. Then they appeared again before 
Mr. Blunt — she with a triumphant air, 
and her face all aglow with joyful smiles, 
he looking as an obedient husband should, 
resigned and satisfied. She announced 
that her husband had changed his mind 
and concluded not to go. The little rogue 
knew very well that it was she who had 
changed his mind. He was asked if he 
had determined not to volunteer. He 
said he had. " Why ? " says Mr. Blunt. 

" Why, you see this little natty wife of 
mine has faii"ly persuaded me out of it, 
and she Avould control the devil himself, I 
believe, if he stood in her way." 

As the enlistment was not consummated 
fully, the Supervisor allowed him to go, 
and a happier woman never left the pres- 
ence of a woman's court than was that 
young Avife as she passed out of the pres- 
ence of those who came so near sending 
her husband to the "front." Husbands, 
obey your wives. 



200 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Sce.ue of Domestic Sadness : "Woman's 
Firmness. 

In a New York village resided a wid- 
ow named Smith, who had sent four sons 
to the war, two of whom were minors, 
leaving behind them only two sisters. 
After a while two of them returned home, 
Nathaniel Smith, a member of the Eight- 
eenth regiment, and the other a member 
of the Seventh artillery, the latter on a 
furlough. On Thursday night following 
this, there was to have been a jubilee at 
the house of their uncle, given in honor 
of the boys' return, and they had set off 
to meet companions, when, unexpectedly, 
officer Burt stepped up to Nathaniel and 
arrested him as a deserter. This was so 
unlooked-for that he almost fainted on the 
spot. It appears that Nathaniel deserted 
the regiment just previous to the second 
Bull Run battle, and since that time had 
been loitering about Washington and 
Alexandria, wholly unknown to the au- 
thorities in those places. Had he enlisted 
at the breaking out of the rebellion, and 
had he remained with his regiment he 
would have been mustered out of service 
in May. But he deserted eight months 
before his time was out, and consequently 
was compelled to make good that loss. 
After a parley with the officer who arrest- 
ed him, the latter consented to go with 
him back to his mother's house, and here 
a scene ensued which shows the earnest 
patriotism of a true woman's heart. 

When taken back to his mother's house 
as a deserter, and she being informed of 
the fact, she burst into a flood of tears 
and said : 

" I have sacrificed four sons to my coun- 
try — two minors ; I have buried my hus- 
band and children ; but I never knew 
what trouble and grief were before. To 
have one brought back as a deserter is 
more — more than I can stand. I do not 
blame the officers for doing their duty, but 
I do you for deserting. Go, my soil, you 
are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh 
I would rather have seen you brought 



home as a corpse, than to find you alive, 
branded as a deserter. But go, my son ; 
do your duty as a man and a soldier, re- 
membering that your mother's prayers are 
with you, and do not come home again un- 
til you can come as a man who has noth- 
ing to fear." 

While his mother was still engaged in 
talking to him in strains of sorrow and re- 
gret, his aunt came in — feeble in health, 
but strong in feeling. Mortified that he 
had deserted his comrades, she appealed 
to him as a lover of his country and a 
member of the family to go back to the 
army and do his whole duty as a soldier, 
and not return again until he had served 
his time out. The mother and aunt's tears 
were too much for the soldier, for they 
both wept tears of regret. With their 
blessings, the soldier left his mother and 
aunt, promising them henceforth to be a 
man, a true soldier, and not to return home 
until discharged. 



Bounty- Jumper Captured by a Dog - . 
The good deeds of a dog have more 
than once had to be put in contrast with 
the mean tricks of the human kind, and 




Bounty Jumper captured by a dog, 

here is an additional illustration of this 
truth. A man who had in charge a boun- 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



201 



ty-jumper, stopped at the Union House, 
Wheeling, with his prisoner. The man 
left his charge in the hall in order to look 
into an adjoining room for a person he 
wished to see, when the nimble jumper 
jumped out of the door, upon the side- 
walk, ran up the street with great rapidi- 
ty and darted down the alley in the rear 
of the Union House. A Newfoundland 
dog — honest patriot ! — observing that the 
jumper was being followed, with loyal in- 
stinct joined in the pursuit. The dog soon 
overtook the fleeing rascal, seized him by 
the boot leg, and squatted down in the 
mud. The jumper kicked the dog off, but 
he had no sooner extricated himself than 
the faithful animal caught him again, and 
continued to hang on and delay the cul- 
prit until his pursuers came up and cap- 
tured him. 

Peculiar Question of Bounty. 

A party of raw recruits — very raw — 
were on their way home from a tavern in 

the town of , where they had spent a 

portion of the evening in revelry, when 
they brought up at a church where a re- 
vival was in progress. They marched into 
the crowded aisle of the sanctuary, and 
for a few minutes closely observed the 
minister, who was urging his unconverted 
hearers to at once " enlist in the army of 
the Lord i '' , At length the worthy minis- 
ter, noticing the uniformed men standing 
in the aisle, approached one of them, who 
was pretty near oblivious to the scene be- 
fore him, and remarked — 

" I am glad to see by your uniform that 
you are soldiers of your country ! That 
is right — glorious ! But you should now 
join the army of the Lord ! " 

'" Eh ? " queried the soldier, Avhose tav- 
ern entertainment had put him in such a 
state that he but imperfectly comprehend- 
ed the invitation — " eh ? join the Lord's 
army ? What bounty does he give, eh ? " 

The minister attempted to explain, but 
soon gave it up as a bad job, the recruit 
being really too raw for ' impression.' 
13 



Be-enlisting, but on a Different Side. 

Captain Crane, who commanded at Fort 
Meyers, tells a good story, illustrative of 
the value of time — in this instance viewed 
from a military point. When the Captain 
landed at Fort Meade he found a solitary 
sentinel marching back and forth, with a 
chip hat on his head, a dingy blouse on his 
back, and a double-barreled shot gun 
across his shoulder. This sentinel march- 
ed up and down, while Captain Crane and 
his men were busily removing the stores 
and doing other things usual on such oc- 
casions. 

At length the sentinel looked that way, 
and called out, " I say, fellows, who in hell 
are you ? " Captain Crane, with the brevi- 
ty of a soldier, replied with the one word, 
" Yanks." " Are you genuine Yanks ? " 
was the rejoiner. "We are that same," 
was the answer. The rebel sentinel pass- 
ed up and down a few times more, and 
then called out, " I say, fellows, will you 
allow a fellow to come up to you ? " Cap- 
tain Crane replied that lie might. At this 
the sentinel laid down his two barreled gun 
and went to where the Union men stood,, 
wlien he again addressed Captain Crane 
— " Will you allow a fellow to take arms 
with you ? " The answer was in the af- 
firmative ; upon which the rebel expressed 
himself in this manner : " Well, I reckon, 
my time with old Jeff, is out this day; 
and, as I don't like to waste time, I will 
enlist with you." And enlisted he was on 
the instant. Captain Crane said he had 
not a better soldier in his corps than the 
one who thus so readily ' re-enlisted.' 

This puts one in mind of Sir Walter 
Scott's Captain Dugald Dalgetty, who, 
when taken prisoner by the Marquis of 
Montrose (or Argyle), refused to serve 
the Covenanters, on th,e ground that he 
had stipulated to serve the king for the 
space of six months, but averred that, 
after his six months had expired he was 
open to any offer from the most noble 
marquis. 



>02 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



Private Notions and Public Laws. 
Governor Bramlette, of Kentucky, at 
one time had actually gone so far as to 
prepare a proclamation calling on the peo- 
ple of that State to resist by force the ne- 
gro enrollment. This was before his visit 
to Washington, and he was only dissuaded 
from issuing the document through the ap- 
peals of Rev. Dr. Breckinridge. General 
Grant treated the matter in his accustom- 
ed cool and soldierly way. When the 
General was at Louisville, he said, in re- 
ply to a distinguished Union man who 
asked him what he would do if Bramlette 
and others " made trouble about the en- 
rollment ? " "Do?" — looking at his in- 
terrogator a moment with stern surprise — 
" My God, Sir ! what have I to do with 
their notions about slaves ? This is a law 
of Congress. It shall be executed, if I 
have to bring up the entire army from 
Chattanooga. Tell them so." 



Hercules-Africanus going- to the War. 

A stalwart specimen of colored human- 
ity, just enlisted for the war, and incased 
.in a military uniform, — a perfect Hercules 
in appearance, — was accosted by a gentle- 
man who happened in his way, and the 
following conversation took place : 

" Where did you come from ? " 

"Lycoming county, sah," replied the 
candidate for military honors. 

" What business did you follow ? " 

"lama raftsman." 

"Then you are used to pretty hard 
work ? " 

" De Lor' knows I is." 

" Do you feel anxious to go South ? " 

" De Lor' knows I does." 

" Do you ever expect to come back ? " 

" No, sah ; 'xpect to be killed." 

" You know the rebels will have no 
mercy on you if they take you a prisoner." 

" Aint gvvang to be tuk prisoner — am 
gwang to fight till de bressed life falls out 
o'me." 

" Well, you don't intend, if you have the 



chance, to kill all the white people down 
south, do you, women and children ? " 

" Look yere, my chile, you doesn't un- 
derstand culled folks. We aint gwang to 
fight anybody, unless they fight us. You 
doesn't 'spose I is gwang to kill a little 
baby or a woman ; I is'nt much educated, 
but I knows de Lor' is above all ; and I 
knows right from wrong — aint gwang to 
do nuffin to displease de Lor.' I'm gwang 
to fight Jeff Davis and his rebels, and I 
feel as if I could kill ebery one on 'm. I 
could bite Jeff. Davis to def. I tell you I 
could lib a week without eating nothing, if 
that could only gib me a chance to smash 
the rebels. I tell you, I don't intend to 
hab much mercy on 'em, nohow." 

" Suppose a rebel surrendered to you ; 
what would you do then — would you kill 
him ? " 

" I tell you what I'd do under them ar 
kind of a circumstance. I'd say, look 
here, Mister Rebel, I'se got you in my 
power, and could smash you, but I aint 
gwang to do it ; but I'm gwang to tuk you 
prisoner — and off I'll tote him ; you bet- 
ter believe it." 



War's doings to One Family. 

There arrived, one day, at the sanitary 
rooms, a woman with the remains of her 
son, who had served in the army three 
years, and who, had he lived a few months 
longer, would have been sixteen years of 
age. The circumstances of this case show 
the doings of war in one family. 

In August, 1861, being then twelve 

years old, James Henry , enlisted as 

drummer in the Seventeenth New Hamp- 
shire regiment, where he served fourteen 
months* He then re-enlisted, and served 
nine months in the Nineteenth New Hamp- 
shire regiment ; and again, in January, 
1864, enlisted for three years in the First 
Maine Heavy Artillery. He died in 
March, at Fort Sumner Hospital. The 
mother stated that this boy, who was evi- 
dently her pet — her Benjamin — had been 
the first of the family to enlist ; shortly 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



203 



after, his father enlisted, served a year in 
the Tenth Maine regiment, and died at 
Lynchburg. In the same month of the 
father's death, another son enlisted, in the 
Seventeenth Maine regiment, was in bat- 
tle at Gettysburg, and was never heard 
from again. 

During the. same year, too, the third 
and last son enlisted in the Eleventh 
United States regulars, was wounded in 
the head at Gettysburg, discharged for 
permanent disability, becoming imbecile 
in consequence of his wound. The care 
of the mother, and of an infirm grand- 
parent, and of an imbecile brother, had 
fallen upon the little drummer-boy. Being 
small of stature, besides his extreme 
youth, he could not earn a man's wages, 
and therefore proposed re-enlisting. His 
mother had her forebodings, and remon- 
strated ; but he reminded her of his for- 
mer good fortune, of the bounty money, 
of a time when the war should be over, 
and every thing be all right. 

She consented. He served two months, 
and here were his ashes ! The mother 
behaved with Roman firmness. She 
would not say that she regretted giving up 
her all to the Avar : " The country needed 
them, and it was only right that they 
should go," was the patriotic language of 
this American mother. Drawing nearer 
the fire, she remarked, " I feel chilly ; I 
sat at the end of the car last night, for the 
sake of bringing home Jimmy's drum ; I 
did not like to take so much room by the 
stove." Ah, that little lone home in 
Maine, with nothing left in it so dear as 
Jimmy's silent drum! How many such 
desolate homes in the land ! 



" Divil a Macarthy drawn at-all-at-all." 
The editor of the Oshkosh Northwest- 
ern attended the drawing of the names for 
the draft in that district. While watching 
the progress of the draft, as one by one 
the names of the honored conscripts were 
announced, he was much amused by the 
evolutions of a tall, stalwart son of Erin. 



He was a man of somewhere about fifty 
years of age, was dressed in the long- 
tailed, high-collared coat of the last cen- 
tury, and, by way of jewelry, carried a 
1 gem ' of blackthorn, about the size of a 
stick of cord-wood, in his right hand. His 
occupation seemed to consist in address- 
ing to every comer, the one question : 
" Do yez think it's fair ? " On an answer 
given in the affirmative he would eye his 
shillalah most affectionately, and respond, 
" Yiz, I think it's fair." A conversation 
with him proved that his anxiety arose 
from the fact that he had three sons, all 
liable to the draft, and he was concerned 
that they should have fair play. When 
his own town was being drawn, he stood 
all alert, listening to the names .as they 
were read out, and on the list being com- 
pleted, with a wave of his shillalah and a 
pigeon-wing that would have done jcredit 
to a younger man — " Hurroo ! " exclaimed 
he, " I Know its fair ; divil a Macarthy drawn 

at-all-at-all; sure, I know its fair .J" 

♦ 

Happy to Make General G-ordon's Acquaint- 
ance. 
General Gordon was a strict disciplina- 
rian, who would never have any words 
with a private ; and hence a joke. One 
day, one of the 107th New York Volun- 
teers got ahead of the brigade, when the 
General halted him and ordered him back. 
The soldier stopped, turned around, stared 
at General Gordon, and replied, " Who are 
you ? " "I am General Gordon." " Ah, 
General, I am very happy to make your 
acquaintance ! " was the complacent an- 
swer. A roar of laughter burst from the 
General's staff. 



Branding Deserters at Castle Thunder. 

Branding deserters, as performed at Cas- 
tle Thunder, in Richmond, must be set 
down as decidedly one of the most beau- 
tiful of rebel military practices, and as 
humane as beautiful. The culprit was 
fastened to a large table, with his face 
downward, and a large " D " scarred upon 
his posteriors. A plain bar of iron, about 



201 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



an inch in diameter, narrowed down a lit- 
tle at the point, was heated to incandes- 
cence, and then used as a sign-painter 
would use a brush in lettering, only in a 
very slow and bungling manner. A greasy 
smoke with a sickly stench arose during 
the performance of the operation, accom- 
panied with crackling sounds, and the 
groans of the victim as the hot iron sank 
deep into the flesh. On pretense of ren- 
dering the mark of disgrace plain and in- 
delible, but in reality to torture the unfor- 
tunate culprit, the hot iron was drawn 
many times through the wound, making it 
larger and deeper, until the victim, unable 
to endure the excruciation longer, would 
faint, and be carried away. The opera- 
tion was always performed by old Pard, 
the executioner of Kellogg, the greatest 
demon in human form outside of Pluto's 
realms. 



Eager to be a Soldier: Handsome Lizzie. 

The hospital matron at Benton Bar- 
racks, St. Louis, one day had the routine 
of her official duties varied by detecting 
the form of a young lady in the habili- 
ments of a young man, the wearer of 
which was an applicant for enlistment. 
She was sent to the office of the Depart- 
ment Provost-Marshal, where she declined 
to make any statement as to her name, 
history, etc. At length, however, she 
concluded to tell her story. Her proper 
name was Lizzie Cook, and her home lay 
in Aponoose county, Iowa. Her father 
was in the First Missouri State Militia, and 
met his death in a skirmish at Walnut 
Creek, Linn county, Mo. Her brother 
held the position of sergeant in the Fifth 
Kansas. A desire to reach him, and a 
disgust at the monotony of woman's life, 
with a wish to serve her country, led her 
to determine to assume male attire and 
volunteer as a soldier. 

She accordingly left her home and pro- 
ceeded to Keokuk, where she w r orked as 
house servant for a family needing such 
help, till she had earned money enough to 



buy a suit of boys' clothes. She bought 
and donned them, and as soon as she had 
done so, started for St. Louis. Here she 
put up at the Everett House, registering 
her name as Wm. Ross. In the morning 
she took the cars for Benton Barracks, 
and was there proposing to enlist, when, 
failing to carry out her disguise to the re- 
quisite degree of nicety, she was detected. 
Lizzie was a young lady of about twen- 
ty summers, tall, fine-looking, intelligent, 
animated in conversation, and expressed a 
strong desire to shoulder a musket and do 
with it what she could for the glorious 
cause of the Union. It was concluded, 
however, to commend her to the attention 
of the Union Aid Society, and, greatly to 
her disappointment, Lizzie was denied the 
satisfaction of engaging in her country's 
cause in the way she had marked out. 
A fine specimen of a whole-hearted, finely 
formed, patriotic, Western girl, was hand- 
some Miss Lizzie. 



Had to Acknowledge the Breed. 
An old farmer from the West, who 
knew President Lincoln in by-gone times, 
called one day to pay his respects at the 
Presidential mansion. Slapping the Chief 
Magistrate upon the back, he exclaimed, 
" Well, old boss, how are you ? " Old 
Abe, being thoroughly democratic in his 
ideas, and withal relishing a joke, respond- 
ed : " So I'm an old hoss, am I ? What 
kind of a hoss, pray ? " " Why, an old 
draft-boss, to be sure," was the rejoinder. 
Old Abe had to acknowledge the breed. 



"Unquestionably a Hard Case. 

The following inarticulate certificate got 
a man a discharge from the draft at Lou- 
isville. As he could not step squarely, 
he took the oblique. Puffiness ought to 
have excused him alone. But to the doc- 
ument — a model of its kind, as will be 
seen: 

" I hereby certify that had one 

of his feet caught in the cylinder of a 
threshing machine on the 4th of last Sep- 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



205 



tember, and severely injured, particularly 
the metatarsophalongial articulation of the 
great toe and a spot on the dorsum of the 
foot — perhaps the articulation of the cu- 
baid bone with the scaphoid slightly inter- 
rupted. I have examined the foot lately, 
and have no doubt of the truth of his 
statement when he says he can not step 
squarely on his foot on account of not be- 
ing able to bear his weight on the ball of 
the great toe in walking. There also re- 
mains a pumness in the region of the in- 
step. He has hemorrhoids." 
Poor fellow ! 



Regimental Clothes-washer for the Six- 
teenth Illinois. 

He who gives a little spice to the ordi- 
nary flatness of camp life loses no friends. 
Acting upon this idea, a clever joke was 
perpetrated one dull day, at the expense 
of Lieutenant C, of the Sixteenth Illi- 
nois regiment, and a company of recently 
arrived recruits. 

The raw recruits, some twenty in num- 
ber, in a short time after their arrival, 
wished their linen washed, and made in- 
quiry of a veteran comrade as to the loca- 
tion of the quarters of the washerwoman. 

"We don't keep any washerwoman 
here," was the reply, " but tLere is a fel- 
low up in that tent (pointing to Lieutenant 
C.'s,) who washes for the regiment." 

Away to their quarters went the boys, 
gathered up their linen, and in a body re- 
paired to the tent of the Lieutenant, who 
unfortunately was not in. The unclean 
articles were left on his cot, with the 
names of the owners attached to each bun- 
dle. Whether Lieutenant C. w r ashed the 
clothes or returned them to their owners, 
is a question by no means so difficult of 
an answer as ' Who struck Billy Patter- 



Sixteen Brothers in One Regiment. 
Perhaps no incident in the way of prac- 
tical family patriotism, bearing upon the 
war of the rebellion, was more remarkable 
than the following : One of the companies 



connected with the Ohio regiments raised 
at the commencement of the Avar contained 
sixteen brothers by the name of Finch, res- 
idents of Dayton, Ohio. They were born 
in Durkheim, Germany, the family num- 
bering in all nineteen children — sixteen 
being boys, all of whom enlisted as soldiers 
for the defence of their adopted country, in 
the regiment named above. Their parents 
had taken up their residence in New York, 
and their children obtained leave to visit 
them in Philadelphia. Such an instance 
as this is certainly without a parallel in the 
annals of war. 



Fiction left in the Shade— the Corporal of the 
Tenth Connecticut. 

There was in the Second Connecticut 
regiment, before Richmond, a Corporal, the 
story of whose life outdid romance itself, 
and even left fiction in the shade. Seven 
years previously and more he enlisted into 
the British army in York. His first night 
as a recruit he passed with a fellow Ger- 
man, who had also just enlisted, and the 
two talked together as countrymen thus 
situated would be likely to. The next day 
they left for London, and there they were 
separated. Time passed on. This soldier 
was ordered to India. He was nearly five 
years in service. Receiving his discharge, 
he returned to England, shipped on a ves- 
sel for Norway, was, later, on a Norwegian 
vessel, and in that was shipwrecked on the 
coast of Sweden ; barely escaping with his 
life, he went to Wales ; again, he was on 
a Prussian vessel ; he visited Constantino- 
ple, Odessa, and the West Indies. 

Coming to New York, he was, after one 
or two brief voyages, led to Connecticut. 
Enlisting there, he joined his regiment at 
Gloucester Point, and was subsequently in 
all the battles of the army of the James. 
One day — or night, — in the winter of 1864, 
while Corporal of the guard, he was call- 
ing the relief at midnight ; in passing a 
tent he heard a voice, the peculiar tones 
of which attracted his special attention and 
revived remembered associations of that 



206 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



first night as a recruit in old York, more 
than seven years before. He was sure 
that the voice was that of his then com- 
panion, and inquiry proved him not mis- 
taken in his belief. Strange meeting — 
that of these two men ! 

His comrade's experience had been hard- 
ly less varied than his own. After several 
years' service on special duty in Great 
Britain, he also had taken to the sea. 
Coming to America, the opening of the 
war had found him at the South, and there 
he joined the Confederate army. For a 
time he was an orderly of a well-known 
Confederate General, and as such he on 
one occasion carried messages back and 
forth in a battle where the Tenth Connec- 
ticut fought prominently and victoriously. 
Later, he escaped from Charleston to the 
Federal gunboats, and after various expe- 
riences at Morris Island, Hilton Head and 
in New York, entered the Union army as 
a substitute, and there he found himself in 
the very regiment before the pressure of 
whose gallant charge he had two years be- 
fore fled in precipitous haste after his chiv- 
alrous and fleet-footed commander, on a 
battlefield in another State ; and now his 
voice was recognized and his name was 
called by a fellow-countryman who had 
been for a single night his comrade in the 
long gone years in a distant land. "Would 
it be strange if he rubbed his eyes and 
asked if it were all a dream ? 



and he drove them to town in his carriage 
on their way to Baltimore, after fitting them 
out quite liberally. He subsequently came 
to the city and went to Camp Birney, to 
get his certificates for the three hundred 
dollars substitute money for each slave, and 
to grant his obligation to free them when 
the State laws would allow him to do so. 
The slaves met him, on this visit, as affec- 
tionately and demonstratively as sons could 
meet a father. 



Maryland Slaveholder Driving: his Slaves to 
the Recruiting- Office. 

When the recruiting ball for the Union 
ranks had been fairly set in motion in Mary- 
land, a slaveholder in Dorchester county, in 
that State, said to his slaves one day that 
they had permission to volunteer in the 
army if they so desired. He requested 
them, however, when they had made up 
their minds really to go, to inform him, and 
as they had driven him many a time to 
Cambridge, he would himself drive them in 
his carriage hither on that important mis- 
sion. Sure enough they heeded his request, 



Girl-Boy Drummer. 
A fair and sprightly girl, of but twelve 
dimpled summers, and giving the name of 
Charles Martin, enlisted in one of the 
Pennsylvania regiments, in the early period 
of the war, as a drummer boy. She had 
evidently enjoyed the advantage of educa- 
tion, could write a good hand, and even 
composed very well. She made herself 
useful to officers of the regiment in the 
capacity of a clerk ; and though involved 
in the scenes and chances of no less than 
five battles, she escaped unwounded and 
unharmed. The officers never dreamed 
of any hitch as to her sex. After a while, 
she was taken down sick with the typhoid 
fever, a disease then quite prevalent in 
Philadelphia, and was removed to Penn- 
sylvania Hospital. It was while there 
that the worthy matron of the institution 
discovered the drummer boy, who had 
passed through so many fatigues, perils 
and rough experiences, to be no more nor 
less than a girl not yet in her teens. 



Just the kind of Arms a Young; Quaker 
Could Bear. 

Among the drafted men who presented 
themselves for examination before the re- 
cruiting Board at Providence, Rhode Island, 
was a young Quaker, whose conscientious 
regard for his faith would not allow him to 
send a substitute, or purchase a discharge, 
or take any personal part in bearing arms 
himself. But he proved a clear case of 
exemption from military duty under the 
law, as made and provided, and was dis- 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC 



207 



charged accordingly. Soon after the case 
had been decided, and before the young 
Friend had left the room, a letter came 
directed to the Board, and was opened by 
the officer. It proved to be an appeal in 
behalf of the young man, in a most deli- 
cate " hand of writ," and couched in most 
pure and winsome language. The com- 
missioner playfully submitted the letter to 
the inspection of the young man, who with 
unfeigned surprise marked the well-known 
tracery of a dear young Friend who, on 
the next " Firstday," in open meeting, 
would surrender to him " arms " that he 
could bear conscientiously. 



about twelve or thirteen years of age. 
Her story was soon told. She was from 
East Tennessee, where her husband had 
been killed by the rebels, and all their 
property destroyed. She had come to St. 
Louis in search of her sister, but not 
finding her, and being destitute of money, 
she thought if she could procure a situa- 
tion for her boy as a drummer, for the 
short time the company had to remain in 
the service, she could find employment for 



Tender in Years but Strong 1 in his Devotion 
to bis Country. 

Edward Lee, or " Little Eddie," as he 
was dotingly called, will never be forgot- 
ten among the reminiscences of Wilson's 
Creek, in the winter of 1861. A few 
days before the First Iowa regiment re- 
ceived orders to join General Lyon, on his 
march to Wilson's Creek, the drummer of 
one of the companies was taken sick and 
conveyed to the hospital. On the evening 
preceding the day of the march, a negro 
was arrested within the lines of the camp 
— Camp Benton — and brought before the 
Captain, who asked him : 

" What business have you within the 
lines ?" 

" I know a drummer," he replied, " that 
you would like to enlist in your company, 
and I have come to tell you of it." 

He was immediately requested to in- 
form the drummer that if he w r ould enlist 
for their short time of service, he would 
be allowed extra pay, and to do this, he 
must be on the ground early in the morn- 
ing. The negro was then passed beyond 
the guard. 

On the following morning there appeared 
before the Captain's quarters during the 
beating of the reveille,, a good-looking, 
middle-aged woman, dressed in deep 
mourning, and leading by the hand a 
sharp, sprightly-looking boy, apparently 




Tender in years but strong in devotion to his country. 

herself, and perhaps find her sister by the 
time the men -were discharged. 

During the rehearsal of her story the 
little fellow kept his eyes intently fixed 
upon the countenance of the Captain, who 
was about to express a determination not 
to take so small a boy, when he spoke 
out : " Don't be afraid, Captain, I can 
drum." This was spoken with so much 
confidence, that the Captain immediately 
observed, with a smile, " Well, well, Ser- 
geant, bring the drum, and order our fifer 
to come forward." In a few moments the 
drum was produced, and the fifer, a tall, 
round-shouldered, good natured fellow, from 
the Dubuque mines, who stood, when erect, 
something over six feet in height, soon 
made his appearance. Upon being uitror- 



208 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



duced to his new colleague, or comrade, 
lie stooped down, with his hands resting 
upon his knees, that were thrown forward 
into an acute angle, and after peering into 
the little fellow's face a moment, he ob- 
served : 

" My little man, can you drum ? " 

cc Yes, Sir," he replied, " I drummed for 
Captain Hill, in Tennessee." 
The fifer immediately commenced straight- 
ening himself upward until all the angles 
in his person had disappeared, when he 
placed his fife in his mouth, and played the 
" Flowers of Edenhorough," one of the 
most difficult things to follow with the 
drum that could have been selected, and 
nobly did the little fellow follow him, 
showing him elf to be a master of the 
drum. When the music ceased, the Cap- 
tain turned to the mother and observed : 

" Madam, I will take your boy. What 
is his name ? " 

" Edward Lee," she replied ; then plac- 
ing her hand upon the Captain's arm, she 
continued, "Captain, if he is not killed 
" here her maternal feelings over- 
came her utterances, and she bent down 
over her boy and kissed him upon the 
forehead. As she arose, she observed : 

" Captain, you will bring him back with 
you, won't you ? " 

" Yes, yes, we will be certain to bring 
him back with us. We shall be discharged 
in six weeks." 

In an hour after, that company led the 
Iowa First out of camp, the drum and fife 
playing, "The Girl I left behind me." 
Eddie, as he was called, soon became a 
great favorite with all the men in the com- 
pany. When any of the boys had returned 
from a " horticultural excursion," Eddie's 
share of the peaches and melons Avas the 
wH3t apportioned; and during the heavy 
and fatiguing march from Rolla to Spring- 
field, it was often amusing to see that long- 
legged fifer wading through the mud with 
the little drummer mounted upon his back 
— and always in that position when fording 
streams. .But, though thus far sunny and 



unscathed in his military career, the dark 
side of the picture was soon to be turned 
to Eddie's gaze. Says a comrade : — 

During the fight at Wilson's Creek I 
was stationed with a part of our company 
on the right of Totten's battery, while the 
balance of our company, with a part of 
the Illinois regiment, was ordered down 
into a deep ravine upon our left, in which 
it was known a portion of the enemy was 
concealed, and with whom they were soon 
engaged. The contest in the ravine con- 
tinued some time. Totten suddenly wheel- 
ed his battery upon the enemy in that 
quarter, when they soon retreated to the 
high ground beyond their lines. In less 
than twenty minutes after Totten had 
driven the enemy from the ravine, the 
word passed from man to man throughout 
the army, " Lyon is killed ! " and soon 
after, hostilities having ceased upon both 
sides, the order came for our mam force to 
fall back upon Springfield, while a part of 
the Iowa First and two companies of the 
Missouri regiment were to camp upon the 
ground and cover the retreat next morn- 
ing. 

That night I was detailed for guard 
duty, my turn of guard closing with the 
morning call. When I went out with the 
officer as relief, I found that my post Avas 
upon a high eminence that overlooked the 
deep ravine in which our men had engaged 
the enemy, until Totten's battery came to 
their assistance. It was a dreary, lone- 
some beat. The moon had gone doAvn in 
the early part of the night, Avhile the stars 
tAvinkled dimly through a hazy atmosphere, 
lighting up imperfectly the surrounding 
objects. Occasionally I would place my 
ear near the ground and listen for the 
sound of footsteps, but all Avas silent 
save the far off howling wolf, that seemed 
to scent upon the evening air the banquet 
that we had been preparing for him. The 
hours passed sloAvly aAvay, Avhen at length 
the morning light began to streak along 
the eastern sky. Presently I heard a drum 
beat up the morning call. At first I 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



209 



thought it came from the camp of the en- 
emy across the creek ; but as I listened, I 
found that it came up from the deep ra- 
vine ; for a few minutes it was silent, and 
then as it became more light I heard it 
again. I listened — the sound of the drum 
was familiar to me — and I knew that it 
was our 

Drummer boy from Tennessee 
Beating for help the reveille. 

I was about to desert my post to go to 
his assistance, when I discovered the offi- 
cer of the guard approaching with two 
men. We all listened to the sound, and 
were satisfied that it was Eddie's drum. 
I asked permission to go to his assistance. 
The officer hesitated, saying that the orders 
were to march in twenty minutes. I prom- 
ised to be back in that time, and he con- 
sented. I immediately started down the 
hill through the thick undergrowth, and 
upon reaching the valley I followed the 
sound of the drum and soon found him 
seated upon the ground, his back leaning 
against the trunk of a fallen tree, while 
his drum hung upon a bush in front of 
him, reaching nearly to the ground. As 
soon as he discovered me he dropped his 
drum-sticks and exclaimed, " O, Corporal, 
I am so glad to see you. Give me a 
drink," — reaching out his hand for my can- 
teen, Avhich was empty. I immediately 
turned to bring him some water from the 
brook that I could hear rippling through 
the bushes near by, when thinking that I 
was about to leave him, he commenced 
crying, saying : " Don't leave me, Corpo- 
ral, I can't walk." I was soon back with 
the water, when I discovered that both of 
his feet had been shot away by a cannon 
ball. After satisfying his thirst, he looked 
up into my face and said : 

" You don't think I will die, Corporal, 
do you ? This man said I would not — he 
said the surgeon could cure my feet." 

I now discovered a man lying in the 
grass near him. By his dress I recog- ! 
nized him as belonging to the enemy. It 
appeared that he had been shot through [ 



I the bowels, and had fallen near where 
j Eddie lay. Knowing that he could not 
! live, and seeing the condition of the boy, 
he had crawled to him, taken off his buck- 
skin suspenders,- and corded the little fel- 
low's legs below the knee, and then lay 
down and died. While Eddie was telling 
me these particulars, I heard the tramp 
of cavalry coming down the ravine, and in 
a moment a scout of the enemy Avas upon 
us, and I was taken prisoner. I requested 
the officer to take Eddie up in front of him, 
and he did so, carrying him Avith great 
tenderness and care. 

When we reached the camp of the enemy 
the little fellow was dead. 

No Title of Soldier given to the Devil. 

Among the multitudinous developments 
of one kind and another made by the Avar 
of the rebellion, the light which it has 
thrown upon certain points and passages 
of Scripture is not to be reckoned as in- 
significant. At the funeral of an army 
Sergeant in the Federal ranks, Avho Avas 
murdered, Rev. Mr. Ilealitt, avIio preach- 
ed the funeral sermon, said he Avould not 
call the murderer a soldier, because the 
Avord soldier Avas an honorable title, borne 
by Joshua and David and others men- 
tioned in the Bible ; he Avished every one 
to remember that the devil is nowhere in 
Scripture called by the honorable title of 
soldier — a fact of no mean bearing upon 
the course of those Avho enlisted in the 
army of the Union to put down a sectional 
rebellion. 



" Sweet Sixteen " on the Male Side, and a 
" Darling-" too. 

A lad of less than sixteen years, named 
Darling, from Pittsfield, Mass., enlisted in 
the early period of the Avar in Captain 
Cromw ell's company, in the Northern 
Black Horse Cavalry. On learning that 
he had a sick mother at home, Avho Avas 
sadly afflicted at his departure, the Cap- 
tain discharged the youngster and sent 
him home, as the brave lad supposed on a 
furlough. The Captain received the foL 



210 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



lowing acknowledgment of his kindness 
from the sister of the " bold soldier boy." 
It is certainly worth reading : 

Pittsfield, Mass., Oct. 20, 1861. 

Captain Cromwell — Dear Sir : My 
brother, David H. Darling, a lad of six- 
teen, left home and joined your command 
without the consent or even knowledge of 
our parents. I went from school to see 
him last Thursday, and stated these facts 
to your second lieutenant. Our young sol- 
dier returned home Friday, on furlough, as 
he supposed, and seeing the effect of his 
conduct upon my mother and a sick sister, 
gave his consent to remain. But he is 
very much afraid you will think that he 
did not promise to return in good faith, or, 
to use his own term, that he has " backed 
out," so he made me promise, before I 
returned, that I would explain it to you. 

This, then, "is to certify," gentlemen, 
that the young Darling aforesaid has not 
abated his desire in the least degree to 
serve his country under your especial 
guidance, although he has consented to de- 
vote himself in the more humble capacity 
of staying at home and minding his mother. 
Having reached the advanced age of six- 
teen, he possesses the strength of Her- 
cules, and sagacity of Tacinaque, Agulier's 
bravery, and the patriotism of Washing- 
ton, whom you have probably heard men- 
tioned before. Would that he could add 
to these a few of Methuselah's superfluous 
years, for youth, though no crime, is very 
inconvenient in his case. Of course, the 
advancement of the Black Horse Cavalry 
is materially retarded, and its glory dim- 
med for a season ; but wherever you are 
at the end of two years, he is determined 
to join you. If thou wouldst take me in 
his place, I would be very happy to go. 
I believe not only in this war, but fighting 
in general, and think that if women were 
permitted to use ' knock down arguments,' 
it would civilize not only their mutual re- 
lations, but also their treatment of your 
much abused sex. 



Meantime, awaiting thy orders, I am 
respectfully thine, 

Jennie Darling. 

P. S. — If you are married, please hand 
this over to your Second Lieutenant. 

J. D. 

So much for Jennie. The Captain's 
response to this winsome epistle, failed, 
alas ! to greet the public eye. 



Sharp Practice among "Volunteers. 
That all the rogues were not in the 
army nor out of the State Prison was 
very clearly made to appear — and by the 
following fact among others, the scene of 
which was New York city. Mr. Blunt, 
the head of the Committee on Drafting in 
that city, took in multitudes of volunteers 
— black and white — paying the three hun- 
dred dollars, without being able to deter- 
mine whether they were, in all cases, hon- 
est and acquainted with their catechism. 
One was taken of this class, who appeared 
especially loose on both those points. A 
black fellow, who had been enlisted for the 
navy and received his three hundred dol- 
lars, applied in the course of an hour or 
so to Mr. B. for the privilege of putting 
his money into the savings bank. It was 
of course granted. The Supervisor, on 
counting over the darkey's money, found 
that there was only two hundred and 
thirty-five dollars. 

"Where is the rest of it?" says Mr. 
Blunt. 

" Dat's all," says Snowball. 
" No, it's not all. You have sixty-five 
dollars more. Turn your pockets wrong 
side out." 

Darkey complied, but not another green- 
back was found. This Avas a staggerer, 
for Blunt well knew he had paid him three 
hundred dollars. 

"Now, you horse marine," says the 
chairman, " what have you done with the 
balance of your money ? — here are some 
notes I never gave you." 

" Well, Massa Cap'n, I didn't do noffm 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



211 



with 'em greenbacks ; I jis ask a feller in 
dare to change me one hundred dollar bill, 
and de sailor he did it ; and dat are is de 
money." 

" Ah, ha ! " says B., " Bring out that 
fellow." 

Wide trowsers came out, looking very 
innocent. His money, too, was examined, 
and sure enough, there lay ensconced the 
identical sixty-five dollars the darkey was 
minus of. 

" How is this ? " says Mr. B. 

" Well, you see, Boss, that piece of eb- 
ony wanted me to change one hundred 
dollars for him, and I did it , but I ain't 
very good at cyphering, and I rather guess 
I counted wrong. Here's your dust, old 
boy ; let's tack ship and put back to port." 

This impudent piece of rascality was 
corrected by the Supervisor, the darkey's 
money banked, and the parties again turn- 
ed into their quarters. 



"How are ycm, Conscript?" 
Not the least singular among the great 
variety of incidents in connection with the 
draft, is the following, which occurred 
among the good citizens of Vigo county, 
in the State of Indiana. During the draw- 
ing for one of the sub-districts of that 
region, the pi-oceedings were watched with 
eager interest by at least one person, a 
" patriotic " resident of the locality under 
draft. As the names were drawn he be- 
trayed considerable nervousness — was par- 
ticularly anxious about the price of sub- 
stitutes, and thought it the duty of all 
" veterans " to re-enlist. Finally, impa- 
tient under such critical suspense, and un- 
able longer to control his anxiety, he made 
bold to ask permission of Colonel Thomp- 
son, the provost-marshal, to place his hand 
in the box, and draw forth the unfortunate 
prize. The Colonel, with his accustomed 
suavity and willingness to accommodate, 
kindly granted the request. The individ- 
ual accordingly reached forth his hand, 
placed it in the box, and drew forth a card 
on which was written — his own name ! 



That his curiosity was now fully satisfied, 
was no matter of doubt ; and the good- 
humored salutation of " How are you, con- 
script?" regaled his patriotic ear from 
every quarter. 



Nasby's Reasons why he should not be 
Drafted. 

Petroleum V. Nasby, in order to place 
himself in his proper position before the 
public, felt called upon to give his reasons 
— weighty and cogent ones, too, — why he 
should not be drafted. Says he : — 

I see in the papers last nite, that the 
government haz institooted a draft, that 
in a few weeks hundreds uv thousands uv 
peaceable citizens will be dragged to the 
tented feeld. I know not wat uthers may 
do, but ez fer me, I can't go. Upon a 
rigid eggsaminashun uv my fizzikle man, 

1 find it wooed be wus ner madnis fer me 

2 undertake a campane, to wit : 

1. I'm bald-heded, and hev bin obliged 
to ware a wig these 22 years. 

2. I hev dandruff in wat scanty hair 
still hangs round my venerable temples. 

8. I hev a kronic katarr. 

4. I hev lost, since Stanton's order to 
draft, the use uv one eye entirely, and hev 
kronic inflammashun in the other. 

5. My teeth is all unsound, my palit 
ain't eggsactly rite, and I hev hed bron- 
keetis 31 yeres last Joon. At present I 
hev a koff, the paroxisms uv which is 
frightful 2 behold. 

6. I'm holler chestid, and short-winded, 
and hev alius hed panes in my back and 
side. 

7. I'm afflicted with kronic diarrear and 
kostivniss. The money I hev paid fer 
Jayneses karminnytive balsam and pills 
wooed astonish almost ennybody. 

8. I am rupchured in 9 places, and am 
entirely enveloped with trusses. 

9. I hev varrykose vanes, hev a white 
swellin on wun leg and a fever sore on the 
uther — also wun leg is shorter than tot her, 
though I handle it so expert that nobody 
never noticed it. 



212 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



10. I hev korns and bunyuns on both ] 
feet, which wooed prevent me from marchin. 

I don t suppose that my political opin- 
ions, which are ferninst the prosekooshun 
uv this unconstitooshnel Avar, wooed hev 
enny wate with a draflin osifer, but the 
above reasons why I can't go, will, I maik 
no doubt, be suffishent. 



Clever Use of the Countersign. 

During the fight at Gauley Bi-idge, Vir- 
ginia, on the 10th of November, 1861, a 
glorious instance of personal bravery was 
afforded in the conduct of Sergeant Car- 
ter, of Tippecanoe, Ohio. The Sergeant 
was upon the post first attacked by the 
Confederates. The advance guard of the 
Second Virginia, consisting of twelve men, 
came suddenly upon him and his three 
companions. The bright moonlight re- 
vealed the flashing bayonets of the ad- 
vancing regiment. He was surrounded 
and separated from his reserve. With 
great presence of mind he stepped out and 
challenged, "Halt! Who goes there?" 
The advance guard of the Second Virgin- 
ia, consisting of twelve men, supposing 
that they had come upon a scouting party 
of their own men, answered, " Friends, 
with the countersign." 

At his order, " Advance one, and give 
the countersign," they hesitated. He re- 
peated the order peremptorily, " Advance 
and give the countersign, or I'll blow you 
through." They answered, without advanc- 
ing, " Mississippi." " Where do you be- 
long?" he demanded. "To the Second 
Virginia regiment." ' 4 Where are you 
going ? " " Along the ridge." 

They then in turn questioned him, 
" Who are you ? " " That's* my own busi- 
ness," he answered, and taking deliberate 
aim he shot down his questioner. He 
called for his boys to follow him, and leap- 
ed down a ledge of rock, while a full vol- 
ley went over his head. He heard his 
companions summoned to surrender, and 
the order given to the Major to advance 
with the regiment. Several started in 



pursuit of him. He had to descend the 
hill on the side toward the enemy's camp. 
While he eluded Ins pursuers, he found 
himself hi a new danger. He had gotten 
within the enemy's camp pickets ! He 
had, while running, torn the ' U. S.' from 
his cartridge box, and covered his belt 
plate with his cap box, and torn the stripe 
from his pantaloons. He was challenged 
by their sentinels while making his way 
out, and answered, giving the countersign, 
" Mississippi," Second Virginia regiment. 
They asked him what he was doing there. 
He said that the boys had gone off on a 
scout after the Yankees ; that he had been 
detained in camp, and in trying to find 
them had got bewildered. As he passed 
through, to prevent further questioning, he 
said, " Our boys are up on the ridge, — 
which is the best way up ? " They an- 
swered, " Bear to the left, and you'll find 
it easier to climb." Soon again his pur- 
suers were after him, as he expressed it, 
" breaking brush behind him." 

This time, with a hound on his trail, he 
made his way to a brook, and running 
down the shallow stream, threw the dog 
off the scent, and as the day was dawning 
he came suddenly upon four pickets, who 
brought their arms to a ready, and chal- 
lenged him. He gave the countersign 
" Mississippi ;" claimed to belong to the 
Second Virginia. His cap box had slipped 
from his belt plate. They asked him 
where he got that belt. He told them he 
had captured it that night from a Yankee. 
They told him to advance, and as he ap- 
proached, he recognized their accoutre- 
ments and kneAV he was among his own 
men, & picket guard from the First Ken- 
tucky. He was taken before Colonel En- 
gart and dismissed to his regiment. When 
the brave fellow was asked what was his 
motive in halting a whole column of the 
enemy, he said his plan was to give inti- 
mation to the reserve, of their advance, 
that they might open upon them on their left 
flank, and so, perhaps, arrest their progress. 
If ever a fellow escaped by the skin of 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC, 



213 



his teeth, from his enemies — and if ever a 
brave fellow deserved to — that man was 
the gallant Sergeant Carter. It was a 
courageous thing to obtain the countersign, 
and nothing but his courage made it after- 
wards available. 



Bridegroom and Volunteer the same Night. 
Crime and outrage, in all their various 
phases, are the concomitants of war. An 
illustration in point is afforded in the ad- 
ventures of an ex- Confederate soldier from 
Alabama, the scene of his exploits being 
in Chicago, Illinois. It seems that one 
day a young man waited upon the police 
authorities at the central station in that 
city, to obtain advice in a search for his 
sister, a young girl of seventeen years, 
who had fled from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to 
Chicago, after having fallen a victim to the 
wiles of a seducer. On this representa- 
tion being made, one of the detectives took 
charge of the case, and in the course of 
time found the girl living with an Ala- 
bamian, of the name of Jones. The offi- 
cer arrested both of them, and then called 
in the brother, the interview resulting in 
a refusal on the girl's part to leave Jones, 
and Jones not only refused to leave her, 
but expressed his willingness to marry her 
at once. In addition to his offer of mar- 
riage, the man proposed to enlist in the 
Federal army as- a substitute, and leave 
the money with his bride. The brother was 
satisfied with this proposition, and the ex- 
rebel Jones, having become a virtuous 
Jones, instantly fulfilled his promise, — a 
justice of the peace performing the mar- 
riage ceremony. Jones thereupon went 
to a recruiting office, enlisted, received 
two hundred and fifty dollars bounty 
money, paid it over plumply to the brother, 
and left Chicago the same night for 
Springfield, to be assigned to a regiment. 
The bridegroom declared that he did not 
mind what regiment he entered, so long as 
he avoided being sent into Virginia, where, 
he stated, he was so well known that if 
captured he would assuredly be hung. 



Snak=d Away, and Drummed In. 

One of the " sufferers" at Camp Denni- 
son, which for a time was used for the care 
of the sick and wounded, was an Irish 
soldier. The attendant approached him 
and said : 

" Well, Sir, what's the matter with 
you ? " 

" Wounded, Sir ; slight wound in the 
groin — worse one in the heel." 

" Where were you wounded ? " 

" Pittsburg Landing, Sir." 

" What part of the battle ? " 

" Second fire of the last round, Sir." 




Snaked away and drummed in. 

" What, Monday ? Why it was rather 
hard, wasn't it ; to fight two days and then 
get hurt at the very last ? " 

" Devil a two days did I fight at all • 
Sir." 

" Why, how was that ? " 

" Why, you see, Sir, I didn't know what 
I was fighting for, and I didn't want to blow 
a fellow creature's brains out without 
knowing what I was blowing 'em out for, 
d'ye see ; no more did I want a fellow 
creature to blow my brains out without 
knowing what they was blown out for — 
so, Sir, I just snaked away Sir ! But 
on Monday they found me, Sir, and drum- 
med me in." He was from Texas. 



214 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Melancholy End of Johnson, the Deserter. 
The execution of poor Johnson, for the 
crime of desertion, constituted a melan- 
choly page in the history of the army in 
Virginia. Of this crime, the unfortunate 
culprit said : I had not the slightest in- 
tention of deserting, up to a few minutes 
before I started in the direction of the 
enemy's lines. The way I came to leave 
our army was this ■ I was on the outposts, 
and after dinner, when watering my horse, 
I thought I would go to the first house on 
the Braddock road and get a drink of 
milk. When I rode up to the house I 
saw a man and a boy. I asked the man 
for some milk, and he said he had none ; 
and to my enquiry as to where I could get 
some, he said he did not know except T 
should go some distance further on. I 
said I thought it would be dangerous to 
go far, and he remarked that none of the 
rebels had been seen in that vicinity for 
some time. It was then that I conceived 
the idea of deserting. I thought I could 
ride right up to the rebel pickets and in- 
side the enemy's line, go and see my 
mother in New Orleans, stay for a few 
weeks in the South, and then be able to 
get back to our regiment again, perhaps 
with som/3 valuable information. I never 
had any idea of going over to the rebels, 
and as it is I would rather be hung on a 
tree than go and join the rebel army. I 
don't see what under heaven put it into my 
head to go away. I acted upon the im- 
pulse of the moment. When the man at 
the house said none of the enemy had 
been seen lately in that vicinity, I asked 
where it was that the five rebels I had 
heaixl of had been seen some time ago, 
and he said it was at the round house on 
the left hand side of the road. I asked 
him where the road led to. He said to 
Centreville, and so I went that way. 
Riding along on the Braddock road, some 
miles beyond our pickets, I suddenly came 
across Colonel Taylor, of the Third New 
Jersey regiment, with his scouting party. 
I thought they were the rebels, but at first 



was so scared that I did not know what to 
say. However, I asked him who they 
were, and he said they were the enemy. 
Said I to him, 

" I'm all right, then." 

" Why so ? " said he. 

" Because we are all friends," said I ; 
" I am rebel too — I want to go down to 
New Orleans to see my mother." 

Then he asked me how our pickets were 
stationed. I told him two of our compa- 
nies which had been out went in that day 
toward the camps. He asked if I thought 
he could capture any of them, and I told 
him I did not think he could. He asked 
why, and I replied that there were a num- 
ber of mounted riflemen around. The 
head scout asked me what kind of arms 
the Lincoln men received, and at the same 
time said, 

" Let me see your pistol." 

I handed him my revolver. Colonel 
Taylor took it, and cocking it, said to me, 

" Dismount, or I will blow your brains 
out." 

I was so much frightened I thought my 
brains had been blown out already. I 
dismounted, delivered up my belt and sa- 
bre, while at the same time they searched 
my pockets, but there was nothing in them 
except a piece of an old New York Ledg- 
er, I believe. Then he tied my hands be- 
fore me, and sent me back to camp in 
charge of three men, besides another who 
took my horse. 

Johnson, was duly tried by court-martial 
and found guilty. The place chosen for 
his execution was a spacious field near the 
Fairfax Seminary. The Provost-Mar- 
shal, mounted and wearing a crimson 
scarf across his breast, led the mournful 
cortege. He was immediately followed 
by the buglers of the regiment, four 
abreast, dismounted. Then came the 
twelve men — one from each company in 
the regiment, selected by ballot, — who 
constituted the firing party. The arms, 
Sharps ' breech-loading rifle, had been pre- 
viously loaded under the direction of the 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



215 



Marshal. One was loaded with a blank 
cartridge, according to the usual custom, 
so that neither of the men could positively- 
state that the shot from his rifle killed the 
unfortunate man. The coffin, which was 
of pine wood stained, and without any in- 
scription, came next, in a one-horse wagon. 
Immediately behind followed the doomed 
man, in an open wagon. About five feet 
six inches in height, with light hair and 
whiskers, his eyebrows joining each other, 
Johnson indeed presented a most forlorn 
appearance. He was dressed in cavalry 
uniform, with the regulation overcoat and 
black gloves. He was supported by 
Father McAfee, who was in constant con- 
versation with him, while Father "Willett 
rode behind on horseback. The rear was 
brought up by Company C, of the Lincoln 
Cavalry, forming the escort. 

Arriving on the ground at half-past three 
o'clock, the musicians and the escort took a 
position a little to the left, while the crim- 
inal descended from the wagon. The coffin 
was placed on the ground, and he took his 
position beside it. The firing party was 
marched up to within six paces of the 
prisoner, who stood between the clergy- 
men. The final order of execution was 
then read to the condemned. 

While the order was being read, John- 
son stood with his hat on, his head a little 
inclined to the left, and his eyes fixed in a 
steady gaze on the ground. Near the 
close of the reading, one of his spiritual 
attendants whispered something in his ear. 
Johnson had expressed a desire to say a 
few final words before he should leave this 
world to appear before his Maker. He 
was conducted close to the firing party, 
and in an almost inaudible voice, spoke as 
follows : 

" Boys, — I ask forgiveness from Al- 
mighty God and from my fellow-men for 
what I have done. I did not know what 
I was doing. May God forgive me, and 
may the Almighty keep all of you from 
all such sin." 

He Avas then placed beside the coffin 



i again. The troops were witnessing the 
whole of these proceedings with the intens- 
| est interest. Then the Marshal and the 
, chaplains began to prepare the culprit for 
1 his death. He was too weak to stand. 
He sat down on the foot of the coffin. 
! Captain Boyd then bandaged his eyes with 
a white handkerchief. A few minutes of 
painful suspense intervened while the 
Catholic clergymen were having their final 
interview with the unfortunate man. All 
being ready, the Marshal waved his hand- 
kerchief as the signal, and the firing party 
discharged the volley. Johnson did not 
move, remaining in a sitting posture for 
several seconds after the rifles were dis- 
charged. Then he quivered a little, and 
fell over beside his coffin. He w r as still 
alive, however, and the four reserves were 
called to complete the work. It was 
found that two of the firing party, Ger- 
mans, had not discharged their pieces, and 
they were immediately put in irons. 
Johnson w r as shot several times in the 
heart by the first volley. Each of the 
four shots fired by the reserves took effect 
in his head, and he died instantly. One 
penetrated his chin, another his left cheek, 
while two entered the brain just above 
the left eyebrow. 

The troops then all marched round, and 
each man looked on the bloody corpse of 
his misguided comrade. 

Maternal Love and. Patriotic Duty. 
An old lady residing in Johnstown, 

' Cambria county, Penn., had an only son, 
a strapping minor, to whom she "was most 
warmly attached. This lad, however, 

1 having some of the war fever in him, was 
induced to join a corps from the mountains, 
and, hoping to deceive the old lady, he 
invented a very plausible tale, and came 
away. The love of the mother was, how- 
ever, too great to be deceived, and after a 
week had elapsed, the true story was 
revealed to her. She started upon the 

' railroad with a bundle and a small sum 
of money, and walked to Harrisburg alone, 



216 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



— a distance of more than one hundred 
and fifty miles. At Harrisburg she took 
the train, and her money carried her to 
Downington, where she again resumed her 
tramp, and turned up, much to the lad's 
astonishment, at Camp Coleman, near 
Frankford. There the old lady, utterly 
wearied out, fell sick, and the men, hear- 
ing of the case, made up a collection, and 
provided her a bed and attendance in the 
neighborhood. But her strength revived 
with her anxiety, and she proceeded to the 
railroad with her boy, and kissed him a 
good-bye at the cars, with the tears falling 
free and warm upon her cheeks. 



Distribution cf his Bounty. 

The better part of man's nature as well 
as its worst features, could be seen very 
palpably in the volunteering room, as the 
following among many kindred instances 
will show. A whole family, mother and 
five children, led by their stalwart head, 
the husband and father, presented them- 
selves one day to Supervisor Blunt, in 
New York city, for the six hundred dol- 
lars bounty, he, the husband, having just 
been examined and mustered in as a recruit. 

It was a large family and a sorrowful 
one — all except the little tow-headed fel- 
low in its mother's arms, who was leaping 
and crowing as though he really thought 
it was excellent fun, a capital joke. The 
family appeared like a respectable one, 
though the hand of poverty evidently 
rested heavily upon it, and this, most likely, 
was the last resort, the last hope, the 
throwing of one overboard to save the rest. 
As Mr. Blunt counted the money — one, 
two, three, four, five, six hundred dollars, 
and presented it, a kind of sickly, faint 
smile was visible through the unbidden 
tears which were coursing down the vol- 
unteer's cheeks ; for his time, he knew, 
with his family — its joys and hopes — was 
now about up. His children were cling- 
ing to his legs, begging him not to 
leave them ; his wife, too full to speak, 



looked unutterable griefs, and clung all 
the closer to her babe. The money was 
all right; he held it in his hand — more 
than he had owned at once, perhaps, dur- 
ing all his lifetime. Said he — 

" God bless you, wife and children ; we 
must now part, perhaps forever. This 
money, "wife, is yours — but let me give 
some to each ; it will gratify me, and will 
go to you whenever you are in want of it. 
Here, wife, is one hundred dollars for you ; 
may heaven bless it and you ! Here, 
Billy, is one hundred dollars for you ; be 
good and true to your mother, and, as you 
are the oldest, watch faithfully over your 
brothers and sisters. James, here is one 
hundred dollars for you ; give it to your 
mother whenever she wants it. Mary, 
take this one hundred dollars, be a good 
girl, and in your prayers remember 
your father. Come here, my pet Alice, 
here is one hundred dollars for you to keep 
until good mamma requires it And now, 
my little toad without a name — yes, let us 
call him Hope ; do you say so, wife ?'" It 
was assented to. " Then here, you little 
crowing cock, — bless the little fellow ! I 
may never see him again. Kiss me, boy. 
Here, put this hundred dollars in your 
little hand, and don't eat it, but pass it 
over to your mother as soon as possible.'' 

The noble-hearted fellow's heavy frame 
seemed to quiver all over as he finished 
his distribution and knew that his time had 
come. He embraced each and all sepa- 
rately, and declared himself ready to go. 

" But," says Mr. Blunt, " there is an- 
other hundred dollars coming to you — the 
hand money. Who brought you here ! " 

" That wee bit of a babe, your honor ; 
I'd never come in the world had it not 
been for that dear babe." 

" Well, then, the hand money or pre- 
mium belongs to him ! " 

' k Bless me, is it so? Wife, put that 
one hundred dollars into the savings bank 
for Hope, and never touch it if you can 
help it — if you can help it, mind — until 



VOLUNTEERING, DRAFTING, DESERTING, ETC. 



217 



he comes of age. God bless the little fel- 
low ! He starts well in the world, after 
all, and may yet be President. 

The man stepped upon the platform of 
the turnstile, and was whirled in out of 
sight of the world and all he loved. 



Tenderness of the President toward the 
Lowly. 

A woman in a faded shawl and hood, 
somewhat advanced in life, Avas admitted 
one day, in her turn, to see President Lin- 
coln, in his office. 

Her husband and three sons, all she had 
hi the world, had enlisted in the war. 
But her husband having lost his life in the 
service, she had come to ask the President 
to release to her the oldest son. Being 
satisfied of the truthfulness of her story, 
he said, " Certainly, if her prop was taken 
away she was justly entitled to one of her 
boys." He immediately wrote an order 
for the discharge of the young man. The 
poor woman thanked him very gratefully, 
and went away. On reaching the army 
she found that this son had been in a re- 
cent engagement, was wounded and taken 
to a hospital. She found the hospital, but 




Tenderness of the President toward the Lowly. 

the boy was dead, or died while she was 
there. The surgeon in charge made a 
memorandum of the facts upon the back 
of the President's order, and, almost bro- 
ken-hearted, the poor woman found her 
way again into his presence. He was 
14 



much affected by her appearance and storj% 
and said, 

" I know what you wish me to do now, 
and I shall do it without your asking ; I 
shall release to you your second son." 

Upon this he took up his pen and com- 
menced writing the or<fer. While he was 
writing the poor woman stood by his side, 
the tears running down her face, and 
passed her hand softly over his head, 
stroking tenderly his rough hair— as a 
fond mother will do to a son. By the 
time he had finished writing, his own heart 
and eyes were full. He handed her the 
paper, saying, " Now you have one and I 
one of the other two left; that is no more 
than right." She took the paper, and 
reverently placing her hand again upon 
his head, the tears still upon her cheeks, 
said, 

"The Lord bless you, Mr. President. 
May you live a thousand years, and may 
you always be the head of this great na- 
tion." 



It was the Baby that did It. 
A touching incident of President Lin- 
coln's kindness of heart is the following, 
as told by one of the servants attached to 
the presidential mansion. A poor woman 
from Philadelphia had been waiting, with 
a baby in her arms, for three days, to^see 
the President. Her husband had fur- 
nished a substitute for the army, but some 
time afterward was one day made intoxi- 
cated by some companions, and in this state 
induced to enlist. Soon after he reached 
the army he deserted, thinking that as he 
had provided a substitute, the Government 
was not entitled to his services. Re- 
turning home, he was, of course, arrested, 
tried, convicted, and sentenced to be shot. 
The sentence was to be executed on a 
Saturday. On Monday, preceding, his 
wife left her home with her baby to en- 
deavor to see the President. Said old 
Daniel: " She had been waiting here three 
days, and there was no chance for her to 
sret in. Late in the afternoon of the third 



218 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



day the President was going through the 
back passage to his private rooms, to get 
a cup of tea or take some rest. On his 
way through this passage-way, (which 
shuts the person passing entirely out of 
view of the occupants of the ante-room,) 
he heard the little baby cry. He instantly 
went back to the office and rang the bell. 
' Daniel,' said he, ' is there a woman with 
a baby in the ante-room ? ' I said there 
was, and, if he would allow me to say it, 
I thought it a case he ought to see ; for it 
was a matter of Jife and death. Said he, 
' Send her to me at once.' She went in, 
told her story, and the President pardoned 
her husband. As the woman came out 
from his presence, her eyes were lifted 
and her lips moving in prayer, the tears 
streaming down her cheeks." Daniel ad- 
ded : " I went up to her and pulling her shawl 
said, ' Madam, it was the baby that did it ! '" 



Sold by his intended Victim. 
The employes and habitues of the Pro- 
vost-Marshal's office in the city of Troy, 
New York, were one day considerably 
amused by a little episode, showing the 



manner in which a substitute broker could 
be victimized — done for ! — by his intended 
victim. It seems that broker became ac- 
quainted with a countryman who had some 
notion about enlistment. " Oh, you're my 
man — I can pocket two or three hundred 
dollars on you," muttered the joyous bro- 
ker, at the same time inviting Greeny to 
" take a walk and see the town." Greeny 
accepted, and off the tAvo started. They 
not long after imbibed freely — in fact, very 
freely. Broker was anxious to have 
Greeny drink often, while his plan was to 
keep sober. Broker had plenty of money, 
and would not permit "his friend from the 
country" to spend a single dime. Finally, 
Broker — contrary altogether to his original 
plan — became weak in the knees, while 
Greeny was growing sober. Result : 
Greeny marched Mr. Broker to the Mar- 
shal's office, had him examined, was ac- 
cepted and sworn in as a substitute. 
Greeny pocketed the profits, and started 
for the country. Mr. Broker became a 
sojourner on Hart's Island,, in company 
with several of his victims. Verdict — 
served him right. 



PART THIRD: 

ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION— GREAT CONFLICTS AND 

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ARMY, AND ILLUSTRIOUS 

EXAMPLES OF INDIVIDUAL HEROISM IN 

'THE RANK AND FILE; ETC. 

Brilliant Battle Scenes ; Military Characteristics of the Leading Generals, — 
their Appearance, Conversations, Orders, Tactics and Bravery, when Con- 
fronting the Enemy ; Martyrs on the Gory Field ; Unparalleled Fortitude 
and Endurance; Coolness and Intrepidity in Danger; Bold Movements of Ar- 
tillery, Cavalry, and Infantry; Splendid Charges; Desperate Hand-to-Hand 
Encounters; Extraordinary Sharpshooting; Examples of Youthful Courage; 
Dealings with Bushwhackers and Guerillas ; Celebrities and Adventures of 
Camp, Picket, Spy, Scout, and Staff; Peril, Terror, Panic and Disaster; Mirth- 
Provoking Sights, Scenes, Whims, Squibs, Oddities, &c, &c. 



" Strike for that broad and goodly land 

Blow after blow ; till men shall see 
That Might and Right move hand in hand, 

And glorious must their triumph be ! " » 

'• He sleeps where he fell, 'mid the battle"s roar, 

With his comrades true and brave ; 
And his noble form we shall see no more, — 
It rests in a hero"s grave." 
No enemy can withstand you, and no defences, however formidable, can cheek your onward march. — General Grant 
to his army. 

Boys, your field officers are all gone ! I will lead you. — General Williams, at Baton Rouge^just before he fell mor- 
tally wounded. 
Men, don't run till 7 run!— The lamented Col. E. D. Baker, at BaWs Bluff. 

Why don't you go after 'em ' Don't mind me, I'll catch up, — I'm a little cold, but Tunning will warm me. — Dying 
words of Albert, the Mass. drummer boy. 



Planting the Flag on Mission Kidge Crest. 



story of the battle 
of Mission Ridge is 
struck with immor- 
tality; the gray quar- 
ry there still firmly 
.belted itself; the reb- 
fel army was terribly 
battered at the edges, 
but yet full in our 
front it grimly waited, biding out its time. 
The base attained, what then ? A heavy 
rebel work, packed with the enemy, rim- 
ming it like a battlement ! 




That work carried, and what then ? A 
hill, struggling up out of the valjey, four 
hundred feet, rained on by bullets, swept 
by shot and shell ! 

Another line of works — and then, up 
like a Gothic roof, rough with rocks, a 
wreck with fallen trees, four hundred feet 
more ! 

Another ring of fire and iron, and then 
the crest, and then — the enemy ! 

To dream of such a journey would be 
madness ; to devise it a thing incredible ; 
to do it a deed impossible. But Grant 
was guilty of them all, and Granger was 
equal to the work. 

At half-past three a group of generals 



222 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



stood upon Orchard Knob. The hero of 
Vicksburg was there, calm, clear, persist- 
ent, far-seeing; Thomas, Meigs, Hunter, 
Granger, Reynolds. Generals Grant, 
Thomas, and Granger conferred, an order 
teas given, and in an instant the Knob was 
cleared like a ship's deck for action. At 
twenty minutes of four, Granger stood 
upon the parapet ; six guns at intervals 
of two seconds, the signal to advance. 
Strong and steady his voice rang out: 
"Number one, fire! Number two, fire! 




5«k- 
Rallying around the 

Number three, fire ! " — like the toll of the 
clock of destiny ; and when at " Number 
six, fire ! " the roar throbbed out with the 
flash, the line that had been lying behind 
the works all day, all night, and all day 
again, leaped like a blade from its scabbard, 
and swept with a two-mile stroke towards 
the ridge. From divisions to brigades, 
from brigades to regiments, the order ran. 
The tempest that now broke upon their 
heads was terrible to the rebels. General 
Granger's aids radiated over the field, to 
left, right, and front. 

" Take the Ridge if you can " — " Take 
the Ridge if you can ! " — and so it went 
along the line. 

Sheridan, one of the most gallant of 
leaders, rode to and fro along the first line 



of rifle pits, as calmly as a chess player. 
An aid rode up with an order. " Avery, 
that flask," said the General. Quietly 
filling the pewter cup, Sheridan looked up 
at the battery that frowned above him, by 
Bragg's headquarters, shook his cap amid 
that storm of everything that killed, when 
one could hardly hold their hand without 
catching a bullet in it, and with a " How 
are you ? " tosses off the cup. The blue 
battle-flag of the rebels fluttered a response 
to the cool salute, and the next instant 
the battery let fly its six guns, showering 
Sheridan with earth. Alluding to that 
compliment with anything but a blank 




Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. 

cartridge, the General remarked to one 
near him, in his usual quiet way, "1 

thought it ungenerous ! " 

Wheeling towards the men, he cheered 
them to the charge, and made at the hill like 
a bold-riding hunter. Amid sheets of flame, 
plunging shot, and mangled comrades, 
they wrestled for the Ridge, clambering 
steadily on-up-upward still! The race 
of the Union flags grew every moment 
more terrible. Just as the sun, weary of 
the scene, was sinking out of sight, with 
magnificent bursts of exultation all along 
the line — exactly as the crested seas leap 
up at the breakwater, the advance surged 
over the crest, and in a minute those Union 
flags fluttered along the fringe where fifty 
rebel guns were kenneled. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



223 



Not a single General on the Battlefield. 

The regiments constituting the reserve, 
at the battle of Bull Run, under acting 
Major- General Miles, had an experience 
which, in one respect, was without a par- 
allel in that or any other battle of equal 
importance. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, 
the New York Sixteenth and Thirty-first, 
being well in advance toward Blackburn's 
Ford, were called upon to stem the tide 
of the Virginia cavalry, who were swoop- 
ing at our retreating forces. An order 
from Miles, consequently, sent the First 
California regiment, under Colonel Math- 
ewson, of the New York Thirty-second, 
forward to their support ; but though the 
cavalry was thus turned to the right about, 
it was found to be impossible to stem the 
mad career of the extraordinary mass thiit 
came pouring back from Centreville. 

The best that could be done, therefore, 
was for the California regiment to stay 
just where it was, and in absence of further 
orders, lend what aid it coujd to the pro- 
tection of Green's battery, which was bus- 
ily plying its fire upon the harrassing ap- 
proaches of the Virginia horse. While 
the Thirty-second was in this position, the 
Sixteenth and Thirty-first having passed 
within its range, a youthful Orderly rode 
up to Colonel Mathewson to inform him 
that the Black Cavalry, sheltered from 
his observation by a piece of woods, were 
coming upon the right, and if he would 
take a cut with his regiment across the 
fields, they would be turned back upon 
their errand. 

The evolution was performed, gave the 
protection that was desired, and the Black 
Horse gave up its purpose in that quarter. 
While the regiment, however, was ad- 
hering to this position, the same youth 
who had imparted the previous suggestion 
rode up to that regiment again, and told 
Mathewson he had better fall back on 
Centreville, as his duty at that spot had 
been thoroughly performed. As this was 
about the first sign of orders (with one 
single exception) he had received during 



the entire day, Mathewson felt some curi- 
osity to learn who this young Lieutenant 
was, and whence these orders came; he 
therefore turned sharply on the youth, 
who, he now perceived, coxdd not be more 
than twenty-two or twenty-three, and said : 

"Young man, I would like to know 
your name." 

" I am a son of Quartermaster-General 
Meigs," replied the youth. 

" By whose authority then do you de- 
liver me these orders?" was the Cali- 
fornian's next inquiry. 

The young man smiled and remarked — 

" Well, Sir, the truth is, that for the last 
few hours I have been giving all the orders 
for this division, and acting as General 
too, for there is not a single General on 
the field" 

This incident is surely worthy of notice 
among the lessons of that eventful day. 



His Knapsack Told the Tale. 

The day before General Grant attacked 
Fort Donelson, the troops had had a march 
of twenty miles, part of it during a bitter 
cold night. Grant called a council of war 
to consider whether they should attack the 
fort at once, or should give the troops a 
day or two of rest. The officers were in 
favor <jf resting. Grant said nothing until 
they had all given their opinion ; then he 
said : " There is a deserter who came in 
this morning, let us see him and hear 
what he has to say." When he came in, 
Grant looked into his knapsack. " Where 
are you from?" "Fort Donelson." "Six 
days' rations in your knapsack, have you 
not, my man?" "Yes, Sir." "When 
were they served out?" "Yesterday 
morning." "Were the same rations 
served out to all the troops?" "Yes, 
Sir." 

" Gentlemen," said Grant, " troops do 
not have six days' rations served out to 
them in a fort if they mean to stay there. 
These men mean to retreat, not to fight : 
we will attack at once." 



224 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



His action was as good as his word, and 
the eagles of victory soon perched upon 
his glorious banners. 



Explaining' the Initials "O. V. M." 
An incident worth narrating occurred 
soon after the first occupation by the 
Union forces of the country around Falls 
Church and Vienna, the brigade of Gener- 
al Tyler being on picket in that vicinity. 
The Ohio boys under General Schenck had 
been fired upon from a masked battery at 
the last named place, and some of the 
brave fellows were murdered. The re- 
mainder were anxious for a sight of the 
" gray backs ; " and when Lieutenant Up- 
ton, a brave officer on General Tyler's 
staff, called for a party for a scout, they 
were ready. Lieutenant U. went some 
distance into the country, and obtained 
much valuable information. At one place 
he visited the house of a well-known' se- 
cessionist, and succeeded in making the 
inmates believe the party were* all "se- 
cesh." He found out the whereabouts 
and strength of the enemy, and feasted on 
the best the gardens and cellars afforded. 
All went well till a cap-pouch, that had 
been very carefully placed over the letters 
O. V. M. (Ohio Volunteer Militia) on the 
waist-belt plates of the men, became mis- 
placed, and one of the young ladies, who 
had been very forward in giving the de- 
sired information, became alarmed, and 
asked the meaning of the letters. The 
Lieutenant was as ready with a reply as 
he would have been if it had been an 
order to surrender. 

'• They mean," said he, " Old Virginia 
Militia." 

The explanation was perfectly satisfac- 
tory, and the Lieutenant took his depart- 
ure. But the household soon 4 occupied 
apartments in Washington at the expense 
of the Government. 



Lyon's Bravery and Sacrifice. 
The battle of Wilson's Creek raged 
with unabated fury for more than an hour, 



and the scales seemed all the time nearly 
equally balanced. It was almost incon- 
ceivably fierce, and the Union cause lost 
one of its bravest and most beloved de- 
fenders — General Lyon, who was carried 
from the field a corpse. While he was 
standing where bullets flew thickest, just 
after his favorite horse was shot from un- 
der him, some of his officers interposed 
and begged that he woidd retire from the 
spot and seek one less exposed. Scarcely 
raising his eyes from the enemy, he said : 

"It .is well enough that I stand here. 
I am satisfied." 

Lyon had been wounded in the early 
part of the engagement. He had been struck 
by three shots ; one in the heel, a second 
in the fleshy part of his thigh, and a third 
in the back of his head, which had cut it 
open to the skull. His surgeon begged 
him to retire to the rear and have his 
wounds dressed. "No — these are noth- 
ing," was the General's reply, and, though 
wounded and streaming with blood, he 
mounted his horse and led the Kansas and 
Iowa regiments to the fatal charge, say- 
ing: 

" I fear that the day is lost ; if Colonel 
Sigel had been successful, he would have 
joined us before this. I think I will lead 
this charge ; Forward, men I I will lead 
you ! '.' 

His horse had hardly sprung forward, 
when a minie ball struck Lyon in the 
breast, and passing out at the back severed 
in its course the aorta, the principal blood- 
vessel of the heart. He fell into the 
arms of his body-servant, saying, " Leh- 
man, I am killed ; take care of my body," — 
and instantly expired. 

One of the bravest of the brave was 

Nat. Lyon ! 

♦ 

Duel on Horseback in one of the Peninsular 
Battles. 

Colonel Estoan, a Confederate officer, 

and author of " Notes from the South," 

gives the following very graphic account 

of an episode in one of the fights that 

{ took place during McClellan's operations 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



225 



on the peninsular : — Meantime an episode j grave to be dug to receive the remains of 
in the fight occured, in the shape of a duel j the brave German trooper. We buried 



between one of the enemy's dragoons and 
one of our Texans on a small field close 
by. The dragoon evidently scorned to 
join in the fight of his comrades, and dis- 
played such skill in the management of 
his horse and the use of his sword that it 
was quite a pleasure to watch him. 

In vain did the Texan make lunge after 
lunge, and try all sorts of expedients to 
overcome his antagonist. The dragoon 
sat as firm as a rock in his saddle, wield- 
ing his sword like a brand of lightning. 
By the manner in which he handled his 
horse and weapon I judged at a glance 
that he was a German trooper, and I could 
not help watching the exciting contest with 
great interest. The Texan still continued 
to wheel round his opponent on his fleet 
barb, eagerly seeking to deal a home 
thrust, whilst the dragoon, with a cool 
steady eye, followed all the movements of 
his impetuous antagonist. At last they 
close in earnest. A blow — a parry — a 
thrust — follow close on each other ! 

The Texan had slashed the dragoon's 
shoulder, so that the blood began to flow, 
which aroused a cheer from the Texans 
looking on, but at the same moment the 
former received a back stroke, which cut 
through the sleeve and flesh of his left 
arm. The Texan now backed his horse 
like lightning, and his fellow troopers 
rushed forward to look at his wound ; but 
without paying any heed to his hurt, he 
again dashed at his opponent, and made a 
lunge at his»breast. The dragoon parried 
it with great dexterity, and at the same 
time let fly a " quarte," which caused a 
slashing wound in the Texan's back. The 
latter spurred on his horse to a little dis- 
tance, and before I could take means to 
prevent the cowardly act, he deliberately 
took out a pistol and shot the brave dra- 
goon, who fell dead from his saddle. The 
bullet had entered just below the region 
of the heart. 

Much grieved at his fate, I ordered a 



him in liis regimentals, with his trusty 
sword on Ins breast and his pistol by his 
side. This sad act having been performed, 
I sent for the Texan, and after reprimand- 
ing him severely for his cowardly conduct, 
I ordered him to seek service in some 
other corps, telling him that I could not 
think of allowing a fellow of his stamp to 
remain in my regiment. The Texan 
scowled at me with his wild cat-like eyes, 
and muttering a curse, mounted his horse 
and rode away. 



Stray Leaf in the Vicksburgr Campaign. 
On the first of April, 1863, Generals 
Grant, Sherman, Oglesby, Secretary of 
State Hatch and Auditor Jesse R. Dubois, 
of Illinois, with some others, were on 
board the flag-ship of Commodore Porter's 
squadron, the party having been up the 
Yazoo River to Haines's Bluff, on a re- 
connoissance of the fortifications. While 
the other gentlemen were in the cabin, 
discussing public questions, General Grant 
and Mr. Dubois withdrew, and being in 
company on the deck, the following con- 
versation ensued between the two : 

General Grant. — Uncle Jesse, to tell 
you the truth, I have come to my Avit's 
end as regards the capture of Vicksburg. 
I really do not know what next move to 
make. I have tried everything I could 
think of, and here we are yet. I have 
been advised that we go back to Memphis, 
and commence an overland march from 
that point. 

Mr. Dubois. — General Grant, you can- 
not do that. If you take this army back 
to Memphis, with all this array of gun- 
boats and, transports and all your material 
of war, the effect will be disastrous on the 
country. This infernal constitution in our 
State was only defeated by superhuman 
exertions. Another election is almost 
upon us, and the whole Northwest is on 
the verge of revolution. If you go back, 
you strengthen the hands of the traitors 



226 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



and K. G. C.'s at home. They will call 
your movement a retreat, and more loudly 
than ever assert that the South cannot be 
conquered. If you can do no better, you 
must storm Vicksburg. If it costs the 
lives of forty thousand men it must be 
taken. It is a terrible thing to think of, 
but it must be done. 

General Grant replied that he would 
reflect upon the matter during the night, 
and let Mr. Dubois know of his determin- 
ation in the morning. When the morning 
came, General Grant met Mr. Dubois with 
a cheerful countenance, and the following 
conversation took place : — 

General Grant. — Uncle Jesse, you are 
going home to-day ; tell Governor Yates 
and the people of Illinois for me, that I 
will take Vicksburg in sixty days.' 

Mr, Dubois. — General Grant, I am glad 
to hear you say this ; but all I ask you to 
allow me to tell them is, that you will take 
Vicksburg, — I don't care whether in sixty 
days or in six months. 

General Grant. — I am bound to take it. 
I have decided on my plans. I will not 
tell you what they are. Even with the 
best intentions, you might disclose them 
to the detriment of the movement. 

They then parted, and General Grant 
detailed his plan to General Sherman, 
who protested in writing, but placed him- 
self under the General's orders. 

Auditor Dubois went home and told 
Governor Yates that Grant would take 
Vicksburg ; that he had no doubt of it ; 
that General Grant told him to tell him 
so, and that he must tell it to the people 
as coming from General Grant. It will 
be remembered that the promise of Gen- 
eral Grant was published in the papers at 
the time, and that Governor Yates repeat- 
ed it from the stump. 

General Grant's next move was to send 
for General John A. McClernand, and 
ordered him to march his corps from Mil- 
liken's Bend to the Grand Gulf. General 
McClernand proposed some changes in the 
details of the plan; but General Grant 



cut him short by saying that he had di- 
gested and arranged the entire details for 
the movement, and only required him — 
General McC., — to execute his orders. 
McClernand said he would do that to the 
best of his ability, and departed on his 
expedition. 

There are those who know that, at this 
very time, strenuous efforts Avere being 
made at Washington for the removal of 
General Grant. Not only West Point 
was arranged against him, but Republican 
members of Congress, some of them from 
Illinois, went to Mr. Lincoln and urged 
his removal, taking back their former in- 
dorsements of him. Leading Republican 
papers also loudly denounced him, and 
clamored for his supersedure. At this 
time, a prominent Republican and retired 
officeholder from Illinois, who had been 
down the river buying cotton, wrote a 
letter to Mr. Lincoln, denouncing General 
Grant, predicting his failure, and urging 
the appointment of General Pope to his 
command. He brought the letter to Hon, 
C. M. Hatch, then Illinois Secretary of 
State, and one of Mr. Lincoln's most inti- 
mate friends, and asked him to direct it, 
but did not show him its contents. He 
represented to Mr. Hatch that Mr. Nico- 
lay, who had been Mr. Hatch's deputy- 
clerk, seeing the handwriting, would hand 
it to Mr. Lincoln. Hearing of the occur- 
rence, and suspecting a trick, Mr. Dubois 
made Mr. Hatch write a letter to the 
President, which both signed, and which 
urged him to do nothing against Grant ; 
that they had been down the river, and, 
so far as they had anything to say in the 
matter, they were perfectly satisfied with 
him. 

Not the least interesting incidents con- 
nected with this- " inside view" of matters, 
are, the written protest by General Sher- 
man against General Grant's circuitous 
march around Vicksburg, and by which he 
cut himself off from his base of supplies ; 
General Sherman's direction that the pro- 
test be forwarded to Washington, and 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC.. 



227 



General Grant's never so forwarding it ; 
and afterward, when Vicksburg was about 
to sirrrender, the tearing-up of said pro- 
test, by General Grant, in General Sher- 
man's presence, much to the satisfaction 
of the latter. 



Deathly Encounter between Hunt and 
Loughborough. 

Among the prisoners released from 
Richmond, in January, 1862, was Captain 
Ralph Hunt, of the First Kentucky regi- 
ment, — Captain H. belonging himself in 
Clark county, Ohio. In September, 1861, 
his regiment formed a part of the force 
under General Cox, encamped near Gau- 
ley's Bridge, in Western Virginia. The 
enemy were desirous of dislodging the 
General, and about the 3d of September 
attempted a reconnoissance in some force. 
Our pickets were driven in, and Captain 
Hunt was ordered out with his company 
to make observations of the force #nd 
movements of the enemy and report there- 
on. The whole country thereabouts is 
thickly covered with scrubby pine and 
cedar, so that a man may escape notice at 
a few yards distance. Pushing his way 
through the bushes and scrubby trees 
until he obtained a position commanding 
the road by which the rebels must advance, 
the Captain halted his men where they 
were concealed from observation, and 
ordered them to lie quiet and await orders ; 
a few men had been sent in advance as 
scouts, but it seems that these were bewil- 
dered amidst the dwarf pines and bushes, 
and, in making their way back, unfortu- 
nately got into the Captain's rear. 

The Captain, after posting his men, had 
gone forward a few yards, accompanied by 
two of his men, and, hearing an advance 
upon the road, stepped forward a few 
paces, in expectation of seeing his return- 
ing scouts, but the party advancing along 
the road turned out to be the leading files 
of the advanced guard of the rebel forces. 
With these was a fine-looking officer named 
Loughborough, who had been sent out to 



drill the Confederate troops in that region. 
This officer was marching some distance 
in advance of his men, and, catching sight 
of Captain Hunt, poured forth a torrent 
of imprecations, — exclaiming — 

" Come out, you Yankee son 

of a , and be shot!" 

Saying this, the rebel fiend raised to his 
shoulder instantly his Mississippi rifle. 
Captain Hunt had a musket with him — 
the ordinary smooth bore, which he im- 
mediately leveled at his adversary. The 
combatants were about fifty yards apart — 
each fired at the same instant ; the Adju- 
tant's ball whistled close by the Captain's 
ear, but the Adjutant himself, with a curse 
upon his lips, fell dead with a bullet 
through his brain. So instantaneous was 
his death, that, not a limb quivered after 
the body touched the earth. 

Not less than, seven shots were instantly 
fired at Captain Hunt, none of them, how- 
ever, taking effect. The enemy, enraged 
at the loss of a favorite officer, were at 
first inclined to be revengeful ; but the 
gallantry he had just displayed, and the 
coolness with which he bore himself when 
in their power, finally won their respect. 
The men of Captain Hunt's company sup- 
posed their leader to be killed, and made 
good their escape to camp. Hunt and the 
two men with him were so surrounded that 
escape was impossible. Refusing to give 
his parole, Captain Hunt was ironed, and, 
after visiting several of the towns in Vir- 
ginia, was confined in the tobacco factory 
at Richmond. 



" Young America " at Fort Donelson. 
In a little open field in the woods which 
had been the scene of the hottest portion 
of the Fort Donelson conflict, there was 
afterward found one living mortal, among 
the multitudinous dead. On approaching, 
this person, he was found to be a mere 
stripling with the garb of a Federal soldier,, 
and at least, in his own estimation, just 
then, a pretty formidable one at that.. 
"Do you see that old secesh?" said he.. 



228 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



pointing to a stalwart body at least six 
feet in length, stretched out a short distance 
from him, — " well, I killed him ; " and with 
evident pride he went on to say how the 
dead enemy was the color-bearer of a 
rebel regiment, and as he was lying there 
beside that stump, had taunted him with 




Young America. 

being an Abolitionist, and told him to 
4 come out of there.' He did come out, 
and to the sad detriment of his Goliah- 
like antagonist. The boy had come a 
mile or more from his camp to get a 
glimpse of his fallen foe. 



"Thpit on It." 

A good story is told of a lisping officer 
in the army having been victimized by a 
brother officer (noted for his cool deliber- 
ation and strong nerves), and his getting 
square with him in the following manner. 
The cool joker, the Captain, was always 
quizzing the lisping officer, a Lieutenant, 
for his nervousness. 

" Why," said he, one day, in the pres- 
ence of his company, " nervousness is all 
nonsense ; I tell you, Lieutenant, no brave 
man will be nervous." 

" Well," inquired his lisping friend, 
" How would you do, thpose a shell with 
an inch futhe thould drop itthelf into a 
walled angle, in which you had taken 
thelter from a company of tharpthoot- 



herth, and where it wath thertain, if you 
put your nothe, you'd get peppered." 

" How ? " said the Captain, winking at 
the circle ; " why take it cool, and spit on 
the fuse." 

The party broke up, and all retired ex- 
cept the patrol. The next morning a 
number of soldiers were assembled on the 
parade and talking in clusters, when along 
came the lisping Lieutenant. Lazily 
opening his eyes he remarked : 

" I want to try an experiment thith 
morning, and thee haw exceedingly cool 
you can be." 

Saying this, he walked deliberately into 
the Captain's quarters, where a fire was 
burning on the hearth, and placing in the 
hottest centre a powder canister, instantly 
retreated. There was but one mode of 
egress from the quarters, and that was 
upon the parade ground, the road being 
built up for defence. The occupant took 
one look at the canister, comprehended the 
situation, and in a moment dashed at the 
door, but it was fastened on the outside. 

" Charley, let me out, for your love for 
me !" shouted the Captain. 

" Tfipit on the canister ! " shouted he in 
return. 

Not a moment was to be lost. He had 
first caught up a blanket to cover his 
egress ; but now, dropping it, he raised 
the window and out he bounded, sans com- 
plimens, sans everything but a very short 
undergarment; and thus, with hair almost 
on end, he dashed upon a full parade 
ground. The shouts which hailed him 
called out the whole barracks to see what 
was the matter, and the dignified Captain 
pulled. a Sergeant in front of him to hide 
himself. 

" Why didn't you thpit on it ? " inquired 
the Lieutenant. 

" Because there were no sharpshooters 
in front to stop a retreat," answered the 
redoubtable Captain. 

" All I got to thay, then, ith," said the 
Lieutenant, " that you might thafely have 






GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



229 



done it, for I'll thware there wathn't a 
thingle grain of powder in it." 

The Captain has never spoken of nerv- 
ousness since. 



Two College-Mates Colonels in Opposing: 
Armies. 

In the class of 185-, at "Waterville Col- 
lege, Maine, were two young men who 
had been chums while fitting for college, 
at the same school, and were chums 
through the entire college course, and after 
graduating pursued their legal studies at 
the same law school, and were chums dur- 
ing that period also. After admission to 
the bar, one went South to seek his for- 
tune, the other West. After the breaking 
out of the rebellion, the one who went 
South enlisted in the Confederate army, 
the other in the Union army. They both 
afterward rose to the rank of Colonel, and 
both took part in the battle of Mission 
Ridge, in command of their respective 
regiments. It so happened, that the Con- 
federate Colonel, at the head of a Tennes- 
see regiment; was in Support of a battery 
which the regiment in command of the 
Union Colonel was ordered to take at the 
point of the bayonet. 

The battery was taken ; but so. desper- 
ate had been the conflict, that both Colo- 
nels fell mortally wounded. After the 
fight was over, a Union Captain, himself a 
classmate of the two Colonels, being de- 
tailed to bury the dead, found the two 
college classmates and chums lying side 
by side on the battle-field, with their right 
hands clasped and both dead. They had 
evidently recognized each other after being 
wouhded, and the old ties of friendship 
had asserted their supremacy, and together 
their spirits had passed mto the eternal 
world. Side by side, in the same grave, 
they sleep their last sleep'. 



Traitor Generals conferring- over the " Last 
Ditch." 

On the morning of February 16th, 
1862, about one o'clock, it had been deter- 



mined by the rebel officers in command at 
Fort Donelson to cut their way through 
the rebel lines, destroy the army stores, 
and retreat to Nashville. But scouts were 
sent out and reported that it would be im- 
possible to effect the communication plan- 
ned, on account of Union troops at all 
points and the impassable condition of the 
slough to be crossed, — that " last ditch," it 
is presumed ! 

A conference of the rebel Generals was 
now held, and notwithstanding the fact 
of communication being thus cut off, Gen- 
eral Pillow urged the attempt to cut their 
way out or make a fight for one day more, 
in which time he thought they could get 
steamboats enough to cross the river, and 
escape by Clarksville. 

General Buckner then said that, from 
the worn out and distressed condition of 
his men, and the occupation of the rifle- 
pits on the extreme right by the enemy, 
he could not hold his position for half 
an hour if attacked by the enemy at day- 
light, which he would certainly do. 

" Why can't you ? " asked General Pil- 
low ; " I think you can, sir," and added 
that the occupation of their rifle-pits by 
the Federals left an open gateway to the 
river battery, and he thought they ought 
to cut their way through, at all hazards. 

" I know my position," retorted Buck- 
ner ; " I can only bring to bear against the 
enemy 4,000 men, while he can oppose 
me with any given number." 

" Well, gentlemen, what do you intend 
to do? I am in favor of fighting out," 
responded Pillow. 

General Floyd then asked General 
Buckner what he had to say. General 
Buckner replied quickly, that to attempt 
to cut their way out through the enemy's 
lines would cost a sacrifice of three-fourths 
of his command, and that no General had 
a right to make such a sacrifice of human 
life. General Floyd admitted the fact 
and concurred with General Buckner on 
this point. General Pillow then remarked 
that there was but one alternative left, 



230 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



and that was capitulation ; and addressing 
himself to General Floyd, said: 

" Sir, I shall neither surrender the com- 
mand nor myself; I will die first." 

" Neither will I surrender myself," re- 
plied General Floyd ; " you know my rela- 
tion with the Federal Government, and it 
would not do." * 

Buckner replied that he thought no per- 
sonal feeling ought to control official action. 
Floyd admitted this, and said, neverthe- 
less, it was his determination. 

" Then, gentlemen," said Buckner, " I 
suppose the surrender will devolve on 
me." 

" General," said Floyd to Buckner, " if 
you are put in command, will you allow 
me to take out my brigade ? " 

" Yes, sir, if you move your command 
before I send my offer of capitulation to 
the enemy." 

" Then," said General Floyd, " I surren- 
der the command." 

" I will not accept it, as my purpose is 
never to surrender," said Pillow, upon 
whom the command next devolved. 

" I will accept it," immediately replied 
Buckner, " and will share the fate of my 
command," — and at once called for pen, 
ink and paper, and a bugler to sound a 
parley, it being too dark to send a flag of 
truce. 

Pillow then asked if it would be proper 
for him to make his escape. To which 
Floyd replied, that was a question for 
every man to decide for himself, but that 
he would be glad for every man to make 
his escape that could. 

Colonel Forrest now addressed General 
Buckner, saying, " General, I think there 
is more fight in our men than you suppose ; 
but if you will let me, I will also take out 
my command," — to which Buckner and 
Floyd both assented. Turning to General 
Pillow, Forrest then said : 

" General, I have fought under your 
command, what shall I do ? " 

" Cut your way out ! " answered Pillow. 

" I will, by G — ! " replied Forrest. 



All the officers then retired, leaving 
Buckner in command. The sequel is well 
known. 



Is the Colonel at Home ? 

Captain Kemper, at the head of a squad 
of cavalry, went down into Platte county, 
Missouri, one day, on an amateur scout, 
and was rewarded by scaring up a full- 
grown Confederate Colonel, whom he cap- 
tured under the following rather " domes- 
tic " circumstances : 

The name of the captured officer was 
John W. Hinston, ' Colonel of the First 




Is the Colonel at home ? 

Missouri Rifles, C. S. A.' The Captain 
heard of the Colonel's being in the neigh- 
borhood of Platte City, and therefore "put" 
for his residence, about six miles below 
that point. On nearing the Colonel's 
abode, the Captain was somewhat, in ad- 
vance of his men, and on riding up to the 
back of the house saw a man put his head 
out of the window, and then with a quick 
dodge draw it in again. The men, in the 
meantime, came up in front of the house, 
and by this means "out flanked" the Col 
onel, and completely cut off" his retreat. 

Captain Kemper now alighted, entered 
the house, and asked a lady, " Is the Col- 
onel at home ? " She replied, " No ; there 
are no gentlemen about the house." But 
she could not " come the giraffe " over the 
Captain in that kind of style, for his loyal 
eyes had already seen the "human face 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



231 



divine" of a gentleman ornamenting the 
window. 

He therefore instituted a search, his men 
even going under the house with lighted 
candles. Still, sure enough, there could 
be found " no gentleman about the house." 
At last, some bedding lying in the corner 
of a room was examined, and — there lay 
the Colonel between the upper and nether 
ticks, dressed in the Confederate uniform, 
and as bright as a cricket ! He immedi- 
ately and unconditionally surrendered him- 
self a prisoner of war, acknowledging in 
the person of Captain Kemper, the " one 
man power," and that his little domestic 
arrangement was a "goner." 



without a groan. Tuttle immediately re- 
treated from the place, and safely arrived 
inside of the Federal lines. 



Dick Bowles Parting- with his Revolver. 

The noted guerilla chief, Dick Bowles, 
met with an end as unexpected as it was 
tragical in the last degree. He was killed 
about seven miles from Gilbertsville, Lime- 
stone county, Alabama, by Ira O. Tuttle, 
the young and daring chief of scouts of the 
Army of the Cumberland. Tuttle sought 
Bowles, and represented himself as willing 
to engage in any scheme of murder and 
plunder which might be proposed. Bowles 
was disarmed of suspicion, and related to 
Tuttle a short history of his life, in which 
he boasted of the many acts of plunder in 
which he had engaged, and the deliberate 
murders he had committed. Tuttle heard 
him through, and carelessly asked to ex- 
amine the revolver with which Bowles was 
idly toying. Without any thought of sus- 
picion, the revolver changed hands. Tut- 
tle coolly cocked the pistol, and informed 
Bowles who he was, and, drawing his 
watch from his pocket, said : 

" You have just one minute and a half 
to live ; if you wish to humbly pray to 
God, kneel down, and be expeditious, for, 
by my soul, you die ! " 

Quick as a flash of lightning, Bowles 
made a forward movement to grasp the 
pistol, when Tuttle as quickly pulled the 
trigger, and the ball penetrated the brain 
of the guerilla chief. He fell and died 



One Obscure Patriot Baffling a Whole Rebel 
Army. 

The fact that General Buckner did not 
take the city of Louisville instead of stop- 
ping at Green River, where he invaded 
Kentucky on the line of the Louisville and 
Nashville railroad, was due, not to any 
foresight or force of the United States au- 
thorities or of the Union men of Kentucky, 
but to the loyalty, courage and tact of one 
obscure individual. 

The secessionists had laid their plans to 
appear suddenly in Louisville with a pow- 
erful force. They had provided for trans- 
portation four hundred cars and fifteen 
locomotives, and had eight thousand men, 
with artillery and camp equipage, on board. 
They had secured the services of the tele- 
graph operators, one of whom forwarded 
to Louisville a dispatch explaining the de- 
tention of trains on the road, and things 
were moving forward at a grand rate. 
Everything was going well with them, and 
Louisville, with perhaps the exception of a 
few secessionists, was unsuspected and un- 
guarded, — General Anderson being inno- 
cent of any knowledge of the movement ; 
James Guthrie, President of the road, to- 
tally in the dark, and General Rousseau 
lingering in camp on the Indiana shore. 
Nothing could have been better planned — 
nothing more swimmingly and romantically 
in process of execution. Buckner felt as 
though walking through a bed of June 
daisies. 

But at a station just beyond Green 
River, there was a young man in the ser- 
vice of the road, who was a warm friend 
for the Union, and who, comprehending 
the meaning of the monster train, when it 
came up, seized a crowbar used for taking 
up rails to make repairs, and while the lo- 
comotives were being wooded and watered, 
ran across a curve, and, in a deep narrow 
cut, wrenched the spikes from four re ?1 s 



232 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



The train came along at good speed, the 
rails spread, the locomotive plunged into 
the ground, the cars crashed on the top of 
it, and it was twenty-four hours before the 
train could go ahead. In the meantime 
Louisville was saved. The hero of the 
occasion had not had time to get out of the 
cut before the crash came, and was taken, 
but in the general confusion and excite- 
ment got away, and was safe. 

That obscure individual did much more 
for his country than some who wore straps 
and stars. 



Scott's Plan of the "War. 
The account given by Hon. Mr. Rich- 
ardson, of Illinois, of the interview which 
took place, after the battle of Bull Run, 
between himself, his Congressional col- 
leagues, Messrs. Logan and Washburne, 
and the President, Secretary of War, and 
General Scott, is of peculiar interest, as 




War and Navy Buildings, Washington. 

showing how that battle came to be fought. 
Mr. Richardson's statement, as made by 
him in Congress, was as follows : — 

Li the course of our conversation, Gen- 
eral Scott remarked, 'I am the biggest 
coward in the world.' I rose from my seat. 
' Stay,' said General Scott ; ' I will prove 
it. I have fought the battle against my 
judgment, and I think the President ought 
to remove me to-day for doing it. As God 



is my judge,' he added, after an interval 
of silence, ' I did all in my power to make 
the army efficient, and I deserve removal • 
because I did not stand up when I could, 
and did not.' 

On a subsequent occasion, in the sum- 
mer of 1861, the glorious old General 
said, that if the plan and conduct of the 
war had rested solely with him, he would 
have commenced by a perfect blockade of 
every Southern port on the Atlantic and 
the Gulf. Then he would have collected a 
large force at the Qapital for defensive pur- 
poses, and another large one on the Missis- 
sippi for offensive operations. The sum- 
mer months, during which it is madness to 
take troops south of St. Louis, should have 
been devoted to tactical instruction ; and 
with the first frosts of autumn he would 
have taken a column of eighty thousand 
well-disciplined troops down the Missis- 
sippi, and taken every important point on 
that river, JNeAv Orleans in- 
cluded. It could have been 
done with greater ease, with 
less loss of life, and with far 
more important results than 
would attend the marching_ 
of an army to Richmond. At 
eight points the river would 
probably have been defended, 
and eight batteries would have 
been necessary ; but in every 
one of them success could 
have been made certain for 
us. The Mississippi and the 
Atlantic once ours, the South- 
ern States would have been 
compelled, by the natural and inevitable 
pressure of events, to seek, by a return to 
the Union, escape from the ruin that would] 
speedily overwhelm them if out of it. 
'This,' said the General, < was my plan.' 



Poor Bragrgr and his Supposed Army. 
While General Bragg's troops were on 
their retreat from Murfreesborough, ragged, 
j hungry, and weary, they straggled along 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



233 



the road for miles, with an eye to their 
own comfort, but a most unmilitary neg- 
lect of rules and regulations. Presently 
one of them espied, in the woods near by, 
a miserable broken-down mule, which he 
at once seized and proceeded to put to his 
use, by improvising, from stray pieces of 
rope, a halter and stirrups. This done, he 
mounted, with grim satisfaction, and pur- 
sued Ins way. He was a wild Texas tat- 
terdemalion, bareheaded, barefooted, and 
wore in lieu of a coat, a rusty looking 
hunting-shirt. With hair unkempt, beard 
unshorn, and face unwashed, his appear- 
ance was grotesque enough ; but, to add to 
it, he drew from some receptacle, his corn- 
cob pipe, and made perfect his happiness 
by indulging in a comfortable smoke. 

While thus sauntering along, a company 
of bestarred and bespangled horsemen — 
General Bragg and staff — rode up, and 
were about to pass on, when the rather 
unusual appearance of the man attracted 
then notice. The object of their atten- 
tion, however, apparently neither knew 
nor cared to know them, but looked and 
smoked ahead with careless indifference. 

" Who are you ?" asked the Major- 
General. 

" Nobody," was the answer. 

" Where did you come from ? " 

" Nowhere." 

" Where are you going ? " 

'* I don't know." 

" Where do you belong ? " 

" Don't belong anywhere." 

" Don't you belong to Bragg's army ?" 

" Bragg's army ! Bragg's army ! " re- 
plied the chap, " Why, he's got no army ! 
One half of it he shot in Kentucky, and 
the other half has just been whipped to 
death at Murfreesborough." 

Bragg asked no more questions, but 
turned and spurred away. 



Eedfield's Stolen March. 
The capture of the rebel forge at Hen 
derson's Hill, by the Sixteenth Indiana 
mounted infantry, under Lieutenant Col- 
15 



onel Redfield, was a notable instance of 
stealing a march. After a detour of six- 
teen miles, Colonel Redfield reached the 
rear of the enemy's position. Here he 
captured a courier with despatches from 
General Taylor, who was advancing with 
a supporting force. A squadron of Col- 
onel Redfield's was at times completely 
surrounded by Taylor's men, but managed 
to keep them in check, while Captain 
Doxey, with two companies, engaged the 
enemy's pickets. This was cleverly done. 
His men dismounted, advanced in small 
squads directly up to the rebel pickets, 
greeting them heartily with — 

" How are you, boys ? " 

This was accompanied with various 
slaps on the back, &c, after the manner 
of friends rather than enemies — a confi- 
dence which quite disarmed the rebels, 
who said — 

" Why, who are you ? " 

"Why, the Third Texas, don't you 
know us ? We have come to help you 
against these Yankees." 

" Hurrah ! Bully for you ! " &c. 

In such a cold, rainy night, what could 
be pleasanter than friends, and especially 
friends to help against the confounded 
Yankees ? 

After getting well warmed, our boys 
said to them — 

" Now, boys, you must surrender, for 
we are the Yankees themselves ! " 

" No you don't." 

" But we do ; surrender and sit down ! " 

And so the disagreeable truth came up- 
on those damp Louisiana fellows. Picket 
after picket was in this way successfully 
captured and sent to the rear, without the 
firing of a shot or alarming the main 
body. 

Captain Doxey then entered the rebel 
camp with his cavalry, while a body of in- 
fantry supports were deployed on his right. 
There he captured, almost without resist- 
ance, the surprised and astonished enemy. 
Four pieces of artillery were captured, 
two just as they were being brought into 



234 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



line — one of their officers saying, " Don't 
fire ! they are our own boys." Unfortu- 
nately for him it did not prove correct, 
and the four guns were soon in the posses- 
sion of the Yankees, as was also the too 
confiding officer. 

A squad of Redfield's command sur- 
rounded a house in which a party of rebels 
were engaged in preparing their frugal 
repast, and the sounds from within indica- 
ted that they were quite comfortable in 
their minds at least, if their bodies were 
not. One of his men then knocked at 
the door. 

" Who's there ? " 

"Federals." 

" None of your joking — come in." 

The door was opened, and the gray- 
backs were not a little astonished at the 
sight of the " blue bellies,' as they were 
pleased to call the Yankees in their sport- 
ive moods. 

" By , that's so ; " said one of them, 

who drew and discharged his pistol. 

His arm was at once disabled by a shot 
from one of our men, and the order was 
given them to surrender at once, or they 
would be sent to another and hotter place. 

They quietly obeyed, and our men took 
the whole party prisoners, and found the 
wounded man to be the famous scout 
Bailey Smith. 

Redfield, with a few of his men, were 
guarding a squad of some twenty prisoners 
about a camp fire, when a rebel officer 
dashed up and said — 

" Good evening, gentlemen — enjoying 
yourselves, eh ? " and seemed to have an 
impulse to dismount, but suddenly seeing 
the condition of affairs, his impulse was 
quite strong to ride away, so he said: 
" Good evening and good night," and put 
his horse into a gallop ; but it so happened 
that two of Redfield's men, of a polite 
turn, galloped by his side and soon brought 
him back, and allowed him to sit around 
the cheerful fire with the rest. Colonel 
Redfield, not unmindful of the duties of 
hospitality, endeavored to engage him in 



conversation, but to which he did not re- 
spond with that urbanity for which the 
Southern people have usually prided them- 
selves. He said — 

" You think it all very fine, I suppose, 
but in five minutes it will be all right, and 
you will be my prisoners." 

It did not turn out that way. 



Startling Adventure of General Birney. 

A personal adventure of General Bir- 
ney, at Centreville, in the summer of 1862, 
showed the heroism of that officer. Our 
forces were following the rebel Jackson 
from Manassas, which he had evacuated 
in his own time and in his own way. 
" Whither had he gone ? " was the ques- 
tion. " Was he at Centreville ? " was the 
second question. Cavalry should inquire. 
" I have no cavalry," or " I can't lay my 
hand on any cavalry," said General Pope, 
when General Kearney suggested this to 
him. It was mentioned that there was 
one company in General Birney's brigade. 
" Let it feel the enemy if he be at Centre- 
ville," said General Kearney. " Go with 
it, General Bimey, yourself," he added; 
" I don't like to risk a general officer, but 
his report is worth very much more than 
that of a subordinate." 

General Birney galloped away in the 
direction of Centreville, at the head of his 
company, which, by the time he reached 
Centreville, mustered some forty men. 
With this small command at his back, 
General Birney proceeded to feel the en- 
emy : felt his way into Centreville street, 
and into the tavern, where he stopped to 
make inquiries. He was lecturing the 
landlord on his rebel proclivities, when 
one of the videttes, whom he had posted on 
the hill to the right and left of the town, 
reported a cavalry regiment approaching 
with the Stars and Stripes flying. He 
was sure that it was the Stars and Stripes. 

" What regiment ? " 

" Can't tell ; but it must be one of the 
new regiments, its ranks are so full." 

General Birney sent another man to 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



235 



make sure it was one of our regiments. 
The report again came that the Stars and 
Stripes waved at its head. General B. 
stepped out to look for himself. The 
front line was forty rods distant. The 
Stars and Stripes were there, sure enough ; 
but a large infantry flag, almost new. 
Every sabre was drawn, a thing not done 
by our cavalry when entering a town. 
The caps were different from ours ; the 
uniform differed. It was the enemy — the 
flag a capture from one of our regiments. 
It was time to evacuate the town just re- 
taken. General Birney ordered the bu- 
gle to sound, and at the head of his com- 
mand of forty men moved rather rapidly 
toward Bull Run. 

In response to his bugle the enemy 
sounded a charge, and a race began. A 
regiment had been posted at the Run 
three miles distant, and toward that our 
General hastened, after paying his fare- 
well respects from the muzzles of his away."' 
carbines. The ene- 
my returned the com- 
pliment, with little 
or no effect. " For- 
ward ! " was the word, 
along a road not over 
good. Occasionally 
a horse stumbled ; 
over his body and 
that of his rider the 
company galloped. 
The best horses of 
the regiment in pur- 
suit were gaining — 
gaming ; but the 
Run and the regi- 
ment on guard were 
in sight. 

" Spurs to your 
shouted the General. 

fell, but the rest kept on. Still the en- 
emy gained — gained ! upon them ; and 
now one bold rebel just reaches General 
Birney's shoulder with his sabre. The 
General draws his pistol, and the rebel falls 
dead. Another moment, and the General 



is in the rear of the regiment at the Run, 
and orders them to fire at the rebel pur- 
suers, who were unable to draw rein in 
season to escape. 



Howe, the little Drummer Boy in the Fifty- 
fifth Illinois. 

In the spring of 1864, President Lin- 
coln placed Orion P Howe, who was for 
a time the little drummer boy for the 55th 
Illinois Volunteers, in the Naval School 
at Newport. This act was in consider- 
ation of the little fellow's bravery, as nar- 
rated by General Sherman. General S. 
wrote to the Secretary of War of him, say- 
ing that at the assault on Vicksburg he 
came to him at the front, crying out: 
" Gen. Sherman, send some cartridges to 
Col. Malmborg, the men are nearly out." 
" What is the matter, my boy ? " " They 
shot me in the leg, Sir ; but I can go to 
the hospital. Send the cartridges right 
Even where we stood, the shot 




Old Capitol Prison, Washington. 



horses, my men ! " 
More stumbled and 



fell thick, and I told him to go to the rear 
at once, I would attend to the cartridges, 
and off he limped. Just before he disap- 
peared on the hill, he turned and called as 
loudly as he could, " Caliber 54." " I have 
not seen the boy since, and his Colonel 
(Malmborg,) on inquiry, gives me his ad- 
dress as above, and says he is a bright, 



236 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



intelligent boy, with a fair preliminary 
education. What" continues the Gen- 
eral. " arrested my attention then was — 
and what renewed my memory of the fact 
now — that one so young, carrying a mus- 
ket ball through his leg, should have 
found his way to me on that fatal spot, 
and delivered his message, not forgetting 
the very important part, even, of the cal- 
iber of his musket, 54, which you know 
is an unusual one." 



Portable Iron-Clad Breastworks. 

"While search was being made of the 
passengers on the Central Railroad train, 
one evening in June, 1863, a soldier no- 
ticed that a lady's dress appeared more 
full breasted than it naturally should be ; 
and his quick eye also detected the fact 
that the artificial contents of the lady's 
bosom were pressed out against the folds 
of the dress, so as to make it almost cer- 
tain that pistols Avere there. He was a 
very polite soldier, and in the most gen- 
tlemanly manner approached the lady and 
said — 

" Madam, I want those revolvers." 

" Sir," she replied indignantly, " I am a 
respectable woman, and have no revolvers." 

" Madam," again said the soldier, very 
coolly, " I wish you would give me those 
revolvers," — pointing to her bosom. 

She again denied that she had any ; 
whereupon, without further parleying, the 
soldier, in discharge of his duty, thrust his 
hand into the place of concealment and 
drew out a revolver, and kept on repeat- 
ing the operation until seven were cap- 
tured from their sacred citadel. Then 
gathering up the pistols, he politely re- 
marked to the fair but utterly discomfited 
deceiver, 

" Madam, your breastworks seem to 
have been iron clad." 



Gathering: "Violets on the Battlefield. 
The battle fought by General Grant on 
the first Friday, while on his way to Rich- 
mond, was fruitful of incident, not except- 



ing the romantic. Far down the plank 
road where Hancock fought, beyond the 
thickest rebel dead, lay a boy severely 
wounded, — perhaps not less a soldier, that 
he was but a boy. He had fallen the day 
before, when the Union army was farthest 
advanced, and had remained unmolested 
within the rebel lines. They had not re- 
moved him, and he was alone, making his 
company among the dead. When first 
discovered, the little fellow was crawling 
about, gathering violets. Faint with the 
loss of blood, unable to stand, he could 
not resist the tempting flowers, and had 
already made a beautiful bouquet. When 
a stretcher had been sent for and arrived, 
he was taken up tenderly and borne away, 
wearing a brave, sweet, touching smile. 
Could the violet bouquet thus made by 
that brave young patriot have been on 
sale at any of the great Soldiers' Fairs it 
would have been transmuted into a golden 

double-eagle. 

♦ ■- 

"California Joe" and his Telescopic Rifle. 
" California Joe " will always be remem- 
bered as the very apostle of sharpshoot- 
ers. While before Richmond, a rebel 




California Joe. 

sharpshooter had been amusing himself 
and annoying our General and some other 
officers by firing several times in that di- 
rection, and sending the bullets whistling 
in unwelcome proximity to their heads. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



237 



" My man, can't you get your piece on 
that fellow who is firing on us, and stop 
his impertinence ?" asked the General. 

" I think so," replied Joe ; and he 
brought his telescopic rifle to a horizontal 
position. 

" Do you see him ?" inquired the Gen- 
eral. 

" I do." 

" How far is he away?" 

" Fifteen hundred yards." 

" Can you fetch him ? " 

"I'll try." 

And Joe did try. He brought his piece 
to a steady aim, pulled the trigger, and 
sent the bullet whizzing on its experi- 
mental tour, the officers meantime looking 
through their field glasses. Joe hit the 
fellow in the leg or foot. He went hob- 
bling up the hill on one leg and two hands, 
in a style of locomotion that was amusing. 
Our General was so tickled — there is no 
better word — at the style and celerity of 
the fellow's retreat, that it was some time 
before he could get command of his risibles 
sufficiently to thank Joe for what he had 
done. 



Zouaves on Picket Duty. 

An industrious and shrewd typo from 
the Queen City of the Lakes, under Colo- 
nel Ellsworth, was out on picket duty in 
the Old Dominion, when a haughty son 
of the chivalry rode up, driven of course 
by his servant. Zoo-zoo stepped into the 
road, holding his bayonet in such a way as 
to threaten horse, negro and white man, at 
one charge, and roared out " Tickets ! " 
Mr. " F. F. V." (he was one of 'em) turned 
up his lip, set down his brows, and by 
other gestures indicated his contempt for 
such mudsills as the soldier before him, 
ending by handing his pass over to the 
darkey, and motioning him to get out and 
show it to Zoo-zoo. 

"All right," said the latter, glancing at 
it, "move on," — accompanying the remark 
with a jerk at the coat-collar of the colored 



person, which sent him spinning several 
paces down the road. 

"Now, Sir, what do you want?" said 
Zoo-zoo, addressing the astonished white 
man, — who now showed that he had re- 
covered his tongue. 

" What ? I want to go on, of course. 
That was my pass." 

" Can't help it," replied Zoo ; " it says 
' pass the bearer,' and the bearer of it has 
already passed. You can't get two men 
through this picket on one man's pass, no 
hoto." 

Mr. V. reflected a moment, glanced at 
the bayonet in front of him, and then 
called out to his black man to come back. 
Sambo approached cautiously, but fell back 
in confusion when the ' shooting stick ' was 
brandished toward his own breast. 

" Where's your pass, Sirrah ? " 

" Here, massa," presenting the same one 
he had received from the gent in the car- 
riage. 

" Won't do," replied the holder of the 
bayonet; "that passes you to Fairfax. 
Can't let any one come from Fairfax on 
that ticket. Move on ! " A stamp of the 
foot sent Sambo down the road at a smart 
gallop. 

" Now, Sir, if you stay here any longer, 
I shall take you under arrest to head- 
quarters," contimied Zoo-zoo. 

Mr. V. caught up his reins, wheeled 
around, and went off at the best trot his 
horse could manage, over the " sacred soil." 
Whether Sambo ever hunted his master 
up, is not known. 

Zollicoffer's Death at tlie hands of dilpnel 
Fry. 

Colonel Fry, of the Fourth Kentucky 

Regiment, who killed the rebel General 

Zollicoffer, was for many years a personal 

friend of the latter, and in their youthful 

days the two were associates in school. 

Col. F.'s regiment came up and formed 

along a fence which separated the road 

from the field on the left, and the Tenth 

was on the right. The two regiments 



238 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



here formed in the shape of a V. The 
regiments which attacked Colonel Fry- 
were Battle's Tennessee and the Fifteenth 
Mississippi, the Wigfall Rifles, and the 
Mississippi Tigers. These were the crack 
regiments of the rebels, and were only 
driven back by the terrible fire of the 
Kentucky Fourth. 

It was at the point of the V, that Gen- 
eral Zollicoffer died. He fell nearer the 
Union camp than any other man of his 
army. He was with Battle's regiment, his 
own home friends, born and brought up 
around him at Nashville. A short dis- 
tance from him, to his right, a party of his 
men had broken from then' comrades, and 
were herding together like frightened deer. 
Colonel Fry's men were just about to fire 
on them, Colonel Fry himself being at the 
right of his regiment, at the point of great- 
est danger. General Zollicoffer was on 




Gen Felix K. Zollicoffer. 



foot and within a few feet of the Colonel, 
an extra coat concealing his uniform. 
Upon discovering Colonel Fry across his 
path, General Zollicoffer threw up both 
hands and exclaimed : 

"Hold, Fry! You are not going to 
fight your friends, are you ? These men 
(pointing to the Mississippians) are all 
your friends." 

Colonel Fry supposed, from the Gen- 
eral's manner and remark, that he was one 
of our own officers, and at once replied : 



" Certainly not, Sir ; I have no such in« 
tention." 

Colonel Fry now turned and rode a few 
steps, when one of the General's aids fired 
at him, wounding his horse. Believing 
that he was tricked, Col. Fry at once 
wheeled and fired at the General, with 
deadly effect, the latter raising his hand 
to his breast and falling dead. His last 
words were, " I am killed ; all's well," and 
with a groan expired. 

The country people who had suffered 
from his lawless soldiery, or feared their 
ravages, were wild with delight at the re- 
port of his death. One old woman ex- 
claimed, "I've got two children in the 
fight, but I don't trouble myself about 
them. I'm so glad that Zollicoffer is 
dead." 

General Zollicoffer was a tall and rather 
slender man, with thin, brown hair, high 
forehead, somewhat bald, Roman nose, firm, 
w r ide mouth, and clean-shaved face. His 
face in death, bore no expression of malice, 
reckless hate, nor even a shadow of phys- 
ical pain ; but never was a countenance so 
marked with sadness. 



Southern Black-Horse Guards and Yankee 
Fire Zouaves. 

The terrible tragedy of Greek meeting 
Greek was realized in all its fearful hor- 
rors at the battle of Bull Run, in the com- 
bat between the Union Fire Zouaves and 
the Black Horse Cavalry — the latter known 
as the " bloody pride " of the rebel army. 
They came upon the Zouave regiment at a 
gallop, and were received by the brave 
firemen upon their poised bayonets, fol- 
lowed instantly by a volley, from which 
they broke and fled, though several of the 
Zouaves were cut down in the assault. 
They quickly returned, with their forces 
doubled — perhaps six or seven hundred — 
and again they dashed with fearful yells 
upon the excited Zouaves. This time they 
bore an American flag, and a part of the 
Zouaves supposed for an instant that they 
were friends, whom they had originally 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



239 



mistaken. The flag was quickly thrown 
down, however, the horses dashed upon the 
regiment, the ruse was discovered, and the 
slaughter commenced. No quarter, no 
halting, no flinching now, marked the rapid 
and death-dealing blows of our men, as 
they closed in upon the foe, in their mad- 
ness and desperation. Our brave fellows 
fell, the ranks filled up, the sabres, bowie- 
knives and bayonets glistened in the sun- 
light, horse after horse went down, platoon 
after platoon disappeared — the rattle of 
musketry, the screams of the rebels, the 
shout of " Remember Ellsworth ! " from 
the lungs of the Zouaves, and the yells of 
the wounded and crushed belligerents filled 
the air, and a terrible carnage succeeded. 
The gallant Zouaves fought to the death, 
and were sadly cut up ; but of those hun- 
dreds of Black Horse Guards, not many 
left that bloody encounter. 



Terrible Encounter— Texas and Iowa. 
At the battle of Pea Ridge, one of the 
Texas soldiers was advancing with his bay- 
onet upon a Lieutenant of the Ninth Iowa, 
whose sword had been broken ; the officer 
saw his intention, avoided the thrust, fell 
down at his foeman's feet, caught hold of 
his legs, threw him heavily to the ground, 
and before he could rise, drew a long knife 
from his adversary's belt and buried it in 
his bosom. The Texan with dying grasp 
seized the Lieutenant by the hair, and 
sank down lifeless, bathing the brown 
leaves with his blood. So deadly stiff and 
firm was the hold of the grasp of his hand 
that it was necessary to cut the hair close 
from the head of the officer before he could 
be freed from the corpse of his slain foe. 



" Father, I will never Surrender to a Rebel ! " 
The First and Second Ohio Regiments, 
did glorious service at the battle of Bull 
Run. Colonel McCook had command of 
the First. His younger brother — only 
seventeen years old — was a member of the 
Second, and was left as a guard to the 
hospital. One of the enemy's cavalry 



dashed upon him and ordered him to sur- 
render. The brave youth, with fixed bay- 
onet, steady nerve and cool bearing, re- 
plied : 

" I never surrender ! " 

The father, Judge McCook, who had all 
the day been arduously engaged in assist- 
ing and taking care of the wounded, bring- 
ing them in from the field, and that, too, 
at the imminent peril of his own life, was 
in the hospital tent and heard the order to 
his son. Seeing others of the enemy's 
cavalry near by, he rushed out, and 
shouted : 

" Charley, surrender, for God's sake, or 
you are lost ! " 

Charley turned to his father, and with 
all the lion hi his countenance replied : 

" Father, I will never surrender to a 
rebel!" 

In a moment a ball pierced his spine, 
but he instantly discharged his musket at 
the rebel horseman, and laid him low in 
death, and then fell himself, mortally 
wounded. The rebels now undertook to 
drag him off, but his father succeeded in 
obtaining his release. 



Fremont's wbole Body-Guard Charg-ed upon 
by One Rebel. 

One of the Southern soldiers engaged in 
the conflict at Springfield, Missouri, where 
Fremont's Body-Guard achieved such a 
grand success, exhibited the gamest cour- 
age of which there is any record during 
the war. He was a young officer, was 
superbly mounted, and charged single- 
handed upon a large body of the Guard. 
He passed through the line unscathed, kill- 
ing one man. He wheeled, charged back, 
and again broke through, killing another 
man. A third time he rushed upon the 
Federal line, a score of sabre points con- 
fronting him, and a cloud of bullets flying 
all around him ; but he pushed on — on, 
until he reached Zagonyi, the Major of the 
Guards. He pressed his pistol so close to 
the Major's side, that the latter felt it and 
drew convulsively back, the bullet passing 



240 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



through the front of Zagonyi's coat, but 
who at the instant run the daring rebel 
through the body ; he fell, and the men, 




Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont. 

thinking their commander hurt, killed the 
rebel with a dozen wounds. 

" He was a brave man," said Zagonyi 
afterwards, " and I did wish to make him 
prisoner." 



Silence of a Drummer-Boy before the Flag. 
One of the volunteer military compa- 
nies organized in Chicago, had a drum- 
mer-boy thirteen years old, a member of 
a Sabbath School in that city. As the 
company on drill were marching through 
one of the streets, a fine flag bearing the 
stars and stripes, was displayed from one 
of the many drinking-saloons which, un- 
happily, are to be found in that as hi 
other cities. The Captain, with patriotic 
enthusiasm at the sight of the national 
ensign, ordered his men to halt, and give 
it a hearty salute. The drummer-boy, 
supposing the salute to be intended for the 
place, as well as for the flag, held his 
drum in perfect silence. The Captain, in 
a reproving tone, inquired the cause : 
" Sir," said the boy, " I would not go into 
such a place as that, and I certainly can 
not salute it." " My good boy," said the 
Captain, patting him on the shoulder, "my 
good boy, you are right, and I am 
wrong." 



Our Dear Old Flag- Never Touched the 
Ground. 

When the brave Colonel Shaw, com- 
manding the Fifty-fourth colored Massa- 
chusetts regiment, fell in the charge upon 
Fort Wagner, Charleston, S. C, most of 
his guard also fell with him. Sergeant 
Carney was also one of the bravest of his 
race on that eventful day. When Gov- 
ernor Andrew, of Massachusetts, present- 
ed the flag to that colored man, he said he 
gave it Avith undoubting faith that he 
would bring it back again without a stain. 

On the eighteenth of July, 1863, the 
memorable assault was made on Fort 
Wagner. When the Sergeant arrived to 
within about one hundred yards of the 
fort — he was with the first battalion, 
which was in the advance of the storming 
column — he received the regimental colors, 
and pressed forward to the front rank, near 
the Colonel, who was leading the men 
over the ditch. As they ascended the 
walls of the fort, the ranks were full, but 
as soon as they reached the top, they 
" melted away " before the enemy's fire, 
almost instantly. Carney received ■ a se- 
vere wound in the thigh, but fell only 
upon his knees. He planted the flag upon 
the parapet, lay down on the outer slope, 
that he might get as much shelter as pos- 
sible, and thus he remained for over half 
an hour, till the second brigade came up. 
He kept the colors flying till the second 
conflict was ended. When the Federal 
forces retired, he followed, creeping on 
one knee, and still holding up the flag. 

It was in this manner that the brave 
colored sergeant came from the field, hav- 
ing held the emblem of liberty over the 
walls of Fort Wagner during the san- 
guinary conflict of the two brigades, and 
having received two very severe wounds, 
one in the thigh and one in the head. 
Still he refused to give up his sacred 
trust until he found an officer of his regi- 
ment. When he entered the field hos- 
pital, where his wounded comrades were 
being brought in, both white men and 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



241 



black sat np in their beds, and cheered 
him and the colors until, exhausted, they 
could cheer no longer. Though nearly 
exhausted with the loss of blood, the 
brave standard-bearer said : 

" Boys, I could not Avalk, but I did my 
duty ; our dear old flag never touched the 
Ground ! " 



Eleven- Year Old "Warrior Picking off tlie 
Enemy. 
A boy about eleven years old, cut what 
might be called a tall figure in the Fort 
Donelson fight. His father, a volunteer, 
had been taken prisoner by the confeder- 
ates some time previously. The boy 
smuggled himself on board one of the 
transports at Cincinnati, laden with troops 
for the scene of conflict. On the field, 
the morning of the great fight, he joined 
the Seventy-eighth Ohio, and being ques- 
tioned by one of the officers, he told him 
of his father having been taken prisoner, 
and, having no mother, he had no one to 
care for him, and he wanted to fight his 
father's captors. The officer tried to get 
him to turn back, but he was not to be 
denied. So he succeeded in obtaining a 
musket, and went into the thickest of the 
battle. He finally by degrees crept up 
within a short distance of the Confederate 
intrenchments, and posted himself behind 
a tree, from which he kept firing as often 
as he could see a head to fire at. He was 
soon discovered by the enemy's sharp- 
shooters, who endeavored to drive him 
away from his position, as he kept picking 
them off very frequently. One of the 
secessionists, who was outside of the work, 
got sight of the boy with his rifle, but be- 
fore he got his piece off, the little warrior 
fired, and down went Mr. Rebel. As the 
latter had a fine Minie rifle, the boy ran 
out and picked it up, taking time to get 
pouch and balls, together with his knap- 
sack, while the bullets were flying on all 
sides of him, and then he retreated to his 
wooden breastwork, where he renewed his 
fire, and with a little bettei success. After 



being in the fight all day he returned to 
the Seventy-eighth at night with his 
prizes. This story might appear incredi- 
ble for one so young to be the hero, but it 
is vouched for by a number of officers and 
men who saw the boy on the field and in 
the position mentioned, and many saw him 
shoot the man referred to, besides several 
others. 



"Don't Shoot there any more— that's 
Father." 

An eye and ear witness relates an oc- 
currence at the battle of Shiloh, which 
shows, by one of innumerable similar in- 
stances, the peculiar frightfulness of the 
" family war " groAving out of the South- 
ern rebellion : — Two Kentucky regiments 
met face to face, and fought each other 
with terrible resolution. It happened that 
one of the Federal soldiers wounded and 
captured a man who proved to be his 
brother, and, after handing him back, be- 
gan firing at a man near a tree, when the 
captured brother called to him and said : 
" Don't shoot there any more — that's 
father." Such the war inaugurated by 
the fire upon Sumter's embattled Avails. 
At Pittsburgh, tAVO brothers fought on op- 
posite sides, and in regiments directly con- 
fronting each other. It so happened that 
the Confederate brother Avas found mor- 
tally Avounded, and Avas brought into the 
A x ery hospital Avhere his loyal brother had 
been detailed to nurse, and died in his 
brother's arms. 



Going in Quest of Satisfaction. 
Just after the firing of musketry at the 
battle of Cedar Mountain had become in- 
teresting, a private soldier Avas noticed 
going off the field, and it being suspected 
that possibly he was running aAvay to 
avoid danger, he was spoken to, Avhen it 
Avas found that he had two fingers of his 
left hand shot aAvay and a third dreadfully 
lacerated. It Avas seen at once that he 
had at least a hand in the fight. He was 
assisted to dress his AYOund as Avell as cir* 



242 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



cumstances would permit, he in the mean- 
time propping up the pluck of his assist- 
ant by various quaint remarks. Said he, 
" I don't keer a darn for that third finger ; 
for it wa'nt of no 'count no how ; but the 
pinter and t'other one were right good 
ones, and I hate to lose 'em. I should'nt 
have come to the rear if I had been able 
to load my gun, but I was'nt." After 




Going in quest of satisfaction. 



having his hand dressed, he looked over in 
the direction of the firing and stood a 
moment. Turning presently, he said, 
" Stranger, I wish you would jist load up 
my shooting iron for me ; I want to have 
a little satisfaction out of them cusses for 
spiling my fore paw." His gun was 
loaded for him, and he started back for 
the top of the hill at a double-quick, in 
quest of "satisfaction." His name was 
Lappin, or Lapham, of the Ohio Seventh. 

Root Hog or Die: "Music hath Charms." 
At the battle of Lookout Mountain, a 
soldier belonging to an Ohio Regiment 
coolly sat down on a rock during the 
thickest of the engagement, to wait for his 
gun to cool off, as he had fired it very 
often and effectively. The boys who were 
fighting around him deliberately ceased 
their firing, and waited until he sung for 
them an old and familiar song, " Root Hog 
or Die," and which he is said to have sung 
with such humor as to make ;ill merry 



and forgetful of the fearful scenes around 
them. When the song was finished, they 
reloaded their guns and again entered the 
fight, to the special damage of the rebels, 
who had to pay for the " charms " which 
" music hath." 



Joe Parsons' "Little Favor" from a Rebel 
Soldier. 

Here is all that need be said of " Joe 
Parsons, of Baltimore," as told by a news- 
paper correspondent : — Joe enlisted in the 
First Maryland regiment, and was plainly 
a " rough " originally. As we passed 
along the hall we first saw him crouched 
near an open window, lustily singing, " I'm 
a bold soldier boy," and observing the 
broad bandage over his eyes, I said, — 

" What's your name, my good fellow ? " 

"Joe, Sir," he answered, "Joe Par- 
sons." 

"And what is the matter with you ? " 

" Blind, Sir— blind as a bat." 

"In battle?" 

" Yes — at Antietam. Both eyes shot 
out at one clip." 

" I was hit" he said, " and it knocked 
me down. I lay there all night, and next 
day the fight was renewed. I could stand 
the pain yer see, but the balls was flyin' 
all round, and I wanted to get away. I 
couldn't see nothin' though. So I waited. 
and listened ; and at last I heard a feller 
groan' beyond me. ' Hello,' says I. 'Hello 
yourself,' says he. ' Who be yer,' said I, 
' a rebel ? ' ' You're a Yankee,' said he. 
' So I am,' says I, ' what's the matter with 
you ? ' ' My leg's smashed,' says he. 
' Can't yer walk ? ' ' No.' ' Can yer see ? ' 
' Yes,' ' Well,' says I, ' you're a — 
rebel, but will you do me a little favor V 
1 I will,' says he, ' ef I ken.' Then, I says, 
' Well, ole butternut, I can't see nothin' ; 
my eyes is knocked out ; but I ken walk. 
Come over yere. Let's git out o' this. 
You p'int the way, an' I'll tote yer off the 
field, on my back.' ' Bully for you ! ' 
says he. And so we managed to get to- 
gether. We shook hands on it. I took a 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



243 



wink outen his canteen, and he got onto 
my shoulders. I did the walkin' for both, 
an' he did the navigatin'. An' ef he didn't 
make me carry him straight into a rebel 
Colonel's tent, a mile away, I'm a liar ! " 



Nerving his Hand One Instant More. 
On that memorable hill where the army 
of the Union paused in the last of the 
Seven Days' Battles and hurled back the 
shattered hosts of the enemy, a soldier lay 
gasping, while life ebbed away with his 
fast flowing blood. The roar of the battle 
was around him, and the dying man heard 
the sounds of the strife strangely inter- 
mingled — it cannot be doubted — with those 
home sounds that come to the ears of the 
departing, in whatever scenes they meet 
the final summons. For him the Avar was 
over. To him peace was coming — the 
peace that passes human understanding. 
It was in this solemn moment, the soldier 
saw his General riding swiftly down into 
the battle. The sight caused his ebbing 
life for one instant — only one — to flow 
backward. Gathering his strength, the 
soldier seized his bloody cap in his freshly 
nerved hand, and raising it in the air waved 
it as the warrior passed him, cheered lusti- 
ly, as of old in the camp when he was hale 
and strong, then smiled, laid his head back 
on the sod, and went away forever from 
battle-fields and the sound of human strife. 
It was not the person of his commander 
alone that the soldier cheered — not the 
General merely, — that the dying man re- 
cognized and loved even in death. It was 
the representative defender of the Ameri- 
can Union and of the American Constitu- 
tion, — the great cause for which men lay 
dying, — which inspired him. 



Out oi Ammunition for a Time. 
The following is a specimen of Sigel's 
strategy at Pea Ridge : A considerable 
force of the Confederate army was sent to 
charge some batteries which Sigel had 
stationed a little in front of a wood. The 
force was somewhat too formidable to op- 



pose with the infantry he had at command, 
but the General was not at all at loss, and 
did not think of retreat. He ordered his 
men to lie down in the wood, ready to rise 
up in a moment and deliver their fire. 
Then he ordered his cannoniers to fire a 
few rounds of ball, and afterwards a num- 
ber of blank cartridge. 

The Confederates, cautiously advancing, 
at once guessed that poor Sigel had got out 
of ammunition. Their commander, with 
a shout of triumph, gave the order to 
charge in a body upon what he thought 
were empty guns. But when the scream- 
ing secessionists got within less than a 
hundred yards of Sigel's guns, his cannon- 
iers were ordered to use grape and canis- 
ter, and fire as quickly and accurately as 
possible. 

At the same moment the infantry rose, 
advanced out of the wood, and poured in 
their volleys upon the bewildered enemy. 
The result was not to be doubted. The 
Confederates, dismayed at the storm which 
tore their ranks in pieces at such close dis- 
tance, halted, shook for a moment, then 
broke and fled with cries of horror, leaving 
their dead heaped upon the field. A young 
fanner lad, belonging to a dragoon regi- 
ment which was sent to charge upon the 
flying enemy, remarked, " They lay there 
like grass cut down by a scythe, in great 
swaths." 



"G-od bless the old Fla-." 
Major Barnum, of the Twelfth New 
York regiment, was one of the many 
brave officers who were mortally wounded 
in the battles of the Peninsula. While 
lying down breathing his last, in the agony 
of his bodily suffering, a friend asked him 
if he had any message to send home. He 
replied — 

" Tell my wife that in my last thoughts 
were blended my wife, my boy and my 
fla°\" 

He asked of the physician how the bat- 
tle went, and when told that it was favor- 
able to the Union cause, he said, " God 



244 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



bless the old fla — ," and expired with the 
prayer finishing inaudibly with his closing 
lips. A noble prayer and a nohle death. 



"Shackasses" just at the Eight Moment. 

One of General Fremont's batteries of 
eight Parrot t guns, supported by a squad- 
ron of horse, and commanded by Major 
Richards of the First Pennsylvania cav- 
alry, was in sharp conflict with a battery 
of the enemy near at hand, and both shell 
and shot were flying thick and fast, when 
the commander of the battery, a German, 
one of Fremont's staff, rode suddenly up 
to the cavalry, exclaiming in loud and ex- 
cited tones, 

" Pring up de shackasses, pring up de 
shackasses, for Cot sake, hurry up de shack- 
asses, im-me-di-ately ! " 

The necessity of this order, though not 
quite apparent to the reader, will be more 
obvious when it is mentioned that the 
' shackasses ' were mules carrying moun- 
tain howitzers, which are fired from the 
backs of those much-abused but valuable 
animals ; and the immediate occasion for 
the ' shackasses ' in this exigency was, that 
two regiments of Confederate infantry 
were at that moment discovered descend- 
ing a hill immediately behind the Federal 
batteries. The ' shackasses,' with the how- 
itzers loaded with grape and canister, were 
soon on the ground. The mules squared 
themselves, as they well knew how, for 
the shock. A terrific volley was poured 
into the advancing column, which immedi- 
ately broke and retreated. Nearly three 
hundred dead bodies were found in the 
ravine the next day, the effects of that 
volley from the backs of the ' shackasses.' 



Morgan ! Morgan ! 
Morgan, the Confederate guemlla chief, 
created terror wherever he stepped foot. 
Apropos of this wide-spread sensitiveness, 
is the following account of a scene which 
occurred at the City Hotel, Nashville, 
Tenn. A tall gentleman entered, pushed 
through the crowd rather unceremonious- 



ly, and registered his name 'Morgan — 
Cavalry ;' — desiring dinner, suppei', a bed 
and his bill, at the same time throwing 
down a twenty dollar note of Confederate 
scrip. " We are not taking that money 
now," said the polite clerk. "The hell 
you ain't ; then, Sir, we don't trade," and 
with a pompous 'Ahem' he moved off". 
The conversation and demeanor of the 
officer attracted the attention of the crowd, 
and several looked at the name, among 

others, Lieutenant , who, on glancing 

at the register, was observed to change 
color, and with a nervous motion to hurry 
from the room. A murmur of surprise 
and amazement soon swelled into a cry of 
" Morgan ! Morgan ! " but the stranger 
was not to be seen. Scarcely twenty min- 
utes elapsed when a company of infant- 
ry, fresh from the office of the Provost 
Marshal, rushed into the room with bay- 
onets fixed and determined countenances. 
" Where is he ? " inquired the command- 
ing officer. " He passed out the back 
way," replied a wag, " and is now at the 
Sewanee House." " Right about face," 
and away they went at double quick — the 
last report representing them as still going. 
The originator of the cock-and-bull ruse 
was Captain Morgan, of one of the brave 
Ohio regiments of cavalry, a worthy officer 
and an inveterate wag. 



Behind the Trees: Maine and Georgia. 

At the siege of Yorktown, and during 
the first day's skirmish on the Federals' 
right, two soldiers, one from Maine, and 
the other from Georgia, posted themselves 
each behind a tree, and indulged in sundry 
shots, without effect on either, at the same 
time keeping up a lively chat. Finally, 
that getting a little tedious, Georgia called 
out to Maine, " Give me a show," meaning 
step out and give an opportunity to hit. 
Maine, in response, poked out his head a 
few inches, and Georgia cracked away and 
missed. " Too high," said Maine, — " now 
give me a show." Georgia poked out his 
head and Maine blazed away. " Too low," 



OKEAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEEOISM, ETC. 



245 



cried Georgia. In this way the two alter- 
nated several times, without hitting. Fi- 
nally, Maine sent a ball so as to graze the 
tree within an inch or two of the ear of 
Georgia. "Cease firing," shouted Geor- 
gia. "Cease it is," responded Maine. 
" Look here," says one, " we have carried 
on this business long enough for one day ; 
'spose we adjourn for rations ? " " Agreed," 
said the other. And so the two marched 
away in different directions, one whistling 
' Yankee Doodle,' the other ' Dixie.' 



Family Quarrel Settled on the Battlefield. 
In the Confederate charge upon McCook's 
right, at the battle of Stone River, the Con- 
federate Third Kentucky was advancing 
full upon one of the loyal Kentucky regi- 
ments. These two regiments were brought 
from the same county, and consequently 
were old neighbors, now about to meet for 
the first time as enemies. As soon as they 
came near enough for recognition they 
mutually ceased firing, and began abusing, 
and cursing, and swearing at each other ; 
using the utmost license of denunciatory 
and outlandish names ; and all this time 
the battle was roaring around them, with- 
out much attention from either side. It 
was hard to tell which regiment would 
come off victor in the wordy battle, for 
both sides were terrible in the use of pro- 
fane nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. But 
this could not always last ; by mutual con- 
sent they finally ceased curbing, and grasp- 
ing their muskets, charged into each other 
with the most unearthly yell ever heard, 
even on a field of battle. Muskets were 
clubbed, bayonet met bayonet, and in many 
instances, when old personal or local feuds 
made the belligerents rank-crazy with pas- 
sion, the musket was thrown away, and at 
it they went with nature's weapons, pum- 
melling, pulling, gouging, and clinching, in 
rough and tumble style, and in a maimer 
that any looker-on would consider a free 
fight indeed. The secessionists were get- 
ting rather the better of the fight, when 
the Twenty-third Kentucky succeeded in 



giving a flanking fire, when they retreated 
with quite a number of prisoners in their 
possession. The Confederates had got 
fairly under weigh, when the Ninth Ohio 
came up on the double-quick, and charging 
on their now disordered ranks, succeeded 
in capturing all their prisoners, besides 
taking in return a great many of the Con- 




Humphrey Marshall. 

federates. As the recent belligerents were 
conducted to the rear they appeared to 
have forgotten their late animosity, and 
were soon on the best terms imaginable, 
laughing, and chatting, and joking, and, as 
the Confederates were well supplied with 
whiskey, the canteens were readily handed 
about from one to the other, until they all 
became as jolly as possible under the cir- 
cumstances. 



Two noble Women saving- a Regiment. 

When traveling on the cars from Bethel 
to Jackson, Tennessee, the Twenty-seventh 
Iowa regiment was saved from a fearful 
loss of life by the heroism of a couple of 
Union women. The train was running in 
the night at a high rate of speed, and just 
before reaching a railroad bridge the engi- 
neer saw a couple of lanterns being vigor- 
ously waved in the distance, directly on the 
track. He stopped the locomotive, and 
men were sent ahead to ascertain the cause 
of the alarm. They found that the lan- 
terns were held by two women, who ex- 



246 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



plained to them that a party of •guerrillas 
in that vicinity had been informed of the 
coming of the regiment, and that about 
eight o'clock that evening the villains had 
set the bridge on fire, and allowed the main 
timbers to bum so much that they could 
not bear the weight of the train, and then 
put out the flames and went away, hoping, 
of course, that the cars would run on the 
bridge, that it would break down with the 
weight,' and thus kill and injure many of 
the soldiers, and prevent the regiment from 
going through. The noble women had 
learned of these intentions, and had walked 
ten miles through the darkness and mud to 
save the Union soldiers. 



Thirteen Battles and Three Flags. 

At the battle and capture of Port Gib- 
son, Sergeant Charles Bruner, a Pennsyl- 
vanian, of Northampton County, with a 
squad of fifty men of the Twenty-third 
regiment Wisconsin volunteers, was the 
first to enter said fort. The flag-sergeant 
being wounded, Sergeant Bruner seized 
the colors, and, amid cheers and a rain of 
bullets, planted the Stars and Stripes upon 
the ramparts. 

Again, at Champion Hill, the Twenty- 
third was about breaking, when Sergeant 
Bruner took the colors in his hand, and 
cried, " Boys, follow ! don't flinch from 
your duty ! " and on they went, following 
their brave color-bearer ; and the intrench- 
ment was taken. 

Again, at the battle of Big Black, Com- 
pany B, of the Twenty-third Wisconsin, 
got orders from General Grant to plant a 
cannon and try to silence a battery, which 
was bravely clone, when the cannon was 
dismantled, Captain and First Lieutenant 
were gone and wounded. Sergeant Bru- 
ner again cheered on his men, and, in a 
hand-to-hand fight, the enemy were routed. 
The Sergeant was made prisoner twice, 
but his captors were soon put hors die com- 
bat by his brave followers, who would die 
for the brave Sergeant — afterwards Cap- 



tain. The Confederates were driven back 
with lost colors. 

Singular to say, Sergeant Bruner, Avho, 
up to June, 1863, had led on his men in 
more than thirteen battles, and always in 
front, had the good fortune to escape being 
wounded. He captured, with his own 
hands, three Confederate flags, which he 
handed over to General Grant. 



Well Done for a Youth. 
The gallant conduct of Henry Shaler, 
of Indianapolis, Indiana, at the battle of 
Gettysburgh, was worthy of all praise and 
remembrance. He seems to have more 
than equaled the self-told mythical per- 
formance of the Irishman who " surround- 
ed " a half-dizen of the enemy and bagged 
them plump. Henry's parents reside in 
Indianapolis, and are Germans. Harry 
is a brick ; he did more, that is, he took 
more prisoners in the battle of Gettys- 
burgh, than any other man in the army. 




Gen. Meade's Headquarters. 

He took in all twenty-five men, — one 
Lieutenant and eighteen men at one time ; 
he took them by strategy that was strat- 
egy — he surrounded them, and they had 
to give up. On the morning of the fourth 
he went out with his poncho over his 
shoulders, so that the rebs couldn't see his 
coat, and thus they thought he was one of 
their own men. He went up and told 
them to lay down their arms and come 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



247 



and help carry some wounded off the 
field; they did so. When he got them 
away from their arms he rode up to the 
Lieutenant, and told him to give up his 
sword ; the Lieutenant refused at first, but 




Well Done for a Youth. 

Harry drew his pepper-box, and like 
Crockett's coon, the Lieutenant came down 
without a shot. Harry then took them 
all into camp. He took a Captain and 
five men at another time, making twenty- 
five in all. Pretty well for a little Dutch- 
man, like Harry — one of Meade's noblest 
fighters. 



Rallying' Again for the Battle. 
At the battle of Chickamauga, the 
chivalrous courage of General Reynolds 
enabled him not only to keep his own di- 
vision in effective order, but to give effect- 
ive assistance to the forces around him. 
A tremendous onslaught of the enemy 
broke General Palmer's lines, and scat- 
tered several of his regiments in wild dis- 
may toward the rear. Amongst these 
was the Sixth Ohio, which, in charge of 
the fine-spirited Anderson, had, up to that 
moment, nobly maintained its ground. 
General Reynolds perceiving the danger, 
quick as lightning threw himself amongst 
the brave but broken Guthries. 



" Boys ! " he shouted, " are you the sol- 
diers of the Sixth Ohio, who fought with 
me at Cheat Mountain ? You never 
turned your backs upon traitors in Vir- 
ginia. Will you do it here ? " 

" No ! no ! " they screamed almost fran- 
tically ; " Lead us back ! lead us back ! ! " 

From every quarter came rushing back 
the scattered fragments of the regiment ; 
with magic swiftness they re-formed the 
ranks ; with General Reynolds at their 
head, they charged the jubilant enemy, 
and, after a moment's struggle, every Con- 
federate in front of them, not killed or 
wounded, was in confused retreat. 

The example of the Sixth Ohio was 
communicated to the flying fragments of 
other regiments, and it is a memorable 
fact in the history of this battle, that these 
rallied stragglers, principally from one di- 
vision, re-formed ranks almost of their 
own accord, and drove 'back the forces of 
the enemy which at that point had been 
victoriously pressing on. 



Kilpatrick's Battle-Flag- at Hag-erstown. 

On Monday, the thirteenth of July, 
1863, General Kilpatrick was anxious to 
make an advance, but could not obtain or- 
ders. Some of the Pennsylvania militia 
were placed at his disposal, and he thought 
he would try one regiment under fire. 
The Philadelphia Blues were selected, 
and, accompanied by the First Vermont 
cavalry, a demonstration was made on the 
right — the Confederates then occupying a 
fortified position. The militia were now 
deployed, the General desiring them to 
move to the crest of a knoll, where the 
bullets were flying pretty lively. There 
was some hesitancy at first, whereupon 
the battle-flag presented to the division by 
the ladies of Boonsboro was sent to the 
front. Sergeant Judy, bearer of the flag, 
cried out — 

" Tliisis General Kilpatrick\battle-jlag ; 
follow it!" 

The militia obeyed the summons prompt- 
ly, and fell some distance in front of the 



248 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



line, and it was supposed for some time 
that the enemy had captured the flag ; but 
at night, when Judy was brought in on a 
litter, he proudly waved the battle-flag. 

The novelty of being thus under fire 
for the first time was keenly felt by the 
militia. About the first man touched had 
the top of his head grazed just close 
enough to draw blood. He halted — threw 
down his musket — truly an astonished 




Maj. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick. 

man ! One or two officers and a dozen or 
more privates ran up hurriedly to see what 
the matter was. Running both hands 
over his pate, and seeing blood, he ex- 
claimed, "A ball! A ball!" — while the 
others stood on agape with astonishment, 
until the shrill voice of the General sound- 
ed in their ears : " Move on there ! " 



" I'U Do It, tell General Grant." 
One of the Fort Donelson correspond- 
ents, writing from Cairo, gives a most 
graphic description of the attack by Gen- 
eral C. F. Smith's division upon the ene- 
my's works in that splendid fight. Cap- 
tain Hillyer, General Grant's Aide de 
Camp, rode down to General Smith, with 
the order to charge at the point of the bayo- 
net. It had been long and impatiently ex- 
pected. " I'll do it, tell General Grant, 
I'll do it," was the reply ; and then, facing 
his men, he shouted : " Soldiers, we are 
ordered to take those works by assault ; 



are you ready ? " "Ay, ay, Sir. Ready ! 
Hurrah ! " burst from the ranks. Then, 
placing himself at their head, he thun- 
dered — " Charge bayonets! forward! 
double-quick ! March ! " The double- 
quick soon became a run, but, never fal- 
tering, the solid column charged through 
a storm of shells, solid shot and bullets, 
over the parapet into the fort, like a thun- 
der-bolt, upon the panic-struck foe. 



Nothing Lost by True Courag-e. 

An illustration of the spirit of the brave 
men who fought the battles of good 
government against treason will be found 
in the following, — though this is but one 
of a thousand similar noble and heroic 
instances. 

A New Hampshire regiment had been 
engaged in several successive battles, very 
bloody and very desperate, and in each 
engagement had been distinguishing them- 
selves more and more ; but their successes 
had been very dearly bought, both in men 
and officers. Just before the taps, the 
word came that the fort they had been 
investing was to be stormed by daybreak 
the next morning, and they were invited 
to lead the ' forlorn hope.' For a time 
the brain of the Colonel fairly reeled with 
anxiety. The post of honor was the post 
of clanger, but in view of all circum- 
stances, would it be right, by the accept- 
ance of such a proposition, to involve his 
already decimated regiment in utter anni- 
hilation ? He called his long and well- 
tried chaplain into council Avith him, and, 
asking what was best to be done, the chap- 
lain advised him to let the men decide it 
for themselves. 

At the Colonel's request, he stated to 
the regiment all the circumstances. Not 
one in twenty probably would be left alive 
after the first chai'ge. Scarcely one of the 
entire number would escape death, except 
as they were wounded or taken prisoners. 
No one would be compelled to go, if he 
did not go with all his heart. " Think it 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



249 



over, men, calmly and deliberately, and 
come back at twelve o'clock and let us 
know your answer." True to the appoint- 
ed time, they all returned. 

"All ? " was the interrogatory. 

" Yes, Sir, all, without exception, and 
all of them ready for service or for sacri- 
fice." 

" Now," said the chaplain, " go to your 
tents and write your letters — settle all your 
worldly business, and whatever sins you 
have upon your consciences unconfessed 
and unforgiven, ask God to forgive them. 
As usual, I will go with you, and the Lord 
do with us as seemeth Him good." 

The hour came, the assault was made, 
onward those noble spirits rushed into 
" the imminent deadly breach," right into 
the jaws of death. But, like Daniel, when 
he was thrown into the lions' den, it 
pleased God that the lions' mouths should 
be shut. Scarcely one hour before, the 
enemy had secretly evacuated the fort, and 
the 'forlorn hope' entered into full pos- 
session, without the loss of a single man ! 



Fighting, Dying-, and Buried "with his Nig- 
gers. " 

Few military names among the fallen 
brave in the war against rebellion will 
maintain a more endearing freshness and 
hallowed association, than that of Colonel 
Robert G. Shaw. Of the most aristo- 
cratic family connections, wealthy, accom- 
plished, he must have possessed the truest 
moral courage to have enabled him to 
march out of New York city, at the head 
of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth regi- 
ment, all black or colored men, amidst the 
jeers and scoffings of the " roughs," and 
the contemptuous pity of many far re- 
moved from that class. Yet this did Col- 
onel Shaw, one dawning spring day, with 
a brave, trustful heart, leaving mother and 
the beauteous young being whom he had 
just wedded, to go forth with those poor, 
despised men, the first regiment of " nig- 
gers " called into the field, and to share 
their hardships, and teach them the same 
16 



knowledge that he himself possessed of 
things present and of events and duties 
to come. 

Two months afterwards he was with 
them before Fort Wagner, sitting on the 
ground and talking to his men, very famil- 
iarly and kindly. He told them how the 
eyes of thousands would look on the night's 
work on Avhich they were about to enter ; 
and he said, "Now, boys, I want you to 
be men ! " He would walk along the line, 
and speak words of cheer to his men. It 
coidd be seen, too, that he was a man who 
had counted the cost of the undertaking 
before him, for his words were spoken 
so ominously, — the Confederates having 
openly threatened to make an especiai 
aim of any white officer leading colored 
troops, — his lips were compressed, and 
now and then there was visible a slight 
twitching of the corners of the mouth, 
like one bent on accomplishing or dying. 
One poor fellow, struck, no doubt, by the 
Colonel's determined bearing, exclaimed 
as he was passing him, " Colonel, I will 
stay with you till I die ; " and he kept his 
word — he was never seen again after the 
charge. 

The Fifty-fourth colored Massachusetts 
regiment held the right of the storming 
column that attacked Fort Wagner. It 
went into action six hundred and fifty 
strong, and came out with a loss of a third 
of the men, and a still larger proportion 
of officers, but eight out of twenty-three 
coming out uninjured. The regiment was 
marched up in column by wings, the first, 
being under the command of Colonel 
Shaw. When about one thousand yards 
from the fort, the enemy opened upon 
them with shot, shell, and canister. They 
pressed through this storm, and cheered 
and shouted as they advanced. When 
within a hundred yards of the fort, the 
musketry from it opened with such tez-- 
rible effect that the first battalion hesi- 
tated — only for an instant. Colonel Shaw- 
sprang forward, and, waving his sword, 
cried — 



250 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



" Forward ! my brave boys ! " 

With another cheer and shout, they 
rushed through the ditch, gained the par- 
apet on the right, and were soon hand to 
hand with the foe. The brave Shaw was 
one of the first to scale the walls. There 
he stood erect to urge forward his men, 
and, while shouting to them to press for- 
ward, he was shot dead, and fell into the 
fort. His body was found with twenty 
of his men lying dead around him, two 
lying on his own body. In the morning 
they were all buried together in the same 
pit. When the Federals asked for the 
gallant officer's body the next day after 
the fight, they said — 

" Colonel Shaw ! we buried him below 
his niggers ! " 

Thus died Robert G. Shaw — the rich, 
prosperous, accomplished member of one 
of the choicest circles of refined and ele- 
gant society in America, and who might 
have lived at his ease in the beautiful 
companionship and surroundings of his 
home on Staten Island. He who might 
have fought gallantly in splendid uniform 
on a noble charger among his fellows in 
riches and station, died fighting side by 
side with a race who, for generations, have 
been unstintedly despised and " cast out " 
— spending the last months of his life in 
friendly contact with them — and finally 
buried beneath "his niggers" with con- 
tempt and insult. There is no thread or 
filament of fiction interwoven with this 
sketch. It is reality unadorned with 
fancy. 



Good Samaritan in an Unexpected Hour and 
Place. 

Soon after the battle of Bull Run, a 
gentleman who happened in at the quar- 
ters of the Michigan Fourth regiment, 
one morning, came in contact with a very 
intelligent Corporal, who became sepa- 
rated from his regiment during the retreat, 
and was obliged to seek shelter among the 
bushes. When night came, he wandered 
along and Jost his way in the woods. Be- 



ing slightly wounded in the leg, his pro- 
gress was somewhat slow, so that by Wed- 
nesday night he had only reached the en- 
virons of Fairfax. Exhausted and com- 
pletely dispirited, he espied a Confederate 
picket, and deliberately walked up and 




Good Samaritan. 



told the sentry who he was. To his 
grateful surprise the southern soldier pour- 
ed out some whisky, gave him food, told 
him where he coidd find a stack of arms, 
and where he could sleep in perfect secu- 
rity in a negro hut. He added : " I am a 
Union man, but preferred to volunteer to 
fight rather than to be impressed. I thus 
save my property, and will trust to luck. 
If we meet again in battle, I will not try 
very hard to shoot you, and mind you don't 
me." Truly a good Samaritan and a wise 
man. 



Skulking- and Fourth-of-July Speeches at 
Pittsburg- Landing-. 

On the bluffs above the river there was 
— at the battle of Pittsburg Landing — a 
sight that made many a brave man's cheek 
tingle. There were not less than five 
thousand skulkers lining the banks ! 
If asked why they didn't go to their places 
in the line, their reply was : " Oh ! our 
regiment is all cut to pieces." If asked, 
" Why don't you go to where it is forming 
again ?" " I can't find it," was the skulk- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



251 



er's answer, — and he looked as if that 
would be the very last thing he would 
want to do. Officers were around among 
them, trying to hunt up their men, storm- 
ing, coaxing, commanding — cursing. One 
strange fellow — understood to be a Major, 
undertook to make a sort of elevated, 
superfine Fourth of July speech to every- 
body that would listen to him. He meant 
well, certainly — as for example : " Men 
of Kentucky, of Illinois, of Ohio, of Iowa, 
of Indiana, I implore you, I beg of you, 
come up now. Help us through two hours 
more. By all that you hold dear, by the 
homes you hope to defend, by the flag you 
love, by the States you honor, by all your 
love of country, by all your hatred of 
treason, 1 conjure you, come up and do 
your duty now ! " — and so on for quality. 
" That feller's a good speaker," was the 
only response heard, and the soldier Avho 
gave it nestled more snugly behind his 
tree as he uttered it. Enough is known 
of the nature of the skulking animal in an 
army during a battle ; their performances 
show but little variation of programme, 
but rarely have they been known to " come 
off" on so large and heart-sickening a 
scale, as on this occasion. Still, it was a 
big army, and perhaps the skulking did 
not much exceed the average percentage. 
The runaways all sought the Landing. 



Escape of General Tyler and Staff. 

The scene at the military head-quarters 
in Baltimore, July 13th, 1864, on the ar- 
rival of Brigadier-General Tyler, com- 
manding the first separate brigade of the 
Eighth Army Corps, and who was re- 
ported to have been either killed or cap- 
tured in the action at Monocacy Junc- 
tion on the Saturday previous, was most 
exhilarating. Accompanying him were 
Captain Webb and Lieutenant Goldsbor- 
ough, of his staff. 

It appeared that on Saturday, after the 
Federal troops had retired from the Mon- 
ocacy Bridge, General Tyler and his staff 
made a stand on the hill on the east side 



of the bridge, but were not there long be- 
fore they discovered themselves to be sur- 
rounded by the rebels. The General and 
his party succeeded in making their es- 
cape on the north side, closely pursued by 
the enemy, who fired upon them repeat- 
edly, killing one of the General's orderlies, 
a German. To this fact, the General at- 
tributed his escape, as, when the soldier 
fell from his saddle into the road, the pur- 
suers stopped to see who it was, and to 
inquire if General Tyler was not of the 
party. During this time, the General 
reached a clump of woods, and the three 
officers secreted themselves from their pur- 
suers. A negro, who was endeavoring to 
make his escape from the rebel lines, 
pointed out the way to the house of a well 
known and patriotic citizen of Frederick 
county, whose family were unremitting in 
their attentions to the fugitives, conceal- 
ing them until Tuesday, when they took 
their departure for Frederick, which they 
reached early in the morning. 

The appearance of General Tyler in 
the streets of Frederick created the great- 
est surprise. The rebels had boasted that 
he had been killed by them, and it was 
believed to be a fact until the loyal citi- 
zens saw to the contrary themselves. 



Fruit in Old Age. 

The name of Ishmael Day will long be 
remembered in Baltimore county, as that 
of one who, without fear of man, but in 
the fear of God, used the limbs and facul- 
ties with which God had endowed him, to 
the noblest advantage, in his old age. 

On Sunday evening, July 10th, 1864, 
Day heard that Dulaney's valley, Mary- 
land, was filled with rebels stealing horses 
and cattle, but did not give credit to the 
report, thinking they were Federal troops 
pressing horses. About sun-down the 
same day he heard that the rebels were 
on the Hartford pike, about a mile dis- 
tant, the people living thereon being much 
excited. He went to bed, leaving a lamp 
dimly burning all night, and arose early 



252 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



on Monday morning and ran up the glo- 
rious old Stars and Stripes rather earlier 
than usual, then sat down on the front 
porch. Ahout six o'clock A. M., the 
sound of horses' feet coming down the 
road was heard, and in a short time two 
of them came at full tilt up to the door. 
Mr. Day moved down to the lower step 
to see if there were any more near, and, 
seeing none, resumed his seat. 

By this time the foremost one had dis- 
mounted, seized hold of the foot of the flag, 
jerked it down and broke Jhe rope, cursing 
and calling it a 'damned old rag.' Day 
coolly asked him, " What do you mean ? 
What are you about ? " Without waiting, 
however, a reply, he ran immediately up 
stairs, seized one of his two guns, already 
loaded in a bedroom. With this gun, he 
shot the foremost one of the rebels, direct- 




BrigadierGeneral Win. W. AveriU. 

ing his shot out of the second story win- 
dow, which .was standing open. When 
shot, the rebel was in the act of folding up 
the flag for his departure, but raised his 
hands and fell back, exclaiming, "I am 
shot ! " 

Mr. Day now seized the other gun, and 
ran down stairs, when he was met by Mrs. 
Day, crying, and imploring that he would 
not shoot again or they would kill him. 
He however pressed out into the yard to 



take a shot at the other marauder, but he 
was among the missing, having clapped 
spin's to his horse on the fall of his com- 
rade. This was a matter of keen regret 
to the old patriot, as it failed him of the 
opportunity to give him his dose of me- 
tallic bitters also. Seeing none of the 
squad at the time, he walked up to the 
wounded man, and, in his patriotic anger, 
said, " You rebel rascal, I will now finish 
you ! " Day cocked his gun for that pur- 
pose, but the rebel asked for mercy and 
surrendered. Knowing that he had re- 
ceived the Avhole charge, Day was satisfied 
that he could not live, and therefore did 
not shoot again, — seeing he would never be 
able again to haul down and dishonor the 
flag under which Averill ' led to conquer.' 

The whole troop was now heard coming 
down the road. Day returned forthwith 
to his bedroom, got a six-barrelled re- 
volver, and with the loaded gun started 
for a hiding-place, about two hundred and 
fifty yards northeast of his house, — hardly 
doing so before they were all at the house, 
at once firing his buildings, sparing only 
a small corn and hen-house. Everything 
was burnt by them, including all the per- 
sonal property. At the end of the confla- 
gration, which he was an eye witness to, 
Mr. Day went to one of his nearest neigh- 
bors to get some breakfast, and afterward 
to a second one to get his dinner, and was 
conveyed to Baltimore the same day. On 
the next Thursday, he had his name en- 
rolled in the company of the Old De- 
fenders, commanded by Captain Childs, 
for the defence of Baltimore, and on the 
same day obtained a guard from head- 
quarters, to bring in the wounded rebel, 
who afterwards died. 

A short time previous to this occurrence, 
Mr. Day, on being asked if he would keep 
his flag floating in case of an invasion by 
the rebels, said, emphatically — 

" Yes, and I'll shoot the first of them 
who attempts to take it down, if it costs 
me my life the next instant ! " 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



253 



Heroism of Sherman on the Battle-field of 
Shiloh. 

At the battle of Shiloh, a cavalry officer 
having occasion to report personally to 
General Sherman about noon of the first 
day at that place, found him dismounted, 
his arm in a sling, his hand bleeding, his 
horse dead, himself covered with dust, 
his face besmeared with powder and blood ; 
he was giving directions at the moment to 
Major Taylor, his chief of artillery, who 
had just brought a battery into position. 
Mounted orderlies were coming and going 
in haste ; staff officers were making anx- 
ious inquiries ; everybody but himself Avas 
excited. The battle raged terrifically in 
every direction. Just then there seemed 
to be universal commotion on our right, 
when it was observed that our men were 
giving back, General Sherman said — 

" I was looking for that, but I am ready 
for them." 

His quick, sharp eyes gleamed, and his 
war-begrimmed face beamed with satisfac- 
tion. The enemy's packed columns now 
made their appearance, and as quickly the 
guns which Sherman had so carefully 
placed in position began to speak. The 
deadly effect on the enemy was apparent. 
While Sherman was still managing the 
artillery, Major Sanger, a staff officer, 
called his attention to the fact that the 
enemy's cavalry were charging towards 
the battery. The General's quick reply to 
this was — 

" Order up those two companies of in- 
fantry." 

The General coolly went on with his 
guns, and the cavalry made a gallant 
charge — but their horses carried back 
empty saddles. The enemy was evidently 
foiled. Our men, gaining fresh courage, 
rallied again, and for the first time that 
day the enemy was held stubbornly in 
check. A moment more, and he fell back 
over the piles of his dead and wounded. 



Close of McPherson's Noble Career. 
General McPherson's Grand Division 
held the left of the line in the fighting; be- 



fore Atlanta, on the day when his death 
occurred. About noon, the General re- 
ceived a report from one of his officers 
that the enemy were approaching upon 
the left — the extreme of his line — in 
heavy force. Arrangements were imme- 
diately set in motion to meet the expected 
attack, but as the blow was delayed, ap- 
prehension for a time was lulled. The 
General had ridden from left to right in 
superintending the advance of his skirmish 
line, and was returning again to the right. 
He was alone, or had with him only one 
of his orderlies, a faithful sergeant. Not 
being aware of the presence of the rebels 
so near him, he came upon a party lying 
hi ambush, who, running from their covert 
between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth 
corps, cried out wildly — 

" There they come ; give 'em hell !" 
A volley accompanied this, and the 
General was shot through the breast, the 
ball entering his right side and lodging in 
his body. He fell from his horse. A 
party of half a dozen rebels ran out from 
the woods, and coming up to where the 
sergeant was already bending over the 
body, they snatched a handful of papers 
from the General's side-pocket, took his 
gold watch, and, calling to the sergeant to 
follow them as a prisoner, were starting 
off. The sergeant feigned to be wounded, 
and was left to care for the dying General. 
Immediately afterward, officers and order- 
lies meeting Colonel Strong, Inspector- 
General, and Captain Buell, both of Gen- 
eral McPherson's staff, accompanied by a 
few orderlies, related the Avhole circum- 
stance. Colonel Strong instantly drew the 
party into line, and ordered a charge. 
This handful of brave and impetuous men, 
regardless of the foemen in front, dashed 
gallantly ahead, and drove off the thieving 
enemy. But the thieving was not all 
done by the enemy. Improving their 
chance, two Federal soldiers came up and 
took the General's pocket-book, containing 
three hundred dollars in money. One of 
them expressing a wish to see that it was 
safely kept to be restored, asked the othei 



254 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



his name, at the same time giving his own. 
The only reply he received was to let him 
see the pocket-book, which the miscreant 
took, extracted the money, and then throw- 
ing the pocket-book down, ran away. 
General McPherson all this time was still 
alive, but unconscious. While Captain 
Buell, with his revolver, kept the enemy 
at bay, Colonel Strong, assisted by the or- 
derlies, lifted the nude body, stripped of 
every article of clothing save a glove and 
a sock, to his own horse, and bore it safely 
from the field. Beneath the light glove 
covering the left hand was a diamond ring, 
which the vandals failed to discover. All 
this occurred in less time than it takes to 
describe it, and the daring and determined 
charge made by Colonel Strong for the 
body of his noble and loved chief formed 
one of the most gallant episodes of the 
war. 

The General's body was conveyed in an 
ambulance to the head-quarters of General 
Sherman at Howard's house, where the 
officers who had heard of the sad evont 
hurriedly assembled, to take a farewell 
view of their honored General. The body 
was still warm. General Sherman, who, 
up to this moment, had appeared unmoved 
by the untoward events of the hour, and 
by all the alarming reports brought to 
him, became deeply moved at the sight of 
the dead body of the General. He rever- 
ently uncovered his head as the corpse 
was brought in, all present doing the same, 
and gathered around the body. The noble 
features were as placid as if the dead were 
reposing in calm sleep. Officers and men, 
and the servants and orderlies of the de- 
parted, mingled their tears over the lifeless 
form of the great and good man who lay 
before them. Thus closed the noble career 
of one of the most brilliant officers in the 
national cause. 



Missing their Booty. 
A narrow escape was that of Major 
Hale's, who was paying the troops sta- 
tioned between Nashville and Murfrees- 



boro'. He was, however, not doomed to 
' fall by the sword,' nor yet by the rifle. 
The Major had been to Lavergne, and 
paid the Union troops there, and was on 
his way to Stockade No. 2, six miles from 
Nashville, hi an ambulance, accompanied 
by a Lieutenant and two or three men. 
Before arriving at the stockade he sent 
the men forward to reconnoitre, feeling 
that such a precaution was necessary. 
Suddenly, half a dozen guerrillas made a 
dash on his ambulance, — the Major seized 
the safe key and took out all the large 
bills, and fled with them to the bushes. 

The Lieutenant took a Henry rifle with 
him, and fled also. The horses attached 
to the ambulance immediately took fright, 
and had gone but a few rods when the 
safe fell out on the ground ; at this the 
marauders dismounted, one of them ex- 
claiming with gusto, " Here is what we 
are after ' " They at once threw down the 
guns, and were about helping themselves 
to the money, when the Lieutenant, who, 
with the paymaster, was secreted in some 
bushes near by, fired and wounded one of 
the men. A comrade immediately went 
to his assistance, when a second shot 
brought the fellow to the ground, a corpse. 
The others, warned by this example, then 
fled without securing any of the coveted 
booty. 

In the dead guerrilla, Major Hale re- 
cognized a man who was at Lavergne that 
very morning, trying to get a pass to Nash- 
ville as a loyal citizen ! 



Anderson and his brave little Company 
leaving Fort Sumter. 

Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty- 
four hours, until the quarters were entirely 
burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, 
the gorge wall seriously injured, the mag- 
azine surrounded by flames, and its door 
closed from the effects of the heat, four 
barrels and three cartridges of powder 
only being available, and no provisions but 
pork remaining, Major Anderson accepted 
the terms of evacuation offered by Gen- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



256 



eral Beauregard, and marched out of the 
fort Sunday afternoon, April 14th, 1861, 
with colors flying and drums beating. 

The terms of evacuation were, that the 
garrison should take all their individual 
and company's property with them ; that 
they should inarch out with their side and 
other arms, with all the honors in their 
own way and in their own time, and that 
they should salute their flag and bear it 
away with them. Beauregard previously 
had asked Major Anderson if he would 
not accept of the terms without the salute. 
Major Anderson replied, " No ! " It was 
late on Saturday night when . the terms 
demanded were finally agreed to ; and then 
Beauregard sent word to Major Anderson 
that he would furnish the Isabel, or any 
other vessel at his command, to convey 
him and his men to any port in the United 
States he should choose. 

On Sunday, therefore, the Isabel came 
down from Charleston, and anchored near 
Fort Sumter, and the little steamer Clinch 
lay alongside the wharf to transport Ma- 
jor Anderson and his men to the larger 
vessel. 

When the baggage had been all put on 
board the Clinch, the soldiers being inside 
the fort under arms, a number were de- 
tailed to salute the United States flag. At 
the fiftieth gun the flag was lowered and 
the men set up a loud cheer. In firing, 
however, this last discharge, a premature 
explosion took place which killed one man 
instantly, seriously wounded another, and 
injured less seriously t,\vo other men. 
These were the only casualties of moment 
during the whole conflict. 

The troops, having now been formed, 
were marched out, while the band played 
merrily " Yankee Doodle " and " Hail to 
the Chief." Remaining on board the Isa- 
bel during the night, in consequence of 
the state of the tide, Major Anderson 
and his men were transferred next morn- 
ing to the Baltic, and during the evening 
of the day after sailed for New York. 



Safe Across the River. 

The escape of a portion of the Massa- 
chusetts Twentieth, at the Ball's Bluff 
struggle, constituted one of the most mem- 
orable of the events connected with that 
awful tragedy. 

After all was finished, and the frag- 
ments of the regiment were brought to- 
gether on the water's edge, it was deter- 
mined to push upward along the shore 
with the uncertain hope of finding some 
means of re-crossing to the Maryland side. 
In the event of meeting the enemy, how- 
ever, it was decided to surrender at once, 
since any contest under the circumstances 
would be a useless sacrifice of life. After 
progressing a mile or so, the officers (Cap- 
tains Bartlett and Tremlett, and Lieuten- 
ants Whittier and Abbott,) discovered a 
mill surrounded by cottages, about which 
numbers of persons were seen moving. 
Here it seemed that they must yield them- 
selves. The officers ordered a halt, and 
directed the men to cast all their arms 
into the river, so that the enemy should 
gain as little as possible by the surrender. 

" Shall Ave be accountable if we throw 
them away?" asked one or two. 

" Guess not, if an officer orders us," 
said others. 

So everything went over. Lieutenant 
Whittier went on in advance with a white 
handkerchief tied on his sword, to be used 
when occasion should demand. The first 
person met was an old negro, who, though 
greatly terrified at encountering so large 
and unexpected an assemblage, contrived 
to reveal that an old boat was stored near 
the mill, which might be bailed out and 
used to convey the fugitives across the 
river. A gift of five dollars insured his 
services, and the boat was in due time 
launched and ready for use. It was small, 
and only a few could pass each trip, but 
they were all transferred in safety. 



Hoax upon Rebel Sharpshooters. 
One morning, some boys of the Fifteenth 
Illinois, Avho were doing duty in the rifle- 



256 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



pits at Vicksburg, manufactured an imita- 
tion soldier and accoutred him in the reg- 
ulation uniform. "When the bogus imita- 
tion was completed, they raised it up slight- 
ly above the work, when whizz — whizz — 
whizz — went the rities of the rebel sharp- 
shooters, and two bullets penetrated the 
spot where the brains ought to have been. 
Dropping him down, they soon exposed the 
figure again, and repeated it several times 
to the great amusement of the soldiers, 
who were delighted to see the rebels so 
completely humbugged into wasting their 
time as well as powder, in firing at a log 
of wood. The hoax was at length discov- 
ered by a lynx-eyed rebel, who, in clear 
clarion tones which were distinctly heard 
in our lines, shouted out, "Oh, you — 
Yankees, no more of your infernal wood- 
en nutmeg and white oak cheese jokes. 
They are played out, and be — to 
you!" 



Generals Grant and Meade in Consultation 
before Richmond. 

When the first terrible climax of the 
battle between Grant and Lee was over, 
Generals Grant and Meade established 
their personal head-quarters on the site of 
Cold Harbor. The great question was: 
Will the assault be renewed? To those 
looking into the face of General Grant for 
an answer to this query, there was no leg- 
ible response. His is a face that tells no 
tales — a face impassive in victory or de- 
feat ; face of stone ; a sphinx face ! Not 
of him can it be said, as Lady Macbeth to 
her lord : " Thy face, my thane, is as a 
book, wherein one may read strange 
things." Rather is it a palimpsest, whose 
obscured characters escape the scrutiny of 
the keenest-eyed searcher. 

Nothing, indeed, could be more striking 
than the contrast presented by these two 
commanders, as they stood in consultation 
on that bare hill, with their faces turned 
Richmond-ward. The small form Avith the 
slight stoop in the shoulders, sunken gray 
eyes, still, reserved demeanor, impassive 



face and chin as of a bull-dog or close-set 
steel trap — that is Grant ; the tall figure, 
with the nervous, emphatic articulation 
and action, and face as of antique parch- 
ment — that is Meade, — and the antipodes 
could not bring together a greater con- 
trast. 

Whether it was that General Grant him- 
self was in doubt as to the path which 
should be pursued, or that he felt the need 
of seeing for himself the actual situation 
— for from the thickness of the woods 
everything was hid as by a veil — is not 
known, but he suddenly mounted his horse, 
and rode rapidly down (an occasional shot 
or shell passing over his head and falling 
around at head-quarters) to the head-quar- 
ters of General Hancock, and afterward 
to those of General Wright ; and when he 
came back it was plain there would be no 
renewal of the battle, for they all rode 
leisurely again to the old camp occupied the 
nisht before. 



Friendship's Strongest Test. 
In the terrible engagement at Fort Don- 
elson, an orderly sergeant, seeing a rebel 
point a rifle at the Captain of his compa- 
ny, threw himself before his beloved of- 
ficer, received the bullet in his breast, 
and fell dead in the arms of him he had 
saved. The brave fellow had been reared 
and generously treated by the Captain's 
father, and had declared, when enlisting, 
that he would be happy to die to save the 
life of his benefactor's son. The affection 
shown by Damon and Pythias did not ex- 
ceed that of this nameless soldier on the 
battlefield of his loved country. 



Four Strapping Confederates Bagged by a 
Union Captain. 

One night in June the rebels about 
Vicksburg came out in force, and by mak- 
ing a long detour got in the rear of three 
companies which had been sent out to pro- 
tect the men at work in digging Union 
rifle-pits. They killed, wounded and cap- 
tured upwards of one hundred of our 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



25T 



soldiers, and got back to their works just 
before daylight, with small loss. Captain 
G — , discovering that they were complete- 
ly surrounded and that there was no chance 
of escape, contrived to climb a tree, and 
there he remained undiscovered until the 
rebels retreated, when he came down and 
started towards our lines. He had gone 
but a short distance when he suddenly 
came upon four rebels armed with rifles, 
who at the same moment saw him. It 
was a critical situation, but the Captain 
was equal to it. Marching directly up to 
them he said : " What the devil are you 
doing here?" The secesh were rather 
taken aback by his authoritative and bold 
manner, and never doubting for a moment 
that his Company were at hand, unhesita- 
tingly laid down their arms upon his order- 
ing them to do so. Soon after, our troops and 
pickets were greatly puzzled by the sight 
of four strapping Confederates marching in 
line in the direction of camp with a Fed- 
eral officer immediately behind, a revolver 
in one hand, his sword in the other. It 
was Captain G — , marching his four pris- 
oners to head-quai-ters. 



ant ? " To which he replied, " Very ccfm- 
fortable ; but I feel as if that stump of a 
leg you cut off was on again and the toes 
were cold." The Captain said it made 
him shudder to hear William speak so 
coolly, and he turned his head so as to look 
in his face. As he gazed at him he thought 
his eyes looked strangely. At that mo- 
ment William sat up, and in a voice which 
never sounded louder or clearer, shouted 
to his men, " Forward — march ! " and fell 
back dead. 



"Forward! March ! "—Last Words of a Fed- 
eral Lieutenant at Newbern. 

A touching scene on the battle-field is 
the following, which occurred at Newbern, 
North Carolina: The Lieutenant was in 
advance of his men in the bayonet charge, 
when a volley from the enemy shattered 
his right leg and the Captain's left. They 
were both removed and laid side by side, 
when William called to the Surgeon and 
said, " Surgeon, you must amputate my 
leg, I cannot stand this." The Captain 
tried to persuade him not to have it re- 
moved, but he was determined, and said it 
must be done. The surgeon then . admin- 
istered chloroform and amputated his leg. 
As soon as the operation was performed, 
William called for a cigar, and smoked it 
very leisurely until the fire was near to his 
lips. The surgeon then came along, and 
inquired, " How do you feel now, Lieuten- 



Prayers for the President by a Dying Sol- 
dier. 

The attack on Lee's Mills, near York- 
town, by the Fourth and Sixth Vermont 
regiments will be long remembered, and 
there was at least one incident connected 
with that attack which proves how much 
stranger is truth than fiction. In the sum- 
mer of 1861, a private was court-martialed 
for sleeping on his post, out near Chain 
Bridge on the Upper Potomac. He was 
convicted, and his sentence was death ; the 
finding was approved of by the General, 
and the day fixed for his execution. He 
was a youth of more than ordinary intelli- 
gence ; he did not beg for pardon, but was 
willing to meet his fate. The time drew 
near ; the stern necessity of war required 
that an example should be made of some 
one ; his was an aggravated case. But 
the facts reached the ears of the Presi- 
dent ; he resolved to save him ; he signed 
a pardon and sent it out ; the day came. 
" Suppose," thought the President, " my 
pardon has not reached him." The tele- 
graph was called into requisition ; an an- 
swer did not come promptly. " Bring up 
my carriage," he ordered. It came, and 
soon the important State papers were 
dropped, and through the hot broiling sun 
and dusty roads he rode to the camp, about 
ten miles, and saw that the soldier was 
saved. He perhaps forgot the incident, 
but the soldier did not. When the Ver- 
mont regiments charged upon the rifle-pits, 
the enemy poured a vdley upon them. 



258 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



The first man who fell, with six bullets in 
his body, was William Scott, of Company 
K. His comrades caught him up, and as 
his life blood ebbed away, he raised to 
heaven, amid the din of war, the cries of 
the dying, and the shouts of the enemy, a 
prayer for the President, and as he died 
he remarked to his comrade that he had 
shown he was no coward and not afraid to 
die. 



Wig's on Bebel Majors. 
Colonel A. K. Johnson, of the Twenty- 
eighth Illinois, shared in the dangers of 
many a bold adventure. On the last day 
of the action at Pittsburg Landing, and 
while the rebels were flying in confusion 
from their works, three of the officers in 
their flight passed very near the place 
where Colonel Johnson was stationed. 
The Colonel instantly started in pursuit. 
Coming within pistol range, he fired at the 
nearest of his flying foes ; this brought the 
rebel officer down on his horse's neck. 
Colonel Johnson believing this to be* a feint 
to avoid a second shot, determined to drag 
him from his saddle by main force. Riding 
up to his side for this purpose, he seized 
him by the hair of his head, but to his 
astonishment and disgust, he only brought 
off the rebel Major's wig. Instantly re- 
covering his headway, he again started for 
the delinquent, but his pistol had done its 
work, and before the Colonel reached him 
his lifeless body had fallen from the sad- 
dle. 



He was Too Big- not to be a Soldier. 
When the present war commenced [says 
a contributor to Harper's Drawer,] I was 
practicing law in the State of Georgia. I 
was a strong Union man, and concluded to 
leave the land of secession and return to 
my native city. I started for Mobile to 
run the blockade ; when I reached Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, I found I would have 
to remain until the next day. That even- 
ing, after tea, there was a large crowd in 
the rotunda of the hotel, and the war was, 



of course, the general theme of conversa- 
tion. " War ! — war to the death ! " was 
nearly the only expression that could be 
heard. Every body was volunteering, and 
the whole city seemed to be in uniform. 
In the midst of the excitement a little boy, 
about five years old, came out of one of the 




lie was too big ?wt to be a soldier 

parlors, dressed in the full uniform of a 
Confederate Captain. He looked so pret- 
ty and smart that I patted him on the head, 
saying, " You're a very little man to be a 
soldier." He turned, measured me with 
his eye, and replied, " You're a very big 
man not to be a soldier ! " The crowd ap- 
preciated it, and I paid for the liquor. 



Military Notation according' to President 
Lincoln. 

Somebody asked President Lincoln how 
many men the rebels had in the field. He 
replied very seriously, " Twelve hundred 
thousand, according to the best authority." 
The interrogator blanched in the face, at 
this reply, and ejaculated despairingly, 
" My God ! " " Yes, Sir, twelve hundred 
thousand — no doubt of it ! You see, all 
of our Generals, when they get whipped, 
say the enemy outnumbers them from 
'three or five to one, and I must believe 
them. We have four hundred thousand 
men in the field, and three times four make 
twelve. Don't you see it ? " The inquisi- 
tive man looked for his hat soon after 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



259 



"seeing it." The President's arithmeti- 
cal logic was altogether too square and 
simple to be withstood, without question- 
ing the veracity of somebody s statements. 
Perhaps Mr. L. P. Walker, or Mr. Judah 
P. Benjamin, the Confederate secretaries 
of war — and so well known as ' gentle- 
men of undoubted veracity ! ' could ex- 
plain the discrepancy in numbers which so 
puzzled the good President. 




Judah P. Benjamin. 



Captain Strong Delivering: his Revolvers. 
While on duty extending the line of 
pickets, three miles north-west of Chain 
Bridge, Captain Strong, of the Second 
Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers, was 
taken prisoner. As he neared the river 
he left three men, while, according to the 
orders of Major Larrabee, he reconnoi- 
tered, preparatory to assigning them posi- 
tions. Having proceeded about a quarter 
of a mile without discovering the slightest 
trace of the enemy, he returned by a 
slightly different route, to avoid the rough 
road he had passed over, when he sud- 
denly was sui'rounded by six rebel pickets 
— two cavalry and four infantry. The 
Captain surrendered ; and while they 
marched him about twenty rods, amused 
themselves by applying the choicest epi- 
thets, and promising themselves the pleas- 
ure of a hanging bee. The Captain won- 
dered they did not disarm him, but still 



did not see any way of escape until one 
of them, noticing his splendid pair of re- 
volvers, said they would relieve him of 
them. " Certainly, gentlemen," said the 
Captain, drawing them from his belt be- 
hind him, and cocking them silently ; " here 
they are ! " As he said these words, he 
fired each, and two men fell dead at his 
feet, while he wheeled and secured cover 
in some thick bushes, eluding the immedi- 
ate pursuit of all but two bullets, one of 
which pierced his canteen, the other, a 
small round pistol ball, passing through 
his left cheek, and coming out of his 
mouth, without injuring a single tooth, but 
slightly cutting his tongue ! 



Carter's Polite Mode of Giving- Information. 
General Carter's expeditionary tour 
into East Tennessee, in the winter of 
1862-3, was attended with many brilliant 
successes as well as noteworthy incidents. 
Among the latter was a little occurrence, 
brief and decisive, at Blountsville and 
Zollicoffer, the former being the county- 
seat of Sullivan County. As the forces, 
or a portion of them, entered that town, 
a lady was observed at her door, throwing 
up her hands, and exclaiming : " The 
Yankees ! the Yankees ! Great God, we 
are lost ! " After stopping at Blounts- 
ville, a few minutes, to feed their horses, 
they proceeded toward Zollicoffer, for- 
merly called Union Station, on the Vir- 
ginia and East Tennessee railroad. At 
this station were encamped about one hun- 
dred and fifty of the Sixty-second North 
Carolina regiment, Confederate soldiers, 
under command of Major McDowell. 
Colonel Carter, being in advance, met 
three citizens, and, after passing the salu- 
tations of the morning, inquired the news 
of the day, when one of them replied that 
there was " a rumor of there being a lot 
of — Yankees within a few miles of 
Blountsville." 

"Ah ! indeed," said Colonel Carter ; 
"who is in command at the station be- 
low?" 



260 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



" Major McDowell, Sir, and he is now j 
coming up to find out the truth of the re- 
port." 

" Well, gentlemen, you are all my pris- 
oners. Guards, take them to the rear," 
said the Colonel. 

In a few minutes Major McDowell rode 
in sight, and four of the Union troops filed 
across the road in his rear, when Colonel 
Carter approached him, saying : 

" Major McDowell, I believe ? " 

" Yes, Sir, that is my name." 

" You are my prisoner, Sir." 

" Pray, Sir, who may you be ? " 

" Colonel Carter, Second Tennessee reg- 
iment, Federal troops ! " 

The Major looked utterly blank and 
down-hearted, but concluded that resist- 
ance was useless, when the Colonel in- 
formed him that he would impart to him, 
with the greatest pleasure in the world, 
the information he was seeking, namely, 
that there was a large Federal force in 
his rear — and, in order to prevent the effu- 
sion of blood, it would be policy to advise 
a surrender of the post. The poor Major 
agreed to this, and accordingly advised 
Lieutenant Inloes to surrender, which he 
did. It was a big day's business both for 
Carter and McDowell, though a little 
more satisfactory to the former than the 
latter. 

Disguised as a Bell-Wether. 
Among the loyal Tennesseeans who, in 
i the times that tried men's souls,' came 
into the Union Camp in Kentucky, was a 
little fellow of about five feet four inches, 
with gray and grizzled beard, dilapidated 
nose, and an eye as keen as a fish-hawk's. 
The manner of his escape from the mili- 
tary clutches of the secessionists was re- 
markable and highly ingenious. He 
headed a large squad of his neighbors, 
and eluded the Confederate pickets, by 
wearing a big sheep's bell on his head, and 
bleating away over the mountains, fol- 
lowed by a herd of men who did likewise. 
By this stratagem he deceived the Con- 



federate scouts, and passed within a few 
feet of them through one of the most im- 
portant of the mountain passes. Old 
Macfarland — the name of the hero of the 
bell — thus Avon the soubriquet of the bell- 
wether, by which name he became known 
all through the camps. He was a rough, 
and good humored old man, with a full 
supply of mother-wit, and was accustomed 
to speak of himself as ' under size and 
over age for a soldier,' which he literally 
was. 



Bishops Meade and Polk in Consultation. 

The Right Rev. Leonidas Polk, Episco- 
pal Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana, 
forsook the gown for the sword at an early 
stage of the rebellion, having been com- 
missioned a Major-General in the army of 
the Confederate States. The appoint- 
ment was urged upon him for a considera- 
ble time before he accepted it, and pre- 
viously to his doing so he paid a visit to 
the venerable Bishop Meade, at his home 
near Winchester, to consult with hhn 
about it. 

Bishop Meade told him truly that he 
already held a commission in a very differ- 
ent army, to which he owed allegiance 
' till life's journey ends.' 

" I know that very well," replied Bish- 
op Polk, " and I do not intend to resign 
it. On the contrary, I shall only prove 
the more faithful to it by doing all that in 
me lies to bring this unhallowed and un- 
natural war to a speedy and happy close. 
We of the Confederate States are the last 
bulwarks of civil and religious liberty ; 
we fight for our hearthstones and our al- 
tars ; above all, we fight for a race that 
has been by Divine Providence entrusted 
to our most sacred keeping. When I ac- 
cept a commission in the Confederate army, 
therefore, I not only perform the duties of 
a good citizen, but contend for the prin- 
ciples which lie at the foundation of our 
social, political, and religious polity." 

The re-ult of this conversation was, 
that the Bishop soon afterwards accepted 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



261 



the appointment which so soon cost him 
his life. 

Polk was a native of Tennessee, and at 
an early age entered the Military Acade- 
my at West Point, where he graduated 
with distinguished honors, — a contempo- 
rary of Jefferson Davis, General Lee, 
General Johnston, and General Magru- 
der, all hirds of the same feather and 
hatched in the same nest. 



Yielding- only when He Lost His Head. 

Of the many instances of personal 
bravery among the privates, in the fight 
at Fort Donelson, probably but a small 
proportion will ever be recorded in the 
printed page. Here is one instance, too 
memorable to allow to pass unnoticed : A 
private in the Ninth Illinois regiment was 
shot through the arm in the early part of 
that sanguinary engagement, which par- 
alyzed the limb for a moment. Leaving 
the ranks, he went back a short distance 
to where the temporary hospital was 
placed, had his arm dressed, and returned 
to take his place. Shortly afterward he 
received a shot in the thigh, which pros- 
trated him. To some of his companions 
who came up to render him assistance, he 
remarked, ' k I guess I can manage to get 
back," and by the assistance of his gun he 
once more limped to the hospital. Feel- 
ing considerably better after his wound 
was dressed, he again sought his regiment 
and took his place in the ranks. While 
in a stooping position as a skirmisher, a 
ball entered the back part of his neck, 
and passed lengthwise through his body. 
Before he fell headlong to the ground, four 
or five other balls struck him in the head, 
literally shattering it to pieces, and scat- 
tering his brains in every direction. The 
name of those whom no extremity of dan- 
ger and blood could daunt, in the war 
against rebellion, was Legion. 



Change of Tune and Position. 
A gentleman whose slave accompanied 
a young Confederate officer on the Wild 



Cat expedition, asked the darkey on his 
return to Nashville, how long the army 
was on the inarch from its encampment to 
the battle-field. 

"About four days," was the reply. 

" Well, how long were they in march- 
ing back ? " 

"About two days, massa." 

" Why, how is that, Joe ? Could the 
men travel any faster back, when they 
were broken down with their four days' 
march and a severe fight, than they trav- 
eled forward after a good rest in camp ?" 

" Oh, I'll tell you what made the differ- 
ence, massa," said Old Joe ; " it was the 
music. They marched toward Wild Cat 
to the tune of Dixie. When they marched 
back, the tune was — ' Fire in the moun- 
tains — run, boys, run ! ' " 



Firing- Twenty-two Rounds with a Ball in 
his Thigh. 

A very remarkable and praisewwt In- 
case is recorded of a young man attached 
to the Thirty-first regiment of Illinois vol- 
unteers, when in battle. He received a 
musket shot Avound in the right thigh, the 
ball passing through the intervening flesh, 
and lodging in the left thigh. The boy 
repaired to the rear and applied to the 
doctor to dress his wound. He however 
was observed to manifest a peculiar reserve 
in the matter, requesting the doctor to keep 
his misfortune a secret from his comrades 
and officers. He then asked the surgeon if 
he would dress his wound at once, in order 
that he might be enabled to return to the 
fight. The doctor told him that he was not 
in a condition to admit of his return, and 
that he had better go to the hospital ; but 
the young brave insisted upon going back, 
offering as an argument in favor of it the 
fact that he had fired twenty-two rounds 
after receiving his wound, and he was con- 
fident he could fire as many more after his 
wound should be dressed. The surgeon 
found he could not prevent his returning 
to the field, so he attended to his wants, 
and the young soldier went off to rejoin his 



262 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



comrades in their struggle, and remained, 
dealing out his ammunition to good account 
until the day was over, as if nothing had 
happened to him. Several days after, he 
returned to the doctor to have his wound 
re-dressed, and continued to pay him daily 
visits in his leisure hours, attending to 
duty in the mean time. 



T/Iontgomery's Ride into the Hampton le- 
gion's Nest. 

West Point, Va., was the scene of one of 
the hloodiest of battles, May seventh, 1862. 
Of the various incidents by which it was 
distinguished, none was more notable than 
the escape of Captain Montgomery, Gen- 
eral Newton's c'uef-of-staff,from the Hamp- 
ton Legion. 

It was about one o'clock in the after- 
noon, when the Captain received an order 
from General Newton to go forward into 
the woods to ascertain whether the seces- 
sionists were falling back, and whether a 
certain Federal regiment held its position 
there. Captain Montgomery went for- 
ward at once as fast as his well tried horse 
could run, and upon entering the woods 
moved cautiously until near a barricade, 
when, hearing voices, he plunged into the 
woods, thinking, of course, it was a Fed- 
eral regiment — the Thirty-first New York 
— but was surprised to find that he ha'd 
gone right into a perfect nest of the Hamp- 
ton Legion, from South Carolina, who 
were lying behind trees, standing behind 
bushes, and kneeling behind stumps like 
bees. 

At once perceiving his mistake, and 
aware that nothing but the most consum- 
mate coolness could save him, Captain M. 
saluted them, and they, taking him for a 
Confederate officer, inquired how far Gen- 
eral Hampton was then. Without hesita- 
tion, and with rather more assurance than 
he ever thought he possessed, Captain M. 
replied, " I left him about ten rods below 
here — and now, boys! the General expects 
you to do your duty to-day ! " He then 
turned his horse slowly to lull suspicion, 



and was congratulating himself on the 
probable success of the ruse, when the 
soldiers seeing the U. S. on his cap, yelled 

out : " That's a Yankee son of a 

, give him — !" On hearing this, 



Montgomery dashed the f.purs into his 
horse, threw his head over the animal's 
neck, and made for the road. A perfect 
volley of Minie balls passed over and 
around the Captain — killing the horse, 
who rolled over, carrying his brave rider 
with him down to the ground. Knowing 
that apparently nothing but time would 
save him, Montgomery lay with his head 
back in a ditch, as he fell, and appeared 
dead for some ten minutes, not moving a 
muscle or a feature, although the soldiers 
were swarming around and threatening to 
" end him." He remained in this way 
until they came up, took away his pistol 
and commenced a general plundering ; as 
they thus fingered away he could not sup- 
press a smile — and then rising, said : 

" Well, men, I yield as a prisoner of 
war." 

'■ You have been shamming," they said, 
"you d Yankee scoundrel, have you?" 

" Certainly, everything is fair in war." 

They then commenced to abuse him as 

a d Yankee this and a d Yankee 

that, when the Captain turned upon them 
and said — 

" I have yielded as a prisoner of Avar : 
I demand to be used as such. We in the 
North know now to treat dogs better than 
you do men ; now lead me to your com- 
manding officer." 

They gave him another volley of abuse, 
at which he merely smiled, and then a 
shell, fired by the Federal artillery to the 
place where the Captain was seen to enter, 
burst like the wind amongst them — shin- 
ning the Captain's nose and scattering the 
Confederates like chaff. Seizing their 
muskets, they pointed two of them at him, 
and said, " come along, you d Yan- 
kee ! " He still continued conversation, 
in order to gain time, when another shell 
t bursting amongst them, they moved on 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



263 



further, calling to their prisoner to " come 
on," the latter responding : " Go ahead, 
lead the way, quick." 

Montgomery now saw a favorable mo- 
ment, and preferring freedom to a South- 
ern prison, made one bound into the woods 
and went back as fast as one leg would 
carry him, to the Federal lines. He was 
very much exhausted, and was carried to 
the rear by some men and placed under a 
tree, when, with suitable stimulants and 
care, he soon gained strength, and, calling 
for an extra horse, was lifted upon his 
back, and returned to the field, where he 
had the pleasure of once more reporting 
himself to General Newton for duty, and 
received the warmest greeting from that 
officer. 



Lieutenant Davis's delicate little Task. 

Lieutenant Frank C. Davis, Company 
D, Third Pennsylvania cavalry, performed 
a gallant exploit when the army of the 
Potomac was at Fair Oak station, in May, 
1862. General McClellan was very anx- 
ious to communicate with the gunboats 
on the James river ; and Lieutenant Da- 
vis, with one sergeant and ten men, was 
detailed for this purpose by Colonel Av- 
erill. 

It was of the utmost importance that 
the communication should be opened. It 
was a known fact that the enemy were 
picketed all through that region, and the 
danger of capture was imminent. It was 
only by shrewd dodging from point to 
point that the Lieutenant consummated his 
errand successfully. The distance was 
some fifteen miles, but the party were 
obliged to make some twenty-five miles 
before reaching their destination. It was 
on a Sunday morning that Lieutenant 
Davis and Sergeant Vandergrift, with the 
command of ten picked men, started in 
the direction of the James river, to reach 
the point opposite City Point. After pro- 
ceeding about four miles, he learned that 
six of the enemy's pickets were posted in 



the woods near by. He avoided these, 
and about one mile further on came across 
a negro, who stated that about three hun- 
dred yards further, on were twelve mounted 
rebel pickets at a house. The Lieutenant 
avoided the latter by making a detour to 
the left, and took a by-road, leading over 
to the Richmond and Charles City road. 
The night before, some seventy-five Con- 
federate cavalry passed up this road, but 
were not hi sight at this time. The white 




Lieut Davis. 



people all along the way were terrified at 
the sight of Union soldiers, as this small 
party was the first they had ever seen. 

A short time previous to the arrival of 
the Union party at this point, a secession 
foraging party had passed down the road ; 
and the Union troops were now between 
two parties. In no wise daunted, they 
proceeded up the road toward Richmond, 
about four miles, through a deep wood, 
and came out at an opening and caught 
sight of the river, some three miles in the 
distance. The Lieutenant halted here 
and hid his men in the woods, then pro- 
ceeded alone to a cross-road, to reach an 
eminence that gave him a view of the 
country around ; while there, one of the 



264 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



Union gunboats threw a shell into a seces- 
sion party some distance above. 

The Lieutenant then returned to his 
command, avoiding the Richmond road, as 
it was full of the enemy, apparently. He 
got a negro, belonging to Mr. Hill Carter, 
to pilot him down to the landing. The 
darkey stated that his master had acted as 
Colonel in the Confederate army at Wil- 
liamsburg, but he got enough of it, and 
had left the service. "While passing 
through this man's plantation the old chap 
himself rode down and demanded, 

"Are you Yankee troops or Confed- 
erate?" 

The Lieutenant answered that they 
were Union troops. Mr. Carter then 
stated that he did not allow Confederate 
troops to come on his plantation, as the 
gunboats shelled them, and would soon 
destroy his house. The Lieutenant as- 
sured him that he should be protected as 
far as they went. The Lieutenant got an 
old boat and two slaves to row him out to 
the Galena, Captain Rodgers ; and when 
about half a mile from the boat he was 
met by a cutter from the ship. The mes- 
sage delivered was verbal, as the under- 
taking was very hazardous, and no writing 
was given. It was a gallant exploit all 
through, and was the first communication 
opened with the army. The party re- 
turned in the night, and reached camp at 
eleven o'clock on Monday morning, where 
a warm and deserved greeting awaited 
them, and the commanding General signi- 
fied his appreciation of the importance of 
the undertaking, and the promptness and 
skill with which it was consummated, by 
an official letter of thanks. "While the 
Lieutenant Avas on board the Galena, a 
squadron of the Confederate cavalry entered 
the small town on the opposite side of the 
James river at City Point, at the mouth 
of the Appomattox river. Two shells 
were thrown amongst them, as additions 
to their number, but they hastily ignored 
the new ' company.' 



Too Brave a Man to Disarm. 
One of the earliest acts in the great 
drama of the rebellion was the capture of 
the United States arsenal at Apalachicola, 
at the mouth of the Chattahoochee river, 
by the troops of the State of Florida. In 
consequence of the weakness of the com- 
mand, an entrance was gained. Mr. Powell, 
who had been in the service of the United 
States some twenty years, and had com- 
mand of the place, acted in a gallant man- 
ner. After the troops had entered, he 
faced the line and thus addressed them : 

" Officers and Soldiers : Five min- 
utes ago I was the commander of this 
arsenal ; but, in consequence of the weak- 
ness of my command, I am obliged to sur- 
render — an act which I have hitherto 
never had to do during my whole, military 
career. If I had had a force equal to, or 
even half the strength of your own, I'll 

be if you would have entered that 

gate until you walked over my dead body. 
You see that I have but three men. These 
are laborers, and can not contend against 
you. I now consider myself a prisoner of 
war. Take my sword, Captain Jones ! " 

Captain Jones received Commander 
PoAvell's sword, and then returned it to 
him, addressing him as follows : 

" My dear sir ! take your sword ! You 
are too brave a man to disarm ! " 

The whole command then gave three 
cheers for the gallant Powell. 

Promises of Bravery in Advance. 
Among the secession flags -captured by 
the Federals in their rout of the Confeder- 
ates at Philippi, "Western Virginia, Avas a 
very beautiful silk bamier which had been 
presented to a brave secession Captain, 
only the evening before the rout, by some 
fair secession ladies. On receiving the 
flag, the captain had made a gallant speech, 
assuring the bewitching donors that it 
should lead him and his company ever to 
victory or death ; that where the battle 
was thickest there it should wave ; that it 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



2(35 



should never trail dishonored in the mire 
— that rather would he spill his life's 
blood in its defence, and, dying, wrap his 
body in its gorgeous and defiant folds. 
But, alas ! when that unmannerly cannon 
ball from the Cleveland artillery on the 
hill went crashing through the camp, this 
heroic Captain forgot all about the fiag be 
had received with such exquisite gallantry 
the night before, and led the column — out 
of danger as fast as their legs could carry 

them. 

♦ 

" Go on with the Fight— Don't Stop for Me." 
In the fight at Great Bethel, Orderly 
Sergeant Goodfellow, of Colonel Allen's 
regiment, was mortally wounded in the 
breast. He handed his musket to a com- 
rade, and several flocked around him. 
" Oh," said he, " I guess I've got to go," 
and he placed his hand upon the wound. 
" Oh, don't mind me, boys," he continued, 
" go on with the fight ; don't stop for me ! " 
and pressing away those who attempted to 
support him, he sank down upon the 
ground. Just at that instant his Colonel 
passed, and looking up to him he gasped, 
" Good bye, Colonel ! " Colonel Allen 
turned ghastly white as he observed it. 
He bit his lips, too much moved to speak, 
and rushed on to avenge his death. 



" Oh, for Four Regiments ! " 
It is a fact acknowledged even by the 
rebel commanders themselves, that at the 
battle of Bull Run, the fortunes of the 
day were for a time evidently against 
them. Between two and three o'clock 
large numbers of men were leaving the 
field, some of them wounded, others ex- 
hausted by the long struggle ; some of the 
best Confederate officers had been slain, 
and the flower of their army lay strewn 
upon the field. The result of that hour 
hung trembling in the balance. Among 
other high officers wounded was Colonel 
Hampton ; but there was at hand the 
General whose reputation as a commander 
was in the die, on this battle, — Gen- 
17 



era] Beauregard, — who promptly led the 
Hampton Legion into battle. Just at this 
critical moment, General Johnston was 
heard to exclaim in agonizing energy to 
General Cock, " Oh, for four Regiments ! " 
His wish was answered, for in the distance 
the rebel re-enforcements appeared. The 
tide of battle turned in their favor by the 
arrival of General Kirby Smith, from 
Winchester, with four thousand men of 
General Johnston's division. General 
Smith heard, while on the Manassas rail- 
road cars, the roar of battle. He stopped 
the train and hurried his troops across the 
fields, to the point just where he was most 
needed. They were at first supposed by 
the rebels to be Federal troops, their ar- 
rival at that point of the field being so en- 
tirely unexpected. Cheer after cheer 
went up from the Confederate lines, and 
by them the battle was won. 



Ben. Phillips, the Hoary Old Bloodhound. 

An old Virginia trapper of considerable 
notoriety ' in his way,' Ben. Phillips by 
name, and for many years a resident of 
Hampton, was coming up the road near 
that town one afternoon, armed with a 
double-barreled gun. Seeing a buggy 
some distance ahead of him, he slipped 
into the woods and waited its approach. 
He soon discovered two Federal officers 
seated in a buggy, and saw from their dis- 
tressed appearance that they were in no 
condition to do him much damage. They 
hailed him as they passed, asking who he 
was, to which he responded in a way to 
suit his own purpose. As soon as they 
passed on, the old man let fly both barrels 
of his gun in rapid succession into the 
back of the buggy. A death-yell was 
heard, and one of the officers leaped out 
and took to the woods. The other fell 
forward, and the buggy passed on. Ben- 
had previously killed, at different times, 
nine of the Federal scouts, — affording a 
good specimen of Virginia Chivalry ; a 
hoary old bloodhound- 



266 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Western Regiments on a Charge at Fort 
Donelson. 

At the battle of Fort Donelson, Gener- 
al Wallace ordered the Eighth Missouri 
and Eleventh Indiana to retake the hill 
from which the first brigade had been 
driven in the morning. Colonel Smith, 
commanding the second brigade, rode up, 
and in a clear, loud, ringing voice, gave 
the word of command. Colonel McGin- 
nis, as calm and self-possessed as if on 
dress parade, repeated the order, and in 
double-quick the two regiments, the Mis- 
souri in the lead, moved forward. The 
hill proposed to be stormed was about a 
mile to the right of the Union position 
when the order was given. As they went 
forward they met bands of straggling 
soldiers of the various regiments that had 
been engaged in the morning, and who 
would shout out — 

" Boys, you'll catch hell there on the 
hill ! " " We were cut to pieces there this 
morning ! " " There are seven regiments 
there all armed ! " etc., etc. 

But the two regiments moved steadily 
onward, notwithstanding the foreboding 
fears so freely and earnestly expressed by 
those who were just freed from the field 
of strife — and not a soldier of the little 
brigade seemed to hesitate or falter in the 
least. 

" No man was thero dismayed — 
Take, the hill .' " Wallace said. 

The ravine was reached, the two regi- 
ments in 'line, the Missouri in the lead, 
and up the hill they start. When about 
half way up they were met by a most 
fearful volley of musketry, while a sheet 
of flame seemed to bm-st from every bush 
and tree and log, and the leaden messen- 
gers of death sped in every direction. 
Our men saved their lives by their faith- 
ful practice of the Zouave drill — throwing 
themselves flat on their faces when the 
rebels poured in their hottest volleys — 
lAading while on their backs, and never, 
indeed, upon their feet except when upon 
the advance after receiving the enemy's 



fire, or in returning fire. This was a new 
thing to the rebels, and in which they 
were not prepared to imitate. Seeing 
that our brave Zouaves were comparative- 
ly unharmed by their fiercest volleys, they 
began to give ground, and were evidently 
panic-stricken. 

" On, men, on ! " cried Colonel Smith. 
" Forward, Zouaves !" repeated McGinnis. 

With a cheer which made the old hills 
ring again, and which struck terror to the 
hearts of the retreating rebels, the two 
regiments rushed up the hill, driving the 
enemy straight into their entrenchments. 
So soon as they were farily behind their 
fortifications the rebels opened upon the 
Eighth and Eleventh with grape shot and 
shell. Here several of the Eleventh were 
killed while lying flat upon their faces. 
One of the rebel gunners, a Hoosier from 
Evansville, and who knew the Eleventh 
Indiana when they approached, cried out, 
<• Here comes those — Zouaves — fire 
low, boys, if you wish to do any good ! " 
They accordingly depressed their guns, 
and began to throw shells right into our 
ranks. Night intervening, our men were 
drawn back a few hundred feet under the 
brow of the hill, where they slept with 
their arms in their hands, ardently wishing 
for the morning, when, under the protec- 
tion of our guns, which General Wallace 
ordered up, they expected to storm the 
fortifications. 

Alas ! for the poor wounded soldier on 
the battle-field ! Every possible aid was 
given them, yet all night long their groans 
could be heard, and their cries for water 
and for help. Many of the Eleventh 
wounded laj" out in the open field exposed 
twenty-four hours to the cold and the ten- 
der mercies of the rebels, who stripped* 
many of them nearly naked. 



Whiz-z-z and Whist. 
One of the most daring feats performed 
in connection with the Island No. 10 strug- 
gle, was the planting of a battery by the 
| boys of the Forty-third Indiana, at Bud- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



267 



die's Point, on the Missouri shore — in the 
very eyes and teeth of the rebels. Until 
they opened fire, the rebels did not appear 
to be aware, even, of their new position. 
Their gunboats soon fired up, however, to 
attack them, as the new position would cut 
them off from an important military depot, 
unless the Federals were driven away. 
Their attack by five heavy gunboats was ter- 
rific. So thick and fast they sent their shot 
and shell that the Union artillery were at 
times for fifteen or twenty minutes unable to 
show a head above the parapet to load or 
fire. The Federal guns, however, were 
well maimed, and though only two against 
twenty, the enemy finally hauled off. On- 
ly one man — an artillery man — was killed 
on our side. The men in the pits took 
the thing very coolly. In the intervals 
between the discharges, more or less of 
them would rise up to look around; but 
when the smoke on one of the boats told 
them that shot or shell was coming, the 
cry was '* Down ! " and every head disap- 
peared. Notwithstanding the hissing, 
screaming and whistling of the shot, round 
and conical, and the bursting of shells 
around and over them, they indulged in 
jests, and many of them were found deep- 
ly engrossed in games of cards. The 
remnants of shells fell into several of the 
pits. One pit was knocked in by a thirty- 
two pound shot, and buried the men in it 
a foot deep in sand. They kicked out, 

and laughingly dug their pit anew. 

♦ 

Capital Ruse to Save Spring-field. 

Previous to the attack on Springfield 
by Major Zagonyi, Major White of the 
Prairie Scouts was captured by the enemy, 
but was recaptured on the same night by 
a detachment of Home Guards, and pro- 
ceeded to Springfield, then held by only 
eleven men. Of tb^ese he at once assumed 
command. 

While holding the town with this scant 
force, the rebels sent in a flag of truce, 
asking permission to bury their dead. 
Nine of his men were on picket duty — 
his whole garrison force consisted of him- 



self and two others. At first he scarcely 
knew what to do, for had the enemy sup- 
posed there were no greater force in town 
they would have retaken it, and perhaps 
massacred every man. In this strait he 
resorted to a ruse, which met with good 
success. Getting the bearer of the fla<x 




Major Zagonyi. 

into the hospital, under the pretense that 
it would be unsafe were any of his men 
to see him, he told him that General Si- 
gel was in command of the town, and it 
would be necessary to send the request to 
him. He then took one of his men out- 
side, gave him proper instructions, and 
then re-entered and engaged the confeder- 
ate in conversation. In an hour or so, 
the man returned, and expressing General 
Sigel's regrets that, being mounted, he 
could not return a written answer to the 
request, gave the desired permission to 
bury the dead. The flag soon left, firm 
in the belief that an immense National 
force were encamped on the south and 
east of the town. 



Albert, the Drummer Boy of the Massachu- 
setts Twenty-third. 

Albert Munson, of Marblehead, was a 
little hero, fifteen years of age, who could 
merrily play Yankee Doodle and the Star 
Spangled Banner, and, struck by his bold 
and inspiring maimer, Colonel Kurtz ap- 
pointed him as a drummer in one of the 
companies of the Massachusetts Twenty- 



268 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLI 



third. His father was attached to .the 
same regiment. 

They sailed in the Burnside expedition ; 
and at the battle of Roanoke Island, after 
a weary march through slime and water, 
they came in sight of the enemy's battery. 
"Who will go and take it?" asked the 
General commanding. " The Massachu- 
setts Twenty-third," was the quick reply. 
" Forward, then, double-quick ! " and in 
the teeth of a galling fire they rushed to 
their death as it had been to their bridal. 
The father fell wounded by his side, but 
the son heeded him not ; his whole soul 
had lost itself in the work before him. 
" Look at that child ! " said one officer to 
another ; " no wonder we conquer when 
boys fight so." 

" Didn't I say they should run to the 
old times ? " and seizing a disabled revolv- 
er for a drum-stick, he struck up, in si 
wondrously defiant way, our impudent 
old strain of Yankee Doodle. A flying 
rebel heard it, and looking back, took sure 
aim at Albert. A man near the boy saw 
the deadly aim, but tried to pull Alberi 
down, but he stood his ground, and the 
ball did not fail to do its fatal work. His 
knightly Colonel's arms held the brave 
boy, and all bent eagerly to hear his last 
words ; — " Which beat — quick, tell me ? " 
Tears ran down the blackened faces, and 
one, in a voice husky with sobs, said, " We, 
Albert, the field is ours." The ears death 
had already deadened caught no sound, 
and his slight hand fluttered impatiently 
as again he gasped, " What ? tell quick ! " 
" We beat 'em intirely, me boy," said a 
big Irish sergeant, nvho was crying like a 
child. Albert heard then, and his voice 
was as strong as ever as he answered, 
" Why don't you go after 'em ? Don't 
mind me, I'll catch up — I'm a little cold, 
but running will warm me." He never 
spoke again. 



Island Volunteers, accompanied her hus- 
band to the war, and he was severely 
wounded at Newbern. Mrs. Brownell 
was with the Third Rhode Island regi- 
ment at the battle of Bull Run, having 
been adopted as the ' child of the regi- 
ment ' by General Burnside, then Colonel. 
She was on the field at the battle of Roa- 
noke Island, in spite of the many efforts 
to keep her out of the way of danger. At 




Mrs. Brownell, the Heroine of Newbern. 
Mrs. Brownell, wife of Orderly-Ser- 
geant R. S. Brownell, of the Fifth Rhode 



Mrs. Brownell. 



the battle of Newbern she exhibited that 
presence of mind and bravery which 
proved her a woman of the most heroic 
character. She was on the field during 
the whole of the engagement, attending to 
the wounded, and giving encouragement 
by her fortitude and presence to the sol- 
diers. When the standard-bearer of the 
Sixth regiment fell, she seized the banner, 
and, carrying it across the field, received a 
flesh-wound. She brought with her to the 
North a Secessia rifle, which she found 
after the battle — a prize of no little value. 



Appointment of Mrs. Reynolds as Major in 
the Army. 
Governor Yates, of Illinois, paid a rath- 
er unusual but well-merited compliment 
to Mrs. Reynolds, wife of Lieutenant Rey- 
nolds, of Company A, Seventeenth Illinois 
regiment, and a resident of that city. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



269 



Mrs. Reynolds accompanied her husband 
through the greater part of the campaign 
through which the Seventeenth passed, 
sharing with him the dangers and priva- 
tions of a soldier's life. She was present 
at the battle of Pittsburg Landing, and 
like a ministering angel attended to the 
wants of as many of the wounded and 
dying soldiers as she could, thus winning 
the gratitude and esteem of the brave fel- 
lows by whom she was surrounded. Gov- 
ernor Yates, hearing of her heroic and 
praiseworthy conduct, presented her with 
a commission as Major in the army, the 
document conferring the well-merited hon- 
or being made out with all due formality, 
and having attached the great seal of the 
State. Probably no lady in America ever 
before had such a distinguished military 
honor conferred upon her. 



Safeguard for Body and Soul. 
Charlie Merrill, a young Massachusetts 
soldier, 'had an ounce ball pass through 
his head during the battle of Fredericks- 
burg. It entered near his right eye and 
was extracted behind his left ear. Anoth- 
er ball would have entered a vital part of 
his body had it not been arrested by a Tes- 
tament, in which it lodged. When this safe- 
guard was shown the President, he sent 
to the hospital a handsome pocket Bible, 
in which, as an evidence of his warm re- 
gard, he caused to be inscribed : " Charles 
W. Merrill, Co. A., 19 th Massachusetts, 
from A. Lincoln." 



One of the Most Brilliant Achievements 
of the War. 

An incident occurred to the rebel forces 
stationed in the shore batteries at Island 
No. 10, which illustrates how easily, fortu- 
itously, or perhaps it ought rather in this 
case to be said providentially, an army 
may be caught in a position from which it 
is impossible to esoape. About five thou- 
sand men were stationed in and about the 
shore batteries. On Sunday night, as 
soon as they saw the Pittsburg run the 



blockade in safety, and knowing that the 
transports to convey General Pope's forces 
across the Mississippi had been got through 
the slough, and that very soon a strong 
force would be in their rear, they aban- 
doned their camp and all its contents on 
Monday afternoon, and left for Tipton- 
ville, only five niiles distant by land, but 
by the river fifteen miles below New Ma- 
drid, hoping thence to escape by their 
transports. But on reaching the little 
town, Avhat was their surprise to find the 
gunboats Carondelet and Pittsburg moored 
to the shore. On the left was a swamp 
through which runs the outlet of Reelfoot 
Lake, in front were the gunboats, on the 
right was the Mississippi, and they found, 
when too late, General Paine, with a 
strong force, posted in their rear. The 
rebels were caught in a trap from which 
there was no possible escape. A blood- 
less victory, with two thousand prisoners, 
was the immediate result. Great num- 
bers fled to the swamps, but were soon 
glad to surrender, raising the whole num- 
ber of prisoners taken there, at the Island, 
and other places, to near five thousand 
men. Thus, what the rebels acknowl- 
edged to be the key to the Mississippi, a 
position strong by nature, and fortified 
with consummate skill and great expense, 
and defended by five thousand men and 
one hundred cannon in Jtattery, most of 
them very heavy, and numbers of them 
rifled, was taken, and the whole army cap- 
tured by General Pope and Commodore 
Foote, without the loss of a single man. 
History will record it as, taken all in all, 
one of the most wonderful and brilliant 
achievements of the war. 



Sources of Merriment in Camp. 

The funniest animal in the world is a 
little negro when he " lets himself out," 
and their antics are a continual source of 
merriment in camp — a monkey is nowhere 
in comparison. Nor are they lacking in 
shrewdness, and that readiness in repartee 



270 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE EEBELLION. 



which characterizes the native-born Irish- 
man. 

A Chaplain in General Grant's army — 
when the latter was falling back from Ox- 
ford, Mississippi, after Van Dorn's move- 
ment on Holly Springs — gives an account of 
the motions of two little yellow fellows who 
had caught an old mule, and were follow- 
ing the rear of a regiment in advance. 
The older was probably ten years of age, 
and the other — his brother — a year 
younger. 

Passing through a strip of woods, the 
younger, who rode behind, holding to his 
brother with both hands, had his cap 
knocked off by the protruding limb of a 
tree, and he began to cry. " Riding up," 
says the Chaplain, " I told him not to cry, 
and asked a soldier to hand him his cap, 
which was done cheerfully. The little 
fellow was " all right " in a moment, and 
politely thanked us. ' Now,' says I, ' you 
must take better care, and not lose your 
cap again. When you are traveling under 
trees, hold on to your brother with one 
hand and your cap with the other." 

The older one turned around, and with 
a very dignified and grateful air said, 
" Thanky, Sar ; thanky, Sar. Dat's jist 
it, Sar. Dat's what I tell 'im, Sar. But 
ye see, Sar, he never trabble none before, 
Sar ! " 

The Chaplain concluded that, under 
this combined advice, the little fellow long 
since became an experienced " trabbler." 



Black Squalls. 
The Lieutenant-Colonel and Major of 

the Ohio Regiment of Infantry, had 

each a ' contraband ' as servant. ' Jim ' 
belonged to the Lieutenant- Colonel, and 
' Harvey ' to the Major. One day the 
Lie utenant- Colonel, hearing a disturbance 
in the rear of his tent, went out and found 
Jim and Harvey engaged in the amicable 
occupation of throwing boulders at each 
others' heads. After quelling the dis- 
order the Lieutenant- Colonel demanded 
an explanation of the row. Jim replied 



in his justification as follows : That boy 
Harvey is de most ungratefulest nigger I 
ever saw. He had'nt no good place, and 
I brought him up to the Major, and intro- 
duced him to de Major, and spoke well of 
him to de Major, and got him a good 
place wid de Major, and now he's puttin' 
on more airs dan de Major." 



Failed to Hold his Position : General Palmer 
to General Pope. 

As the Army of the Mississippi, under 
General Halleck, was approaching Cor- 
inth, General Pope, commanding the left 
wing, threw out a force toward Farming- 
ton, and General Palmer was ordered to 
occupy the ground with his brigade, the 
rest of the force returning to camp. The 
next morning the enemy, under Generals 
Price and Van Dorn, made an advance in 
force, and General Pope sent an orderly 
to inquire if Palmer could hold his posi- 
tion. 

" Tell General Pope that I can hold my 
position against the world, the flesh, and 
the devil ! " 




Gen. Pope. 

Before long, however, the rebels — foi 
they were many thousand strong — com- 
pelled the brigade to* fall back upon the 
reinforcements which were ordered up. 

The affair being over, General Palmer 
rode to the head-quarters to report, and his 






GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



271 



appearance was the signal for a hearty 
laugh from the officers present. 

"How is it, Palmer?" said General 
Pope, as he entered the tent. 

" Well, General," said the gallant Pal- 
mer, " I can stand the world, but the devil 
was too much for me ! " 



Hoosier Straightforwardness. 
An Indiana Chaplain at one of the 
camps near Corinth selected, for singing, 
the hymn commencing — 

'Show pity, Lord, Oh, Lord, forgive; 
Let a repentant rebel live.' 

He had scarcely uttered the last word 
of this line, when a private soldier in his 
congregation — an old man and a zealous 
Christian — earnestly cried out, " No, Lord, 
unless they lay down their arms." While 
the clergyman was offering the concluding 
prayer, a rifle shot was heard as if from 
our pickets a mile beyond. The report 
of the gim was immediately followed by 
an exclamation from the same venerable 
Hoosier — " Lord, if that's a Union shot, 
send the bullet straight ; an' if it ain't, hit 
a tree with it, Lord ! " 



Strong 1 Professional Illustration. 
The New York One-hundred and Sev- 
enth supported Cotheren's battery, at the 
battle of Antietam. During the hottest 
part of the fight, the enemy massed them- 
selves opposite our front, for an assault on 
Cotheren's position. The battery was 
short of ammunition, and so reserved their 
fire, while throughout the whole field 
there came a lull in the tumult. The 
rebels advanced in a solid mass, with a 
precision of movement perfectly beautiful. 
It was a moment which tried the nerves of 
the bravest. In the mean time one of the 
lads — a noted sporting character from 
Elmira — becoming quite interested in the 
affair, had climbed a rock where he could 
view the whole scene. He occupied the 
place unmindful of the bullets which were 
buzzing like bees all around. The rebels 
came on until the boys could see their 



faces and then Cotheren poured the can- 
ister into them. The advancing column 
was literally torn to pieces by the fire. 
At this, the lad on the rock became fran- 
tic hi his demonstrations of delight, and 
as one of the battery sections sent a 
shrapnel which mowed down a long row 
of Johnnies, he swung his cap, and, shout- 
ing so that the flying rebs could have 
heard him, sung out, Bull-e-e-e-e ! Set 
'em up on the other alley ! " 



Encounter of Picket Wits. 

At times, the rebel and Union pickets 
were quite communicative, as the follow- 
ing dialogue which occurred at Yorktown 
between Joe D., of Leeds, AVisconsin, and 
one of the graybacks, when within ten 
rods of each other, will show. The par- 
ties were separated by a low, deep swale, 
covered with water and thick brush, com- 
pletely concealing the parties. Joe hear- 
ing a noise on the other side, yelled out in 
a loud voice, 

Hallo, Mike ! Have you got any to- 
bacco ? 

Secesh — with a strong Hibernian accent 
— Yes, be jabers, and whiskey too. 

Joe — Come ov^r, we'll have a quiet 
smoke ! 

Secesh — I'll meet you half way. 

Joe agreed to do so, and advanced some 
distance through brush and water, and 
then stopped. 

Secesh — Where the divil are ye ? Are 
ye comin' ? 

Joe — I'm half way now. Can't go any 
further without swimming. 

Secesh — Hav'nt ye a boat ? 

Joe — No, I have not. 

Secesh — Where's yer gunboat ? 

Joe — Down taking care of the Merri- 
mac. 

Secesh — Then come over in that big 
balloon. 

[Much laughter along the rebel lines.] 

Joe — Have you a boat ? 

Secesh — I have, sure, and I'm coming 
over. 



272 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Joe then inquires the news of the day, 
and if his companion had a Norfolk Day 
Booh 

Secesh replied — I have. Have you got 
a Tribune? 

Joe answered that he had not. 

Secesh — Where is General Buell ? 

Joe — Buell's all right, and surrounds 
Beauregard. 

Secesh — Where's General Prentiss ? 
Where's Saxton? 

Joe — Where's Johnston ? 

[Another rebel laugh.] 

Joe — How about Island No. 10 ? 

Secesh — That's evacuated. 

Joe — How is it that you left one hun- 
dred guns and six thousand prisoners ? 




General Saxton. 

Secesh — Sure, they (the prisoners) were 
not much account. 

Joe — How about Fort Pulaski ? 

Secesh — That be blowed ! It was only 
a rebel sand bank. But tell me, what 
made ye leave Bull Run ? 

Dick B. (Union) — We had marching 
orders ! 

This caused great laughter among the 
rebels, some exclaiming, " Bully Boy ! " 

Dick B.— Where's Zollicoffer ? 

Secesh — Gone up the spout. 

Joe — Why don't you come over ? 

Secesh — Can't get through the brush ! 

At this moment a rebel bullet came 



wliizzing over by our men, and Joe angrily 
inquired who fired. 

Secesh — Some fool over this way. 

An order was then issued to cease 
firing. 

Joe — Ain't you coming? What regi- 
ment do you belong to ? 

Secesh — Eighteenth Florida. What 
regiment do you ? 

Joe — Berdan's First regiment Sharp- 
shooters. 

Some of his comrades here warned him 
to look out. 

Secesli — Would you shoot a fellow ? 

Joe — No ! but I will stack arms and 
smoke with you, if you will come over. 

Here a rebel officer ordered him back, 
and the secessionist refused to communi- 
cate further. 



"Glorious to Die for One's Country." 
In the sanguinary battle of Antietam 
an officer of a Massachusetts regiment 
was mortally wounded. He had passed 
unhurt through the thickest of the fight. 
At one time, when his regiment had cap- 
tured a flag from the enemy, he seized it, 
and, waving it proudly in the air, galloped 
fearlessly up and down the lines, his men 
cheering most lustily, and the bullets fall- 
ing about him like hail. Later in the day, 
and when in a comparatively sheltered 
position, a random shot struck him, from 
the effects of which he died two days 
afterward. 

As he lay near to death, and conscious 
of his approaching end, the musicians of 
the regiment happened to pass by. He 
called to them with a cheerful voice, and 
asked them to play the Star Spangled 
Banner. They played the grand old tune, 
and as he listened, the countenance of the 
dying soldier beamed with joy. He heard 
no more music until he heard that of 
heaven. He inquired the result of the 
battle, and, when told it was a victory, 
triumphantly exclaimed, " Oh ! it is glori- 
ous to die for one's country at such a time 
as this ! " Then, speaking in the most 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



273 



affecting manner to his Chaplain, who was 
with him to the last moment, he said, 
" Tell my mother I love her. Tell her 
I feel I have a God and Father in heaven. 
Tell her I trust fully in my Lord Jesus 
Christ." These were the last words he 
uttered. 



Courtesies of Picket Life. 
When our army was in the Chickahom- 
iny swamps, before Richmond, just at the 
breakfast hour, when the aroma of good 



and he broke out : " Well, I like the 
looks of things here. I relieve I won't so 
back." And he didn't. 



Raw Recruits on Camp-Guard. 
It happens to the new recruit that, 
sooner or later, he has to be posted on 
camp guard for the "first time, and this was 
the lot of our "intelligent" friend who 
figures below. Rebel cavalry was known 
to be in the vicinity of the Federals, and 
as there were expectations of an attack, 




Courtesies of Picket Life. 



coffee is doubly delicious, our pickets were 
accosted by a voice from the rebel side, 
only a few rods distant, with — " Hallo, 
there ! " " Hallo yourself ! " " What you 
doing over there ? " " Making some coffee. 
Have some?" "Will you let me come 
over ? " " Yes." " Will you let me come 
back?" "Yes." " Honor bright ? " "Yes." 
And over he came. His coffee drank, 
he smacked his lips, and said : " Well, 
that's very nice. We don't get any of 
that on our side;" then casting his eyes 
around, scrutinizing the neat appearance 
of our men, he continued : "Well, you look 
very comfortable. All of you live so?" 
" Yes." A few moments more of silence, 



the new recruit placed on guard was in- 
structed, if there was any firing on the 
picket line, to report it instantly. In the 
course of the evening he observed a fire 
in the direction of the pickets, which the 
"reserve" had built for their personal 
comfort. Supposing this to be the very 
thing he was cautioned about, ' Raw ' drop-, 
ped his gun and started through camp yel- 
ling at the top of his voicej " Fire on the 
pickets ! fire on the pickets ! " Thus sum- 
moned, every man was in line in a twink- 
ling, breathlessly awaiting the expected 
foe. But when the cause of alarm was 
explained, the yells and shouts that greeted 
our new soldier can only be understood by 



274 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



those who have heard a battalion of sol- 
diers cheer. 



Jeff. Davis's Trap for Grant. 
On the 6th of November, 1863, one of 
the rebel journals in Richmond said that 
" whether General Grant intends to ad- 
vance or is preparing to retreat from 
Chattanooga, he must be defeated either 
on the south side of the Tennessee or on 
his retreat to Nashville." 

General Grant had, however, no inten- 
tion of retreating. 

About this time the rebel President paid 
a visit to Bragg's army, to ascertain the 
true condition of affairs, and it is reported 
that the following scene occurred on the 
summit of Lookout Mountain : 

Looking down one bright day from the 
lofty eminence commanding a clear .view 
into four States, and a very distant view 
into a fifth, Davis saw Grant's army almost 
beneath his feet ; across the valley, work- 
ing like beavers on their fortifications : 

" I have them now," said he, " in just 
the trap I set for them." 

To which Lieutenant- General Pember- 
ton, who was sitting on horseback beside 
him, replied: 

"Mr. Davis, you are Commander-in- 
Chief, and you are here. You think the 
enemy are in a trap, and can be captured 
by vigorous assault* I have been blamed 
for not having ordered a general attack 
on the enemy when they were drawing 
around me their lines of circumvallation 
at Vicksburg. Do you now order an at- 
tack on those troops down there below us, 
and I will set you my life that not one 

— man of the attacking column 

will ever come back across that valley, 
except as a prisoner." 



Sherman's Courage before the Enemy. 

The advance of General Grant's army 
before Chattanooga commenced Nov. 23d, 
1863. It involved one of the hardest 
fought and most protracted struggles of 
the war, and one which crowned the Union 



arms with undying renown. General 
Howard's corps was selected by Grant to 
open communications by the east side of 
the Tennessee river with General Sher- 
man. Learning that General Sherman's 
position was not over two miles and a half 
distant, General Howard sent one of his 
staff on the dangerous mission of finding 
General Sherman alone. The skirmishers 
were thrown forward until the line became 
dangerously extended, and none of Gen- 
eral Sherman's troops were found. The 
staff officer departed on his mission of 
danger ; but by keeping close to the river 
succeeded in crossing and re-crossing the 
gap without being captured. General 
Howard, on receivmg his report, ordered 
the division to push further to the left, 
and started out to seek General Sherman. 
They soon met. Sherman, on the north 
end of the bridge, dressed loosely, with a 
worn overcoat thrown around him, was 
directing the completion of the bridge : 
and, as soon as the boat was put in, sprang 
over and shook the hand of the princely 
Howard. It was exactly at noon. 

Li about an hour after the meeting of 
Howard and Sherman, the latter gave his 
orders to prepare for an attack. The 
drizzly rain began to fall, and the object 
of the assault was soon hid from view. 
General Sherman stood on a prominent hill 
to the left of the pontoon bridge, and hav- 
ing succeeded, with the aid of two order- 
lies, and in despite of the ram, in lighting 
a cigar, stood puffing away at one end, 
chewing at the other, and observing all 
that could be seen in the country before 
him. Around him were gathered at this 
time Generals Frank Blair, Morgan L. 
Smith, Ewing, John W. Corse, and How- 
ard. The troops of the several divisions 
were encamped just in front of him, while 
on the left and rear Davis's artillery was 
thundering over the bridge. 

In a very quiet tone Sherman gave his 
orders to form for the assault, remarking 
that the enemy was reported heavy on his 
front. The formation as ordered, was 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



275 



echelon on the left, General Morgan L. 
Smiths division being the left, John E. 
Smith the centre, and Ewing the right. 
The left was to keep well toward the 
Chicamauga Creek, Sherman remarking: 

" I want you to keep up the formation, 
four hundred yards distance, until you get 
to the foot of the hill." 

" And shall we keep it after that ? " 
asked Ewing. 

" You may go up the hill," answered 
Sherman, " if you like, and can." 

General Davis having got into position, 
and the troops having been arranged as 
ordered, General Sherman gave the orders 
to move to the assault. They were couch- 
ed in calm, laconic, unpretentious terms, 
as follows : 

" I see Davis is up. / guess you may 
as well go on, and take the hill." 

In a few moments after, the three col- 
umns were moving. 

But it was not destined that Tuesday 
should witness the great conflict for those 
hills. The doings of that day were more 
of a preliminary than a decisive cast, the 
latter being reserved for the succeeding 
day's history. The sequel of the fight — 
the next morning's handsome epilogue to 
the night's drama — is well known ; its 
laurels are yet fresh and green. Sherman 
carried the end of Missionary Ridge, and 
the troops from Lookout Valley carried 
the point of the mountain. 



Battle -with. Snow Balls at Chattanoog-a. 
On the 2 2d of March, while our army 
was at Chattanooga, the earth was covered 
with a beautiful sheet of snow, measuring 
one foot deep on a level. Such a thing 
was never known before, at such a time 
of year, and the residents there, including 
that inevitable "oldest inhabitant," all 
agreed that such a thing was never known 
before at the season — indeed, no such depth 
of snow, at any part of the year, in that 
region of the "sunny South," had been 
known for twenty-three years past. The 



soldiers found an inconceivable amount of 
fun in it. 

Early in the morning the town was 
alive with the merry shouts of Uncle 
Samuel's blue coats, engaged in the exhil- 
arating pastime of snow-balling. Gradu- 
ally the fun assumed immense proportions. 
The fight waxed hot and furious ; and 
whole regiments were ranged in battle ar- 
ray, opposed in friendly combat. Officers 
and men partook of the sport ; breast- 
works were formed of the snow, and the 
boys, led on by their officei'S, threw out 
their skirmishers, formed the flanking par- 
ties, and opened the fight. The battle, 
though a, sham one, was most exciting. 

One regiment had formed behind breast- 
works, had thrown out its pickets, and 
was all ready, awaiting the attack of its 
opponents. Each of the gallant lads was 
armed with a ball in each hand, and sev- 
eral lying ready at his feet. Soon another 
body was seen to come over the top of a 
hill in front of the fort, with skirmishers 
thrown out, and in a few minutes the 
skirmishers of the advancing party were 
engaged with the pickets of the army in 
the front. They fought for some minutes, 
when the skirmishers being heavily rein- 
forced, the pickets retired to the interior 
of the fort, and prepared with the main 
body for the siege. It was not long de- 
layed, for the besiegers advanced actually 
to the fort, and with a yell rushed up to 
the very mouth of the embrasures. Then 
the fight commenced in earnest. For a 
time the boys in the fort had the best of 
it, for. they had a good supply of ammuni- 
tion on hand ; but soon this was exhaust- 
ed, and the army inside had to manufac- 
ture their hand grenades of snow, the same 
as those on the outside. The besiegers 
climbed up the fort walls, making shot of 
the walls as they went, and such fun — 
such a scene for a few minutes ! It ended 
in the attacking party being driven off. 

The battle was gone through with a 
second time, and on the third trial the be- 



276 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



siegers were more successful, for, detach- 
ing a party from the main body, and wind- 
ing them around the rear of the fort, they 
awaited patiently for the signal of the 
flanking party. The signal was not long 
in coming, and the two parties attacking 
the fort simultaneously from front and 
rear, compelled the garrison to surrender. 
The surrender was done in good military 
style, the victors allowing them to evacu- 
ate with all the honors of war, and fists 
and necks and ears full of snow to boot. 



Splendid Service in a Bad Cause. 

Lamar Fontain proved himself one of 
the most daring of the many brave rebels 
in the Southwest, and his name will long 
be remembered with satisfaction by those 
whom he served so well in a bad cause. 

One of the most hazardous feats under- 
taken by Fontain Avas that by order of 
General Johnston — to bear a verbal dis- 
patch to General Pemberton, in Vieks- 
burg, and to carry a supply of percussion 
caps to the rebel troops hi that besieged 




Gen. A. Sidney Johnston. 

city. It was an enterprise of great peril, 
for Vicksburg was closely invested on all 
sides. The Federal lines of circumvalla- 
tion extended from Snyder's Bluff, on the 
Yazoo, to Warrenton, on the Mississippi, 
and the rivers and their opposite shores 
were filled and lined with their forces. 
He was well mounted, and was burdened 



with forty pounds of percussion caps, be- 
sides his blanket and crutches. He had 
no use of his broken leg, and could not 
walk a step without a crutch ; and in 
mounting his horse, he had to lift it over 
the saddle with his right hand. All this, 
however, he accomplished with much dex- 
terity and without assistance. 

He crossed Big Black River that night, 
and the next day got between the Federal 
lines and the division of their army, which 
was at Mechanicsburg. He hid his horse 
in a ravine, and ensconced himself in a 
fallen tree, overlooking the road, during 
the day. From his hiding place, he wit- 
nessed the retreat of the Yankees, who 
passed him in considerable haste and con- 
fusion. 

After their columns had gone by, and 
the night had made it safe for him to move, 
he continued his route in the direction of 
Snyder's Bluff. As he entered the tele- 
graphic road from Yazoo City to Vicks- 
burg, he was hailed by a picket, but dash- 
ed by him. A volley was fired at him by 
the Yankees, but he escaped unhurt, 
though a minie ball wounded his horse 
mortally — not, however, until the spirited 
animal had carried him safely to the bank 
of the Yazoo river, where he died, and 
left his rider afoot. He lost one of his 
crutches in making his escape, it being 
jerked from him by the limb of a tree, and 
he had no time to pick it up. 

With the assistance of one crutch, he 
carried his baggage, and groped along the 
Yazoo, until he providentially discovered 
a small log canoe, tied by a rope, within 
his reach. He pressed this into his ser- 
vice, and paddled down the river until he 
met three Yankee gunboats coming up to 
Yazoo City. These he avoided by run- 
ning under some willows overhanging the 
water, and lying concealed until they pass- 
ed. Soon after he floated past Snyder's 
Bluff, which was illuminated, and alive 
with amusement on the part of the Yan- 
kees. He lay flat in his «janoe, and could 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



277 



hardly be distinguished from a piece of 
drift wood — and thus he glided safely- 
through the gunboats and barges of his 
foes. Before day, he reached the back- 
water of the Mississippi, and in the dark- 
ness missed the outlet of the Yazoo, and 
got into what is called " Old River." 

After searching in vain for a pass into 
the Mississippi, day dawned, and he dis- 
covered his mistake. He was forced to 
conceal his boat and himself, and lie by 
for another day. He had been two days 
and nights without food, and began to suf- 
fer the pangs of hunger. At night he 
paddled back into the Yazoo, and descend- 
ed it to the Mississippi, passing forty or 
fifty of the Federal transports. Only one 
man hailed him from the stern of a steam- 
boat, and asked him where he was going. 
He replied that he was going to his fishing 
lines. In the bend, above Vicksburg, he 
floated by the mortar-fleet, lying flat hi 
his canoe. The mortars were in full blast, 
bombarding the city. The next morning 
he tied a whi|j handkerchief to his paddle, 
raised himself up, in the midst of the rebel 
picket-boats at Vicksburg, and gave a 
loud huzza for Jeff. Davis and the South- 
ern Confederacy, amid the vivas of the 
rebel sailors, who gave him a joyful re- 
ception, and assisted him to General Pem- 
berton's head-quarters. 

Having rested a day and a night in the 
city, he started forth with a dispatch from 
General Peinberton to General Johnston. 
He embarked in his same canoe, and soon 
reached the Union fleet below the city. 
He avoided their picket-boats on both 
shores, and floated near then- gunboats. 
He passed so near one of these, that 
through an open port-hole he could see 
men playing cards and hear them converse. 

At Diamond Place he landed, and bade 
adieu to his faithful " dugout." After 
hobbling through the bottom to the hills, 
he reached the residence of a man who 
had been robbed of all his mules and 
horses, except an old, worthless gelding, 
and a half-broken colt. He gave him the 



choice of them, and he mounted the colt, 
but soon found that he traveled badly. 
Unexpectedly he came upon a very fine 
horse in the bottom, tied by a blind-bridle, 
without a saddle. As a basket and old 
bag were lying near him, he inferred that 
a negro had left him there, and that a 
Yankee camp was not far distant. He 
exchanged bridles, and saddled the horse, 
and mounted him, after turning loose the 
colt. 

After riding so as to avoid the supposed 
position of the Yankees, he encountered 
one of them, who was returning from a 
successful plundering expedition, being 
loaded with chickens, and a bucket of 
honey. He commenced catechizing Fon- 
tain, who shot him dead by a pistol-bullet 
through his forehead. 

Fontain approached with caution the 
next settlement, where he hired a guide 
for fifty dollars, to pilot him to Hanker- 
son's Ferry, on Big Black River, which 
he wished to reach near that point, with- 
out following any road. The fellow he 
hired proved to be a traitor. When he 
got near the ferry, Fontain" sent him 
ahead, to ascertain whether any Yankees 
were in the vicinity. The conversation 
and manners of the man had excited his 
suspicions, and as soon as he left him he 
concealed himself, but remained where he 
could watch his return. The man was 
gone much longer than Fontain expected ; 
but returned, and reported that the way 
was open and that no Yankees were near 
the ferry. 

After paying him, Fontain took the pre- 
caution to avoid the ferry, and to approach 
the river above it, instead of following the 
guide's directions. By this he flanked a 
force of the Yankees posted to intercept 
him ; but as he entered the road near the 
river bank, one of them, who seemed to 
be- on the right flank of a long line of sen- 
tinels, suddenly rose up within ten feet of 
him, and ordered him to halt. 

He replied with a pistol shot, which 
killed the sentinel dead, and, wheeling his 



278 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



horse, galloped through the bottom up 
the river; but the Federals sent a shower 
of ball after him, two of which wounded 
his right hand, injuring four of his fingers. 
One grazed his right leg, cutting two holes 
through his pantaloons, and another cut 
through one side of the sword scabbard. 
Seven bullets struck the horse, which 
reeled under him, but had strength and 
speed enough to bear him a mile from his 
pursuers, before he fell and died. Fon- 
tain then divided his clothes and arms into 
two packages, and swam Big Black River 
safely. He did not walk far before a lady 
supplied him with the only horse she had. 
On this he reached Raymond at two 
o'clock in the morning, changed his horse 
for a fresh one,- carried his dispatch to 
Jackson that morning, and landed safely 
down home again. 



No Respect for the Tender Passion. 
"When the Third Massachusetts cavalry 
was at Louisiana, Private C. P. Philbrick, 
of that regiment, rode out alone one day, 
within the enemy's lines, and captured a 
rebel Colonel, with an audacity that put 
chivalry to an immense disadvantage. 
Colonel Bradford was visiting his lovely 
affianced, at a plantation house four miles 
from Jackson, where he supposed himself 
entirely safe in her agreeable company, 
for the rebel pickets were right within 
call. Philbrick, however, late at night, 
stole into the negro quarters, and learned 
from the slaves, who were always friendly, 
all that he wished to know. Quietly fast- 
ening his horse, he crept to the front door, 
burst it open, and pistol in hand, astonish- 
ed the assembled party with the sight of 
a Union soldier on the rampage. The 
scout thundered out his orders to an im- 
aginary company, through the back win- 
dow, kicked over the whist table, smash- 
ing the goblets and a bottle of " Widow 
Cliquot" that had probably paid recent 
duty at Baton Rouge, disanned the Colonel 
and took both him and his servant prison- 
ers, mounted them on their own horses, 



and brought them off amid the tears and 
lamentations of the 'affianced' and her 
friends. Through by-roads the unlucky 
Colonel was brought safely to camp, and 
was soon on his way, with a letter of in- 
troduction, to head-quarters. The prison- 
er nearly ground up a fine set of natural 
teeth when he learnt that his amours had 
been broken in upon, and his capture ef- 
fected, by a single soldier, armed no bet- 
ter than himself. Alas ! that war should 
have no respect even foj the tender 
passion ! 



Fierce Artillery Duel. 

Probably one of the most spirited and 
hotly contested artillery duels of the war 
was the fight, one Friday afternoon in 
June, 1864, between Battery D, First 
Ohio, Captain Cockerell, and the enemy 
in Georgia, who had just got into position 
on the Marietta road, — as the enemy fell 
back behind his works. 

For over two hours these antagonistic 
batteries, within six hundred^yards of each 
other, kept up an incessant fire of shell 
and shot, during which Captain Cockerell 
threw at the enemy a full supply of am- 
munition, emptying his limbers and cais- 
sons. His guns were protected by the 
crest of the hill, his horses, also, being 
under cover. The rebel finally gave up to 
superior metal, moral and physical, and 
yielded the contest. 

Meantime, the Thirteenth New York 
Independent Battery of light twelves, con- 
nected with General Geary's division of 
Hooker's corps, was brought forward down 
the hill upon the run, and advanced to the 
top of a ridge confronting the enemy's 
works at a distance of four hundred yards, 
in fact on the very skirmish line. Here, 
sinking their guns so as partially to find 
protection under the hill, Captain Whee- 
ler and Lieutenant Bundy kept up a steady 
cannonade on the enemy's battery of eight 
guns on the opposite crest, doing terrible 
execution, cutting down whole forest trees, 
knocking away the logs and earthworks. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



279 



killing the rebel gunners, and so disabling 
them that they were compelled to detail 
men from the ranks to supply gunners. 
At one or two of the enemy's eight gun 
battery all the men but two were killed, 
and they crawled into a hole from the 
dreadful, annihilating fire. 



Midnight Charge of the Mule Brigade. 

During the advance of General Hook- 
er's command upon the enemy, near Look- 
out Mountain, an incident occurred which 
caused much merriment at the expense of 
the rebels. Hooker moved on Lookout 
Mountain very cautiously from the west 
side ; and it was while engaged in the 
movement up the valley, that a great stam- 
pede among the mules took place. It was 
in the dead of night, when both amiies 
were resting from the fatigues of the pre- 
vious day, and the sentinel's tread was the 
only sound that disturbed the universal 
quiet. 

Rushing from the wagons, to the number 
of about thirty, the mules made for the 
enemy's lines like frightened sheep. The 
drivers were awakened by the noise, 
just in time to witness the disappearance 
of the animals through our advanced pick- 
ets. The enemy's pickets were not caught 
napping. Hearing the mule brigade tear- 
ing across the valley, they mistook them 
for Yankee cavalry charging, discharged 
their muskets at the supposed ' Yanks,' 
and fell back upon a battalion stationed a 
little in the rear of them, with the cry 
that the enemy was upon them. 

The battalion, partaking of the alarm, 
sprang to arms only in time to hear the 
sound of the frightened mules, whose race 
was not checked by the volley from the 
pickets. They retreated also a short dis- 
tance to a point where a whole rebel brig- 
ade had stacked their arms, and were 
calmly dreaming of home and battle scenes. 
In rushed the battalion, more dead than 
alive from fright, with the exclamation — 
"Hooker has surprised us ; Ms cavalry is 
upon us t " The valiant sons of Mars did 



not wait to gather up their blankets or 
guns, but made the fastest pedestrian time 
on record back to the main force, leaving 
upon the field, for the mule brigade, over 
one thousand stand of arms, among which 
were three hundred new Enfield rifles, 
blankets, small arms, knapsacks, etc. Mean- 
time, our teamsters had given the alarm, and 
a force was sent out for the recovery of the 
mules, and in a few hours the expedition, 
inaugurated by the mules, returned to our 
lines with the valuable spoils. 

This midnight charge of the mule brig- 
ade is well worthy of a place in history. 
Through its aid a large amount of valuable 
stores and arms was secured, and Hooker 
was enabled to push his advance much 
nearer the point of ground contended for. 



Won his "Wager. 
A Seneca Indian, belonging to the four- 
teenth New York artillery, made a bet 
that he would capture a rebel sharpshooter 
who was in a tree in front of our line in 
Virginia. He enveloped himself in pine 
boughs till he looked like a tree, and by 




Won his Wager. 

slow movements advanced near the sharp- 
shooter's roost. Here, Indian like, he pa- 
tiently waited until his prey had emptied 
his piece at one of our men, when he sud- 
denly brought his musket to bear upon the 
reb, giving him no time to reload. The 
sharpshooter was taken at a disadvantage. 



280 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



To the command to come clown he readily 
assented, when the Indian triumphantly 
marched him a prisoner into camp, and 
won his wager. 



No Dead Cavalry-Men. 
An anecdote is told of General Hooker, 
which shows that his opinion of one branch 
of the military service Avas . just right. 
Soon after he assumed command of the 
Army of the Potomac, he summoned to 
head-quarters all. the principal cavalry 
officers in his command, twenty-five or 
thirty in number. Arranged in a semi- 
circle facing him, he addressed them after 
this manner, very coolly and with low 
voice at first, but warming as he proceed- 
ed : — « Gentlemen : I have called you to- 
gether to consult with you in regard to 
the cavalry arm of the service. I think 
it should be, and may be, made more effi- 
cient. It seems to me to be at present a 
very costly show — very expensive and 
very useless. Why, gentlemen," moving 
up and taking a step forward — " I'll be 

if I have ever seen or have ever 

heard of a dead cavalry-man ! " 



moon's disc. There, for an instant, was 
the regiment, colors and gleaming arms in 
bold relief and motionless — a regiment 
transferred to heaven! And there was 
the moon, a great medallion struct in 
the twinkling of an eye, as if in honor of 
that deathless day. The General's eye 
brightened at the sight. Even there and 
then it was something to be thought of; 
to be seen but a moment — to be remem- 
bered forever. 



Sheridan and the Moonlight Picture. 
The night after the battle of Mission 
Ridge, General Sheridan went in pursuit 
of the flying enemy, and met with a sharp 
resistance near Chickamauga Station, some 
two miles beyond the Ridge. At about 
seven o'clock of that November evening 
he sent a regiment to take possession of a 
little promontory jutting out into the val- 
ley, which would give him a vast advant- 
age. The musketry were briskly playing 
all the while, time was precious, the posi- 
tion important, the regiment a long time 
executing the movement, and Sheridan, 
anxious and impatient, was watching 
the sky line to see the troops emerge from 
the shadows and move along the clear-cut 
crest of the promontory. The moon, then 
near the full, had just risen above the edge 
of the hill, when the battalions moved out 
of the darkness, and exactly across the 



Very ohliging Picket at Morris Island. 

A somewhat singular circumstance oc- 
curred on picket one night at Morris 
Island. During the night a man named 
Henry Grand, of Company E, One Hun- 
dredth New York regiment, was killed 
while in discharge of his duty, and his 
body lay between the lines. Captain 
Ayres of the Third Rhode Island, shortly 
after the event had been made known, 
leaped upon the top of the last parallel 
and shouted to a rebel picket, " Here, you ; 
we have a man killed out there and want 
to bring his body in." " Well," replied the 
rebel, " three of you may come over for 
it." Whereupon Captain Ayres started 
with three men, making, including himself, 
four altogether. The rebel observing four 
men approaching him cried out before they 
had proceeded far, " Halt." The com- 
mand having been complied with, the rebel 
continued thus : — " I said but three might 
come over — one must go back." Captain 
Ayres then returned, and was followed 
soon after by the three men bearing the 
dead body of their comrade. The rebel 
was certainly very obliging, and what mo- 
tive prompted him to extend such a privi- 
lege could not be easily accounted for. 



Incident of the One Hundred and Nineteenth 
New York Regiment. 

There was a small detachment of the 
One Hundred and Nineteenth New York 
which had advanced close up to the ene- 
my — so close that they had been compelled 
to halt for the time and throw up light 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



281 



breastworks of logs as a defence. By 
some untoward mistake a party of twelve 
or fifteen men were ordered to advance 
beyond these works on picket duty. 

Though knowing that it was almost 
certain death to show their heads above 
the walls of their little fort, still they 
obeyed without question or hesitation. 
They had advanced scarcely more than a 
rod beyond their comrades, when a heavy 
volley of musketry prostrated to the 
ground every man save two. Two were 
killed instantly, and the rest wounded 
more or less severely. All of the wound- 
ed, however, were able to drag themselves 
back and escape, except one poor fellow, 
Sergeant Guider, who was so badly wound- 
ed that he could not stir from his place. 
There he lay almost within arm's length 
of his comrades, and yet they were pow- 
erless to rescue him or give him aid, so 
galling was the rebel fire. One bolder 
than the rest made the hazardous attempt ; 
but scarcely had he got over the breast- 
works when he fell severely wounded. 
They endeavored to allay his raging thirst 
by throwing to him canteens of water, and 
even one of those was pierced by a rebel 
bullet. 

Finally, as they could not go over the 
breastworks, they dug a way under them 
with no other implements than their bayo- 
nets, and through this, two men crawled 
and succeeded in reaching him unhurt. 
Just as they reached him, their comrades 
in the rear gave an exulting cheer, which 
elicited from the rebels another volley. 
A fatal ball pierced the poor fellow's 
breast for a second time, and he had only 
breath to murmur feebly to his rescuers, 
"Now I die content — I am in your hands," 
and expired. 



"Boys, I'm for the Union Still." 
Daniel Sullivan, of the Ohio volunteers, 
had his arm shattered by a ball, when the 
Federal troops were surprised at Vienna. 
This was the brave boy, who, Avhen ordered 
to fall in, replied, " I wish I could," at the 
18 



same time showing his arm. Sullivan 
was taken up and carried back with the 
retreating force. He died before leaving 
Alexandria, but his heroism was shown 
to the last. A handkerchief was bound 
upon his arm, near the shoulder, to check, 
in a measure, the flow of blood. This 
rude bandage Sullivan himself adjusted 
several times, tightening it to check the 
blood, and again loosening it when the 
pain became too great. While he was 
lying in this condition, some of his com- 
rades approached, and one asked, " Dan, 
how do you feel ? " " Boys," said the 
young hero, lifting with the other hand 
his shattered arm, and then laying it gently 
down, " Boys, I'm for the Union still ! " 
Poor Dan died very soon after, but his 
last words were a mighty spell and watch- 
word to his comrades. 



Emphatically a Bootless Undertaking:. 

In the earlier days of the rebellion there 
lived in southeastern Missoux-i one Ogilvie 
B. Young. He was a wild, graceless, 
Southern cavalier, who plunged madly into 
the first waves of rebellion, and, while 
Sterling Price was yet a Union General, 
and Claiborne F. Jackson a loyal Governor, 
dared to avow and advocate opinions of 
the most ultra Southern character. Fine- 
drawn theoretical arguments on the right 
and duty of secession were spread before 
the people of the State, in column after col- 
umn of letters published in newspapers, 
and to which was attached the full signa- 
ture, " Ogilvie Byron Young." He was 
sent to the Missouri State Convention ; and 
though the State did not secede, he did. 

In the fall of 1861 he was arrested in 
Cincinnati as a spy, but escaped convic- 
tion ; and the same thing, Avith a similar 
result, occurred at Covington. In Novem- 
ber, 1862, he was in Nashville, as a pa- 
roled prisoner, but acting all the while as 
a smuggler and spy. But about the last 
of that month, Young was introduced to 
a gentleman who represented himself as a 
hostage for the return of certain loyal 



282 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Mississippians captured at Iuka, and treat- 
ed by Price as traitors, contrary to the 
terms of the cartel between the Federal 
and Confederate authorities. At first 
he was shy and suspicious, but was finally 
convinced that his new acquaintance was 
really what he purported to be, and heart- 
ily entered into all his plans for the ad- 
vancement of the Confederate cause. As 
his confidence grew stronger, he remarked 
that he had been of more benefit to the 
South, as a spy, than any brigade of rebel 
soldiers. He had encouraged desertions 
in the Federal camps, and made out paroles 
in the names of Morgan and Kirby Smith ; 
The business was getting a little danger- 
ous now, however, and lie should get be- 
yond the lines as soon as possible. He 
would have gone long ago, only that he 
had expected to be saved the trouble and 
expense of the trip by the fall of Nash- 
ville. 

The Iuka hostage then informed him 
that Mrs. Major Ranney, wife of Major 
Ranney, of the Sixth Texas regiment, was 
in the city, under his charge, and just re- 
turned from Europe, whither she had been 
on diplomatic business for the Confederate 
Government. She had in her possession 
very important despatches, and was anx- 
ious to get safely through the lines with 
them. Young said, in reply, that he would 
bring his influence to bear upon the army 
officials in her favor, but in case she should 
be searched it would be well to provide 
for such a contingency. There was, he 
said, in the city, a man by the name of 
Thompson, ostensibly a citizen, but really 
a rebel Lieutenant in Bragg's army, and 
then acting as a spy. He had made the 
trip through the lines ten or twelve times, 
and could do it again. He was then en- 
gaged in drawing a map of the fortifica- 
tions around Nashville and procuring in- 
formation as to the number of the troops, 
&c, which should be forthcoming in due 
season. These secret despatches of Mrs. 
Ranney's, together with the map and 
other papers, could be hidden in the heel 



of a boot, which would be made for them 
by a bootmaker of the city in the employ 
of the Confederate Government. His 
name was C. J. Zeutzschell, and his shop 
was on Union street. 

This plan was agreed to, and Young 
was to assist in the execution of it, — in 
return for which, he was to be placed in 
a high position at Richmond. The repu- 
tation of Young, however, was not of the 
best, and the bootmaker would do nothing 
for him, when called upon, without first 
making inquiry among his friends and con- 
sulting with the hostage, for whom the 
boots were wanted. 

Accordingly, Zeutzschell went to his 
room one evening and said that Young 
had been to his house and wished him to 
make a pair of boots and to secrete some 
important documents in them so as to de- 
fy detection. He had no confidence in 
Young's honor, and did not wish to do it 
for him. He knew him as identified with 
the Confederates, indeed, but he was a 
bad man, low in his habits and associates, 
never had any money, &c. He, Zeutzs- 
chell, had been inquiring of the friends of 
the South — undoubted secessionists, con- 
cerning him (the Iuka hostage), and was 
convinced that he was a gentleman and 
true southerner. He would do any tiling 
to promote the cause, — money was no ob- 
ject, — he would lay down his life for it 
If Young could be thrown off the track, 
he would make the boots and secrete in 
them a map of the fortifications about 
Nashville. His brother-in-law, Harris, 
would go out and see if any new ones had 
been erected. If not, he had a perfect 
plan of them in his head, to prove which 
he immediately sat down and drafted one. 
He remarked that he had recently sent 
several such to General Morgan. He had 
made the boots for all the spies in the 
same way, and not one had ever been de- 
tected. He had sent valuable information 
in a common pipe. 

" Can you get a pass for your man ? •' 
asked the hostage. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



283 



" Certainly," was the reply ; " as many 
as you like. There is a German at head- 
quarters who steals blank passes for me, 
and I fill them up myself. I give him 
whiskey for them." 

He would like to go South, too, he said, 
in conclusion. He could describe the forti- 
fications so much better than in a map. 

Both parties being satisfied, an arrange- 
ment for the boots was made. Zeutzschell 
was to get the exact distances of the de- 
fences, the number and disposition of the 
troops, &c, and secrete them, together 
with Mrs. Ranney's despatches, in one of 
the heels of the boots. This he did, ac- 
cording to promise ; the boots were made 
and delivered on the evening appointed. 
Instead of reaching Generals Bragg and 
Morgan, however, as intended, the maps 
papers, boots, owner, maker, .and spy, sud- 
denly found themselves in the hands of 
the army police, much to the astonishment 
and utter chagrin of all parties concerned. 
Zeutzschell and Young were sent to the 
military prison. 



Northern Muscle and Southern Chivalry. 
After the Federal forces had flanked 
Johnston's army from Dallas, it was con- 
trary to the usual custom, the fortune of 
the First Brigade — Sheridan's old Division 
— to be left behind the army a few days, 
as a guard for an ambulance train. One 
day two of the men — one of them Jack 
Tyrrell, Commissary of the Brigade — 
went out to take a bath beyond and in 
sight of the Federal picket line, in a small 
bayou, which temerity was observed by 
some of Ferguson's cavalry hovering in 
the vicinity, who detached two men, armed 
with sabres and carbines, to bring them 
in. Being without arms they were sur- 
prised, and started off, en dishabille, in the 
very face of the pickets, who dared not fire 
for fear of injuring the prisoners. Each 
rebel started in a different direction with 
his charge. After going a short distance, 
Tyrrell dodged to one side, exposing his 
captor to the Federal pickets, who gave 



him a volley but missed, on which the 
Johnny, out of spite, returned the shot ; 
when Tyrrell, taking advantage of his 
empty carbine, sprang and caught him by 
his abundant whiskers and dragged him 
from his horse. Here a short struggle 
ensued, in which the 'chivalry' had to 
give way to Northern muscle, although 
they were both good types of their respect- 
ive regions, and Johnny, minus his gun 
and sabre, was marched to the picket lines 
by his escort, who guided him by walking 
behind him with one hand in each side of 
his whiskers. It is useless to say that he 
was received by the pickets with consider- 
able merriment. . The other reb, on seeing 
his comrade's fate, and hearing the whirr 
of a few random shots, fled, and left Iris 
charge to come back at his will. 



Shaking- Hands in the Middle of the Biver. 
A detachment of Federal troops was 
stationed on the northern bank of the Po- 
tomac river ; and on the opposite, or south- 
em bank, was stationed a detachment of 
the Confederate troops, — all within hailing 
distance, the river being not more than one 
quarter of a mile wide at that point (Con- 
rad's Ferry). A challenge was proclaim- 
ed by some two or three of the Federal 
troops to meet the same number of the 
Confederate troops ' in the middle of the 
river, where it was fordable, to shake 
hands and drink each other's health. The 
challenge was accepted, and divesting 
themselves of their arms and a portion of 
their clothing, they met, exchanged sani- 
tations, and drank together in mutual 
friendship. These troops had been skirm- 
ishing across the river some six or eight 
days previous, with cannon, rifles, and 

musketry. 

♦ 

Longstreet's Instant Detection of a Spy. 
The feverishness of the Confederates in 
regard to spies, during the eventful days 
of the Manassas conflict, was greatly in- 
tensified by the following occurrence, as 
related by one of their officers : 



284 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLTON, 



While Longstreet's corps was hurrying 
forward to Jackson's relief, several brig- 
ades in advance on different roads were 
observed to halt, thereby stopping all fur- 
ther progress of the corps. Very angry 
at this, Longstreet trotted to the front, 
and was informed that a courier had 
brought orders from General Lee to that 
effect ! 

" From General Lee ? " said Long- 
street, his eyes glowing with rage : "Where 
is that courier ? " 




Gen Longstreet. 

" There he goes now, General, galloping 
down the road." 

" Keep your eyes on him, overtake him, 
and bring him here," — which was soon ac- 
complished. 

" By whose orders did you halt my 
brigade ? " asked a Brigadier. 

" As I have already told you — by Gen- 
eral Lee's ! I have orders for Longstreet, 
and must be off to the rear ! " 

" Here is Longstreet," — said that Gen- 
eral, now moving forward, — " Where are 
your orders ? " 

The spy was caught ! He turned red 
and pale, his lip quivered — he was self 
condemned. 

" Give this man ten minutes, and hang 
him ! Let the columns push forward im- 
mediately." 

In fifteen minutes the spy was lifeless, 



hanging from a tree by the roadside ; but 
before death, confessed that although a 
Virginian and a Confederate soldier, he 
had been in communication with the ene- 
my over ten months, and was then acting 
for General Pope. 



More than a Match agrainst Six. 

The brilliant exploit of Captain Strong, 
of the Belle City Rifles, Second Wiscon- 
sin regiment, in escaping, as he did, from 
the Confederates, into whose clutches he 
unfortunately fell, was the theme of con- 
gratulation on the part of every one who 
knew the gallant Captain's worth. When 
he enlisted as a Union soldier, he was a 
student in Racine College, about twenty- 
one years of age, well built, and very agile 
and active. He was regarded in college 
as the best jumper, runner, &c, and with' 
al an excellent shot, as well as a popular 
comrade of the students. Of his remark- 
able escape he says : — 

As I was passing through a thicket, I 
was surrounded by six rebel soldiers — 
four infantry and two cavalry. The foot- 
men were poorly dressed, and badly arm- 
ed, having old rusty altered muskets. The 
cavalry were well mounted and well 
armed. 

Seeing I was caught, I thought it best 
to surrender at once. So I said, " Gentle- 
men, you have me." I was asked various 
questions as to who I was, where I was 
going, what regiment I belonged to, &c, 
all of which I refused to answer. One of 
the footmen said ' Let's hang the — 
Yankee scoundrel,' and pointed to a con- 
venient limb. Another said, ' No, let's 
take him to camp, and hang him there.' 
One of the cavalry, who seemed to be the 
leader, said, ' We will take him to camp.' 
They then marched me through an open 
place — two footmen in front, two in the 
rear, and a cavalry man on each side of 
me. I was armed with two revolvers and 
my sword. After going some twenty rods, 
the sergeant, who was on my right, notic- 
ing my pistols, commanded me to halt and 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



285 



give them up, together with my sword. 
I said, ' Certainly, gentlemen,' and imme- 
diately halted. As I stopped, they all filed 
past me, and of course were in front. 

We were at this time in an open part 
of the woods, but about sixty yards to the 
rear was a thicket of undergrowth. Thus 
everything was in my favor. I was quick 
of foot and a passable shot. Yet the de- 
sign of escape was not formed until I 
brought my pistol pouches to the front 
part of my body, and my hands touched 
the stocks. The grasping of the pistols 
suggested my cocking them as I drew them 
out. This I did, and the moment I got 
command of them I shot down the two 
footmen nearest me — about six feet off — 
one with each hand. I immediately turn- 
ed and ran toward the thicket in the rear. 
The confusion of my captors was appar- 
ently so great that I had nearly reached 
cover before shots were fired at me. One 
ball passed through my left cheek, passing 
out of my mouth. Another one — a mus- 
ket ball — went through my canteen. 

Immediately upon this volley, the two 
cavalry separated, one to my right and the 
other to my left, to cut off my retreat — 
the remaining two footmen charging di- 
rectly toward me. I turned when the 
horsemen got up, and fired three or four 
shots ; but the balls flew wild. I still 
ran on ; got over a small knoll, and had 
nearly regained one of our pickets, when 
I was headed off by both of the mounted 
men. 

The Sergeant called to me to halt and 
surrender. I gave no reply, but fired at 
him and ran in the opposite direction. 
He pursued and overtook me, and just as 
his horse's head was abreast of me, I turn- 
ed, took good aim and pulled the trigger, 
but the cap snapped. At this time his 
carbine was unslung, and he was holding it 
with both hands on the left side of his horse. 
He fired at my breast without raising the 
piece to his shoulder, and the shot passed 
from the right side of my coat-, through it 
and my shirt to the left, just grazing the 



skin. The piece was so near as to burn 
the cloth about the size of one's hand. I 
was, however, uninjured this time, save 
the shot through my cheek. I then fired 
at him again and brought him to the ground 
— hanging by his foot in the left stirrup, 
and his horse galloping toward his camp. 
I saw no more of the horseman on my 
left, nor of the two footmen — but running 
on soon came to our own pickets, uninjured 
save the shot through my cheek, but other- 
wise much exhausted from my exertions. 

♦ 

Rockafellow's Right Arm left StilL 
Judge Kelley entered the office of Mr. 
Stanton, Secretary of War, one day, having 
with him a youthful-looking officer, whose 
empty coat-sleeve hung from his left 
shoulder. He was introduced to the Sec- 
retary as Brevet Lieut. Harry Rockafel- 
low, of Philadelphia. 

" My friend," said the Judge, " left a 
situation worth eight hundred dollars a 
year, three days after the President's proc- 
lamation for troops, to carry a musket at 
eleven dollars a month, with his regiment, 
the New York Seventy-first. After the 
term of his enlistment had expired, he 
marched with his regiment to Bull Run. 
Early in the day he received that ugly 
rifle-ball in his mouth (pointing to a Minie 
ball that was hung to his watch-key), and 
for two hours and a half he carried it in 
his fractured jawbone, fighting like a true 
hero, until a cannon-ball took off his arm 
and rendered him powerless. He was 
captured, and for three months lay in a 
mangled condition in a tobacco warehouse 
in Richmond, without proper surgical 
treatment. He was breveted a lieutenant 
by his Colonel, for his bravery, and is now 
filling a small clerkship. I beg of you to 
appoint him in the regular service." 

" But where could I put him, if I were 
to ? " said Mr. Stanton. 

The Judge was about to reply, when 
the young man raised his arm and said 
with an anxious look : 

" See, I have a right arm still, and Gen- 



286 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



eral Kearney has only his left ; send me 
into the line where there is fighting to be 

done ! I have letters from ," he tried 

to draw a bundle of letters from his pock- 
et. Mr. Stanton stopped him — 

" Put up your letters, Sir ; you have 
spoken for yourself. Your wish shall be 
granted. The country cannot afford to 
neglect such men as you ! '" 

Ere the soldier could thank him for his 
kindness, his case was noted. He turned 
to leave, and remarked to the Judge as 
they left, " I shall be proud of my com- 
mission, for I feel that I have earned it ! 
This day is the proudest one of my whole 
life.'" His heart seemed so light that he 
appeared not to realize the loss he had 
met with, nor the weary nights, and long, 
long days he had suffered in the vile pris- 
ons of the enemy. Congressman Ely 
came in just as he passed along the aisle 
and remarked, " There goes the noblest 
and most heroic of all our prisoners. He 
was the pride of the boys — all loved 
him as though he were a brother." 



By-Scene at the Battle of Leesburg-. 
One of the terrible personal encounters 
at the battle of Leesburg, is thus related : 
As Captain Janes, of Company B, Sev- 
enteenth Mississippi regiment, was pass- 
ing through the woods at the head of his 
men, he met another party headed by an 
officer. The two halting instantly upon 
discovering their close proximity, Jones 
exclaimed, " For God Almighty's sake, 
tell me quick — friends or enemies — who 
are you ? " The other replied, " .We are 
friends," and at the same time advanced. 
A little boy, named Joseph Ware, who 
was behind the Mississippian, instantly 
cried out, " Captain, they are not friends ; 
don't you see they have not guns like 
ours ? They are Yankees, let me shout." 
Again Jones exclaimed, " Who are you ? 
Speak quick, for I can't keep my men 
from firing." " I'll let you know who we 
are, you d — rebel," said the Federal offi- 
cer, for such he was, and suiting the action 



to the word, he sprang upon and seized 
Captain Jones by the collar. For a sec- 
ond or two a scuffle ensued between the 
officers, when the latter broke loose. At 
the same instant one of the Mississippians 
dashed out the Federal officer's brains 
with the point of his musket. 



Uncomfortably Warm Place for a Soldier. 

A good story is told about a soldier, 
who, in dodging away from a patrol, hid 
himself in a restaurant, by jumping into a 
large box used for steaming oysters. The 
lid closed with a spring lock, and the dis- 
appointed patrol went on his way baffled. 
In a little while the colored man attending 
the apparatus turned on a full head of 




Uncomfortably Warm Place. 

steam in order to prepare a mess for some 
customers. The soldier began to grow 
uncomfortably warm, and soon kicked and 
yelled lustily for liberation, until the fright- 
ened negro ran away shouting that " de 
debbil was in de steamer." Other em- 
ployees gathered around, hearing the 
noise, and released the perspiring soldier, 
who bounded with the speed of a machine 
whose motive power is steam. 



Stating- it Just Eight. 
When it was as well known as that the 
world exists, that Grant had forced Lee 
to retreat for scores of miles right steady 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



287 



to the very walls of Richmond, the rebel 
papers declared with the coolest effrontery 
that Lee was getting Grant just where he 
wanted him, that Grant was really re- 
treating, and Lee in close pursuit. This 
was about equal to the facetious Iowa edi- 
tor who got a downright whaling in his 
printing office, and described it next day 
—giving all the facts, but making himself 
the hero : — There was a blow. Somebody 
fell. We got up. Turning upon our an- 
tagonist, Ave then succeeded in winding his 
arms around our waist, and by a quick 
manoeuvre threw him on top of us, bring- 
ing our back, at the same time, in contact 
with the solid bed of the printing press. 
Then inserting our nose between his teeth 
and his hands in our hair, Ave had him ! 



Glorious Effect of National Music upon the 
Troops. 

When General Kearney's troops were 
being brought into action at the battle of 
Williamsburg, they met the lengthened 
files of General Hooker's Avounded being 
carried to the rear. The shrieks of the 
lacerated soldiers, bleeding and ghastly, 
Avho had been fighting so long and so well, 
pierced the air, and this, joined to the mud 
and rain, and the exhaustion of those Avho 
had come several miles Avith so much 
speed, Avas not calculated to produce a fa- 
vorable impression on them as they Avere 
going into action. General Heintzelman, 
however, ordered seA'eral of the bands to 
strike up national and martial airs, and 
when the strains of the familiar tunes 
reached the ears of the Avounded as they 
were being carried from the field, their 
cheers mingled Avith those of the soldiers 
Avho were just rushing into the battle. 
The effect, too, was great on the other 
side ; for some of the prisoners stated that 
when they heard the bands strike up the 
Star Spangled Banner, and heard our sol- 
diers cheer, they knew that the \-ictory 
Avould be ours. 



Bleeding-, but Had His Colors With Him. 
A sight at once horrible and sublime, 
Avas witnessed after the Gettysburg bat- 
tle, among the wounded heroes Avhose 
deeds had crowned with imperishable hon- 
or the history of that all-memorable day. 
A strong, stahvart felloAV, with the chev- 
rons of a sergeant on his arm, ragged and 
torn, Avas limping along sloAAdy, Avith agony 
terribly depicted upon his visage. The shoe 
on his risht foot Avas covered with blood. 




Head-quarters of Lee at Gettysburg. 

and a large rent in his* pantaloons, just 
above the knee, from which the blood Avas 
also trickling, solved the question of the 
location of his wound. He was hatless, 
his hair was disordered, his face and hands 
Avere begrimed Avith smoke and powder, 
and he looked altogether maniac-like and 
exhausted. But he had his colors with 
him! His regiment, or the greater part 
of it, had been either killed or captured ; 
he had lost his colors once, and Avas after- 
ward captured himself. He Avatched his 
opportunity, killed the rebel who held his 
flag, and escaped with it safely into the 
Union lines. Ought not the name of one so 
brave as he to be chiseled in monumental 
marble ? It Avas against such heroes as 
this, that Lee and his myrmidons franti- 
cally but vainly fought. 



288 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



" I Told You I Could Do It." 
The commander of Williston's battery 
observing that when the rebels fired there 
was one particular piece that was very 
annoying, on account of its shelling the 
head-quarters, turned to General Devens, 
and said, " For God's sake, General, let 
us knock that gun over, for I can do it." 
The General replied that he was afraid 
that he might hit some of Custer's men, 
who were but recently ordered out on the 
left. " They are not there," replied Wil- 
liston, " I should see them if they were. I 
know where I am going to shoot. I will 
not hit any one. I only want to knock 
that gun over." General Devens still hes- 
itating, Williston said, " Let me fire on my 
own responsibility, for God's sake. Will 
you do it ? " At last the General consent- 
ed, when — bang ! went one of the pieces, 
and over went the doomed gun, the car- 
riage shattered and dispersed instantly. 
" There," said the keen-eyed Williston, 
with a smile of triumph, " I told you I 
could do it ! " 



Song- of Patriotism in the Forest. 
During one of those eventful nights in 
Virginia, when the Federal troops lay in 
line of imminent battle behind their tempo- 
rary fortifications of dirt, mud, logs and 
rails, and the continuous crack of the sharp- 
shooter's rifle rolled startlingly along their 
front, a solitary voice struck in shrill but 
blithesome and melodious tone, the patri- 
otic song, a Rally round the flag, boys!" 
— and, almost instantly, those hundreds of 
men, who seemed to have been waiting, as 
it were, for something to dissipate the 
gloom which thoughts of the day's carnage 
had engendered, were shouting in a chorus 
which shook the depth of the forest's 
gloom, — 

" The Union, forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah' 

Down, down with the traitors, and up with the stars! " 

As down the line the strain of jubilee 
sped its electric course, the sound swelled 
into one vast diapason of deep-toned, ex- 
ultant song. The only reply of the enemy 



was the spiteful whistle of extra bullets 
from the skirmishing line — but whizzing 
harmlessly by. This unexpected but re- 
freshing little episode tended greatly to in- 
spire the hearts of the troops in that dis- 
mal locality. 



Humphreys' Deadly Charge at Fredericks- 
burg - . 

At the terrible battle of Fredericksburg, 
in 1862, Humphreys' division of Butter- 
field's corps was at one juncture resting on 
its arms in the streets of that city. General 
Butterfield sent an order to move it to the 
front. At the head of Allabach's second 
brigade, Humphreys crossed the mill-race, 
formed his men behind the crest ready for 
the charge, and Tyler's first brigade was fol- 
lowing closely after, ready to support. The 
line was formed, the column moved gal- 
lantly forward, reached the line of battle, 
passed fifty yards beyond, when a deadly 
fire from behind the stone wall caused it 
to recoil, and finally to fall back, re-form- 
ing under the crest from which it started. 
Humphreys and staff were dismounted in 
this charge, their horses being killed, while 
the brigade lost five hundred men in fifteen 
minutes. 

There was but one more chance. Ty- 
ler's brigade had come up, and notwith- 
standing the turmoil, General Humphreys 
had succeeded in forming it in gallant style. 
The only hope now was with the bayonet. 
The men were ordered not to fire — to rely 
solely upon their trusty steel. Then, with 
great exertion, the batteries and the line 
of troops on the crest were persuaded to 
cease firing while the charge was being 
made ; then General Hooker exhorted his 
men not to quail, not to look back ; to dis- 
regard the men in front who were lying 
down covered by every projection ; to ride 
over them. 

The officers were ordered to the front ; 
then the brigade, led in person by General's 
Tyler and Humphreys, moved forward 
with a glorious cheer. They reached the 
little rise in the ground, within eighty 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



289 



yards of the stone wall, where line after 
line of the Federals lay flat upon the 
ground : they began to move over the liv- 
ing mass, when suddenly the prostrate men 
cried out, " Don't go there, 'tis certain 
death ! " and, rising, began to impede the 
progress of the column, and by protests of 
every nature implored the men not to go 
forward. Then the crisis came. The 
division was fighting its maiden battle ; 
older troops than they quailed before the 
murderous volleys now making great gaps 
through their ranks ; the head of the charg- 
ing column was enveloped in a sheet of 
living flame ; the hideous shells were burst- 
ing all around and in their midst. Was it 
any wonder that they faltered ? The men 
began to load and fire ; the momentum of 
the charge was gone ; the column began to 
retire slowly, falling back to its place of 
formation. 

"Oh, men!" said Humphreys, "if you 
had only gone forward as well as you come 
back!" 

And then, again dismounted, his second 
horse having been killed, he reported the 
result to General Butterfield, who ordered 
him to withdraw his troops to a place of 

shelter. 

- « 

Price and Van Dorn Pitted Against Eose- 
crans. 

The battle of Corinth commenced on the 
.third day of October, 1862, the Confeder- 
ates under Price and Van Dorn being the 
attacking party. That day they seemed 
to have rather had the advantage. On the 
fourth, the contest was renewed at day- 
break, and for some hours continued to be 
waged with indifferent success. At length 
the great struggle followed, of which the 
annexed is an account ; — a struggle exhib- 
iting the masterworkings of modern gener- 
alship in the highest degree : 

For a time there were no demonstra- 
tions on the part of the Confederates, and 
they remained altogether quiet in the angle 
of the woods near the railroad. Present- 
ly two lines were formed, one at right an- 
gles to the other — the one destined with 



its reserves to sweep over the railroad, 
through the abattis into the village — the 
other with its reserves to attack battery 
' Robinett,' which was the key to the 
whole position. If once taken and held, 
Corinth was undeniably in rebel posses- 
sion. The line destined for the occupa- 
tion of the village came rapidly forward 
at a charge across the railroad, over the 
fallen timber, driving the Union line be- 
fore them like chaff. All that grape and 
canister could do to impede their progress 
was attempted, but still their irresistible 
pi-ogress was not stayed. Batteries of 
light artillery played upon their front and 
left incessantly ; their colors were thrice 
shot away ; but they came still onward, 
nor halted until they reached the public 
square, and formed in line of battle direct- 
ly in front of General Halleck's old head- 
quarters. The Federal line of battle was 
formed directly opposite, in the street lead- 
ing past General Rosecrans's head-quar- 
ters. 

The two armies advanced. A terrible 
hand-to-hand encoimter was engaged in, 
and for a time the destruction of the Union 
line seemed inevitable. It gradually yield- 
ed, -and fell back until the enemy had 
nearly reached the Corinth House. Here 
General Rosecrans rode along the line, and 
hi a few cheering words revived the droop- 
ing courage of the wearied soldiers. The 
Confederate reserve was at this time di- 
rectly in range of the guns on the redoubts 
to the left ; and huge shells began to drop 
in their midst, whose explosion in the solid 
masses began to create considerable confu- 
sion and loss of life. At the same time 
the order was given to " Charge bayonets." 
At this command the brave Union soldiers 
sprang to their work with a will. They 
attacked vigorously, and soon the enemy 
were flying across the public square in wild 
confusion. The explosion of the fiery mis- 
siles from the two batteries added haste to 
their movements, and by the time they had 
reached the cover of the timber, their re- 
treat had become a rout. 



290 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



By the time this line was driven back, 
the other line with their reserves were 
well advanced in the direction of battery 
Robinett. 

During the period of seeming inaction 
when the Confederates had withdrawn to 
the cover of the timber, while preparing 
to make the two charges in question, Gen- 
eral Price and his principal officers held a 
consultation to devise ways and means to 
take the battery. The importance of its 
capture was admitted, and the risk and 
danger of the attempt thoroughly can- 
vassed. General Price would not under- 
take the responsibility of ordering the at- 
tack, but called for volunteers. Colonel 
Rogers, of Arkansas, immediately tendered 
his brigade as the forlorn hope, and Colonel 
Ross Ids brigade as a support. 

They massed their troops eight deep, and 
advanced under a heavy fire of double 
charges of grape and canister. A terrible 
enfilading and flanking fire was poured 
upon them from every battery bearing in 
that direction, aided by incessant volleys 
of musketry from the supports of the bat- 
teries and the Union regiments drawn up 
in line parallel with them. 

The first shell from Battery William ex- 
ploded in the centre of the advancing col- 
umn, sending thirty or forty to their long 
home. Every discharge caused huge gaps 
in their ranks. The effect of the Federal 
fire was like the falling of grain before the 
scythe. But this tremendous mortality 
did not affect their irresistible onward 
march. As fast as one man fell his com- 
rade stepped forward in his place. Twice 
did they approach almost to the outer 
works of the battery, and twice they were 
compelled to fall back. The third time 
they reached the battery and planted their 
flag upon the edge. It was shot down — 
raised again — again shot down. They 
swarmed about the battery ; they climbed 
over the parapets ; they fired through the 
escarpments, and for a time it seemed as 
if they had secured the victory their valor 
had so richly earned. 



When they obtained the battery, the 
Federals who were working it fell back 
behind the projecting earth-works, out of 
reach from the Federal shells, and imme- 
diately all the batteries bearing upon the 
position were turned upon Battery Robi- 
nett, and soon a shower of missiles was 
falling like hail upOn the brave intruders. 
No mortal man could stand the fire, and 
they retreated. Slowly the brave remnant 
turned their unwilling steps toward the 
forest from which they started, when the 
order was given to the two regiments sup- 
porting the battery to charge. This order 
was splendidly executed. The miserable 
remnant of troops which the batteries had 
nearly destroyed was now almost annihila- 
ted. A few scattering troops were all that 
remained of the column which so valiantly 
attacked the battery scarcely an hour be- 
fore. The dead bodies of rebels were 
piled up in and about the intrenchments, in 
some places eight and ten deep. In one 
place directly in front of the point of as- 
sault, two hundred and sixteen dead bodies 
were found within a space of a hundred 
feet by four, among them the commanders 
of both brigades making the assault — Col- 
onel Rogers and Colonel Ross. 

This was the termination of the engage- 
ment. 



Holding- the Hill— Valor of Burnside. 

At four o'clock on the 17th of Septem- 
ber, during the great battle of Antietam, 
McClellan sent simultaneous orders to 
Burnside and Franklin; to the former to 
advance and carry the batteries in his front 
at all hazards and at any cost ; to the lat- 
ter to carry the woods next in front of him 
to the right, which the rebels still held. 
The order to Franklin, however, was prac- 
tically countermanded, in consequence of a 
message from General Sumner that if 
Franklin went on and was repidsed, his 
own corps was not yet sufficiently reorgan- 
ized to be depended on as a reserve. 

Burnside obeyed the order most gallant- 
ly. Getting his troops well in hand, and 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



291 



sending a portion of his artillery to the 
front, he advanced them with rapidity and 
the most determined vigor, straight up the 
hill in front, on top of which the rebels 
had maintained their most dangerous bat- 
tery. The movement was in plain view 
of McCIellan's position, and as Franklin on 
the other side sent his batteries into the 
field about the same time, the battle seemed 
to open in all directions with greater ac- 
tivity than ever. 

The fight in the ravine was in full pro- 
gress, the batteries which Porter supported 
were firing with new vigor, Franklin was 
blazing away on the right, and every hill- 
top, ridge, and wood along the whole line 
was crested and veiled with white clouds 
of smoke. All day had been clear and 
bright since the early cloudy morning, and 
now this whole magnificent, unequaled 
scene shone with the splendor of an after- 
noon September sun. Four miles of bat- 
tle, its glory all visible, its horrors all 
veiled, the fate of the Republic hanging 
on the hour! 

There are two hills on the left of the 
road, the furthest the lowest. The rebels 
have batteries on both. Burnside is or- 
dered to carry the nearest to him, which is 
the furthest from the road. His guns open- 
ing first from this new position in front, 
soon entirely controlled and silenced the 
enemy's artillery. The infantry came on 
at once, moving rapidly and steadily up, 
long dark lines, and broad dark masses, 
being plainly visible without a glass, as 
they moved over the green hill-side. The 
next moment the road in which the rebel 
battery was planted was canopied with 
clouds of dust swiftly descending into the 
valley. Underneath was a tumult of wag- 
ons, guns, horses, and men flying at speed 
down the road. Blue flashes of smoke 
burst now and then among them, a horse, 
or a man, or half a dozen went down, and 
then the whirlwind swept on. 

The hill was carried! But could it be 
held? The 'rebel columns, before seen 
moving to the left, increased their pace. 



The guns, on the hill above, sent an angry 
tempest of shell down among Burnside's 
guns and men. He had formed his columns 
apparently in the near angles of two fields 
bordering the road — high ground about 
them everywhere except in rear. In an- 
other moment a rebel battle-line appears 
on the brow of the ridge above them, moves 
swiftly down in the most perfect order, and 
though met by incessant discharges of mus- 
ketry, of which the flashes are plainly seen, 
does not fire a gun. White spaces show 
where men are falling, but they close up 
instantly, and still the line advances. The 
brigades of Burnside are in heavy column ; 
they will not give way before a bayonet 
charge in line. The rebels think twice 
before they dash into these two hostile 
masses. 

Now there is a halt ; the rebel left gives 
way and scatters over the field ; the rest 
stand fast and fire. More infantry comes 
up ; Burnside is out-numbered, flanked, 
compelled to yield the lull he took so brave- 
ly. His position is no longer one of at- 
tack ; he defends himself with unfaltering 
firmness, but he sends to McClellan for 
help. McCIellan's glass for the last half- 
hour has seldom been turned from the left. 
He sees clearly enough that Burnside is 
pressed — needs no messenger to tell him 
that. His face grows darker with anxious 
thought. Looking down to the valley 
where fifteen thousand troops are lying, he 
turns a half-questioning look on Fitz John 
Porter, who stands by his side, gravely 
scanning the field. They are Porter's 
troops below, are fresh, and only impatient 
to share in this fight. ■ But Porter slowly 
shakes his head, and one may believe that 
the same thought is passing through the 
niinds of both Generals : ' They ai'e the 
only reserves of the army ; they can not 
be spared.' McClellan remounts his borse, 
and with Porter and a dozen officers of his 
staff rides away to the left in Burnside's 
direction. Sykes meets them on the road 
— a good soldier, whose opinion is worth 
taking. The three Generals talk briefly 



292 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



together. It is easy to see that the mo- 
ment has come when everything may turn 
on an order given or withheld, when the 
history of the battle is only to be written 
in thoughts and words and purposes of the 
General. Burnside's messenger rides up. 
His message is — 

" I want troops and guns. If you do 
not send them I can not hold my posi- 
tion for half an hour." 

McClellan's only answer for the moment 
is a glance at the western sky. Then he 
turns and speaks very slowly : 

" Tell General Burnside that this is the 
battle of the war. He must hold his 
ground till dark at any cost. I Avill send 
him Miller's battery. I can do nothing 
more. I have no infantry." Then, as the 
messenger was riding away, he called him 
back — 

" Tell him if he can not hold his ground, 
then the bridge to the last man ! — always 
the bridge ! If the bridge is lost, all is 
lost." 

The sun is already down ; not half an 
hour of daylight is left. Till Burnside's 
message came it had seemed plain to every 
one that the battle could not be finished 
that day. None suspected how near was 
the peril of defeat, of sudden attack on ex- 
hausted forces — how vital to the safety of 
the army and the nation were those fifteen 
thousand waiting troops in the hollow. 
But — the rebels halted instead of pushing 
on ; their vindictive cannonade died away 
as the light faded. Before it was quite 
dark the battle was over. Only a solitary 
gun of Burnside's thundered against the 
enemy, and presently this also ceased, and 
the field was still. 



thusiasm among the weary, footsore braves, 
who counted as nothing all the pains of a 
march of one hundred and ninety-eight 
miles, now that they were within striking 
distance of the foe. Most of the way 
the ambulance train had been crowded 
with both officers and men, weary, worn 
and haggard ; but the cannon's rattle, as it 
became more and more distinct, changed , 
them in a twinkling into new creatures. 
The New Jersey Brigade, in General 



Preferred to Die in the Field. 
On Sunday, June 14th, 1863, orders 
were issued to pursue Lee's army, then 
moving toward Pennsylvania. At a dis- 
tance of fifteen miles from Gettysburg, 
where the armies were massing, were first 
caught the murmurs of the opening battle, 
and from that time the scene was all en- 




Preferred to die in the field. 

Sedgwick's corp, was of this body. At 
about three o'clock on the afternoon of the 
third of July, the head of the column ar- 
rived upon the battle-ground. As it came 
to a halt, a poor fellow, who looked the very 
image of death, hobbled out of the ambu- 
lance in which he had been lying, and, 
shouldering his musket, was just starting 
forward, when the surgeon in charge 
stopped him with — 

" Where are you going, Sir ? " — 

" To the front, Doctor," and the brave 
fellow tried hard to stand firm and speak 
boldly as he saluted the surgeon. 

" To the front ! What ! a man in your 
condition? Why, Sir, you can't march 
half a mile ; you haven't the strength to 
carry yourself, let alone your knapsack, 
musket, and equipments. You must be 
crazy, surely." 

" But, Doctor, my division are in the 
fight," (here he grasped the •wheel of an 
ambulance to support himself,) " and I have 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



293 



a younger brother in my company. I must 

go-" 

" But I am your surgeon, and I forbid 
you. You have every symptom of typhoid 
fever ; a little over-exertion will kill you." 
. " Well, Doctor, if I must die, I would 
rather die in the field than in an ambu- 
lance." 

The Doctor saw it was useless to debate 
the point, and the soldier went as he de- 
sired. But on the evening of the next day 
he was buried where he fell — for fall he 
did, — his right arm blown off at the elbow, 
and his forehead pierced by a Minie ball. 
His name could not then be learned ; but 
the heroic soldier belonged to the Third 
Division of the Sixth Corps, and that mark 
was placed at the head of his last resting- 
place. Peace to the brave. 



Phil. Sheridan at Stone River. 

On the dreadful morning which made 
Stone River memorable in the annals of 
blood and death, General Sheridan, when 
he emerged from his mangled division in 
solid phalanx from the frightful cedars, 
loomed up like a very giant. He was 
grave, firm and strong, and as Rosecrans 
dashed up to him in the tumult of battle, 
his deportment seemed to express : " You 
see, General, it was not the fault of my 
Division that we did not stay." He had 
lost his hat and fought bareheaded until a 
trooper handed him a covering — a dead 
soldier's cap, no doubt. Sunday morning, 
after the enemy had gone, Sheridan sitting 
on an old stump told the story quietly but 
graphically : 

" General, I lost seventeen hundred 
and ninety-six men, seventeen of them 
being officers, with my three brigade com- 
manders. These were the noble Sill, 
Roberts and Shaeffer — than whom more 
gallant fellows never fought under the 
flag!" 

Stone River made Sheridan a Major 
General, and they always said in the army 
of the Cumberland, " Phil Sheridan is the 



risjng man in the army ;" and when Grant 
put him in command of the cavalry in the 
Army of the Potomac, those who knew 
him said he was the right man in the right 
place. In the Shenandoah Valley, Sheri- 
dan's record is equal to that of Napoleon 
for successive brilliant victories. 

"No Quarter"— the Black Flag-. 
A genuine ' black flag ' was captured by 
the Federals, between Harpers' Ferry and 
Martinsburg, Virginia, the act being per- 
formed by one of the scouts of General 
Tyler, and by the latter was presented as 
a memorial of the Rebellion to the city of 
Philadelphia. It was the production of 
the ladies of Winchester, during the 
early part of 1862, — instigated, it is to 
be presumed, by the more sanguinary 
among the other sex, — and placed in the 
hands of one of the gangs of guerrillas af- 
terwards under the command of the re- 
doubtable Mosby. At the time the flag 
was thus put in possession of the chivalric 
sons of the sunny south, they were sworn 
to give no quarter to any Yankee who 
might fall into their hands, and they kept 
their oath up to the time of their memora- 
ble defeat at Winchester. The scout who 
captured the flag had enlisted with Mosby, 
and made himself very useful in stealing 
all the ' secesh ' horses that he could lay 
his hands on. After remaining with the 
Confederate band for some three weeks, he 
left, and brought into the Federal lines 
the celebrated flag, which he tore from its 
staff. It is of black alpaca, measuring 
about one yard and a quarter, with a star 
in the centre measuring some twenty-nine 
inches, and with the word ' Winchester ' 
printed in large letters. The words ' No 
quarter' are written with lead pencil in one 
corner. The flag was officially presented 
to Mayor Henry, of Philadelphia, on be- 
half of General Tyler, by Lieutenant 
Rankel, of the Third Pennsylvania Artil- 
lery, — to be finally placed in Independence 
Hall. 



294 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE BEBELLION. 



Following' their Leader. 

The crossing of Rolling Fork, by Gen- 
eral Rousseau, Avas an act every way in 
keeping with the character of that fine 
soldier. "We cross this ford," he ex- 
claimed, "never to retreat again to this 
side. We are to march forward. There 
is to be no backward movement. It is 
victory or death." 

The command was about to be given 
and repeated through the lines, when Gen- 
eral Rousseau, in the van, rising in the 
saddle, exclaimed, " Men, follow me ! I 
expect none of you to do what I am not 
willing to do myself," and, springing from 
his horse, he stepped briskly into the 
stream, and crossed the breast-high ford 
on foot. His men, cheering wildly, fol- 
lowed their General, crying they would 
" follow wherever he dared to lead." He 
did not falter until he had gained his end 
— nor did they. 



Eighth Ohio " Blazing' Away." 
While the National forces were stand- 
ing under the enemy's fire, on the day of 
the battle at Romney, Virginia, and the 
shot and shell went murderously in every 
direction, there was one ' personage ' who 
deliberately 'stumped' it. 

Captain Butterfield, of the Eighth Ohio 
regiment — being one of the ranking Cap- 
tains — acted as Major upon that occasion, 
and was obliged to ride an old sorrel horse, 
which had been used as a team horse, and 
required both spurs and whip, which the 
Captain had provided himself with, the 
latter cut from a tree, and about five feet 
long. It was found that the six pound 
guns of the Federals coidd not reach the 
Confederate battery, and Colonel Mason 
ordered Captain Butterfield to bring for- 
ward a brass twelve-pounder which was in 
the rear. 

Off sped the old sorrel and his. brave 
rider, and in a few moments up came the 
gun. Its position was assigned and made 
ready for the match, but the Captain came 



dashing back in front of the gun, and "the 
smell of powder or something else had 
made the old sorrel unmanagable almost, 
for in trying to wheel him to the front of 
the gun, the mo*e the Captain applied «the 
whip and spur, the more old sorrel refused 
to go. This kept the gunners hi terrible 
suspense, for much depended on that shot. 
Finally, the Captain finding his efforts to 
move his steed fruitless, he sang out at the 
top of his voice, " Never mind the old 
horse, blaze away ! " And sure enough, 
they did blaze away, and it proved a good 
shot, for it caused the Confederates to lim- 
ber up their battery and take to their 
heels. At that moment orders came to 
charge, and off dashed the old sorrel fright- 
ened at the discharge of the gun, which 
had scorched his tail, and mingled in the 
charge. He was lost to view until his ar- 
rival in town, where he was soon brought 
to a stand, the Captain standing in his 
stirrups, Avith his cap flying, cheering for 
the glorious victory that had been achieved. 



Delivery of their Ammunition before Surren- 
dering'. 

The surrender of Lexington to the Con- 
federate forces was rendered a necessity 
by the want of ammunition, as well as by 
the want of water. A few of the compa- 
nies had one or two rounds left, but the 
majority had fired their last bullet. After 
the surrender, an officer was detailed by 
Price to collect the ammunition, and place 
it in safe charge. The officer, addressing 
Adjutant Cosgrove, asked him to have the 
ammunition delivered. Cosgrove called 
up a dozen men, one after the other, and 
exhibiting the empty cartridge-boxes, said 
to the astonished Confederate officer, " I 
believe, Sir, we gave you all the am- 
munition we had before Ave had stopped 
fighting. Had there been any more, upon 
my Avord, you should have had it, Sir. 
But I will inquire, and if, by accident, 
there is a cartridge left, I will let you 
knoAV." The expectant officer turned 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



295 



away, doubtless reflecting upon the "glo- 
rious" victory of having captured men 
who had fired their last shot. 



Sherman "Watching- the Capture of F#rt Mc- 
Allister. 

On the evening of the 12th December, 
1864, General Howard, commanding one 
of the wings of Sherman's grand army in 
Georgia, relieved Hazen's Second Divis- 
ion of the Fifteenth Corps by a part of the 
Seventeenth, and threw it across the Lit- 
tle Ogeechee, toward the Great Ogeechee, 



with the view of crossing it to Osstibaw 

Island, and reducing Fort McAllister, which ' assistance with news 



" Look ! Howard ; there is the gun- 
boat ! " 

Time passed on, and the vessel now be- 
came visible, yet no signal from the fleet 
or Hazen. Half an hour passed, and the 
guns of the fort opened simultaneously 
with puffs of smoke that rose a few hun- 
dred yards from the fort, showing that Ha- 
zen's skirmishers had opened. A moment 
after, Hazen signaled — 

*' I have invested the fort, and will as- 
sault immediately." At this moment Beck- 
ley announces, "A signal from the gun- 
boat." All eyes are turned from the fort 
to the gunboat that is coming to their 
from home. A 



held the river. The Confederates had de- 
stroyed King's bridge, across the Great 
Ogeechee, and this had to be repaired. 



few messages pass, which apprise that 
Foster and Dahlgren are within speaking 
distance. The gimboat now halts and 



Captain Reese, topographical engineer of I asks — 



Howard's Staff, with the Missouri Engi- 
neers, prepared the timber and bridged the 
one thousand feet of river during the 
night, and, on the morning of the 13th, 
Hazen crossed and moved toward the 
point where Fort McAllister obstructed the 
river. Kilpatrick, in the meantime, had 
moved down to St. Catharine's Sound, 
opened communication with the fleet, and 
asked permission to storm Fort McAllister ; 
but Sherman did not give his consent, con- 
sidering it questionable whether the cav- 
alry, with its poor facilities and small sup- 
ply of artillery, could succeed. 

Hazen made his arrangements to storm 
the fort on the afternoon of the 13th, Gen- 
erals Sherman and Howard being at Che- 
roe's rice mill, on the Ogeechee, opposite 
Fort McAllister. Sherman was on the 
roof of the mill, surrounded by his stalf 
and signal officers, Beckley and Cole, 
waiting to communicate with Hazen, on 
t]\e Island. While patiently waiting for 
Hazen's signals, Sherman's keen eye de- 
tected smoke in the horizon, seaward. Up 
to this time he had received no intelligence 
from the fleet. In a moment the counte- 
nance of the bronzed chieftain lightened 
up, and he exclaimed : 



" Can we run up ? Is Fort McAllister 
ours ? " 

" No," is the reply ; " Hazen is just 
ready to storm it. Can you assist?" 

" Yes," is the reply ; " What will you 
have us do ? " 

But before Sherman can reply to Dahl- 
gren the thunders of the fort are heard, 
and the low sound of small arms is home 
across the three miles of marsh and river. 
Field glasses are opened, and, sitting flat 
upon the roof, the hero of Atlanta gazes 
away off to the fort. " There they go 
grandly — not a waver," he remarks. 

Twenty seconds pass, and again he ex- 
claims, 

" See that flag in the advance, How- 
ard ; how steadily it moves ; not a man 
falters, * * There they go still ; see 
the roll of musketry. Grand, grand." 

Still he strained Ids eyes, and a moment 
after spoke without raising his eyes — 

" That flag still goes forward ; there is 
no flinching there." 

A pause for a minute. 

" Look ! " he exclaims, " it has halted. 
They waver — no ! it's the parapet ! There 
they go again ; now they scale it ; some 
are over. Look! there's a flas on the 



296 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



works ! Another, another. It's ours ! 
The fort's ours ! " 

The glass dropped by his side ; and in 
an instant the joy of the great leader at 
the possession of the river and the opening 
of the road to his new base burst forth in 
words : — 

"As the old darkey remarked, dis chile 
don't sleep dis night ! " — and turning to 
one of his aids, Captain Auderied, he re- 
marked, " Have a boat for me at once ; I 
must go there ! " — pointing to the fort from 
which half a dozen battle-flags floated 
grandly in the sunset. 

And well might William Tecumseh 
Sherman rejoice, for here, as the setting 
sun went down on Fort McAllister re- 
duced, and kissed a fond good night to the 
starry banner, Sherman witnessed the 
culmination of all his plans and marches, 
that had involved such desperate resist- 
ance and risk — the opening up of a new 
and shorter route to his base. Here, at 
sunset, on the memorable 13th of Decem- 
ber, the dark waters of the Great Ogee- 
chee bore witness to the fulfillment of the 
covenant Sherman made with his iron 
heroes at Atlanta twenty-nine days before, 
to lead them victorious to a new base. 



Characteristic Pluck of a Western Soldier 
One December day, a Federal squad of 
some half-dozen soldiers left Col. Shack- 
leford's regiment, at Calhoun, Green river, 
Ky., to bring back three soldiers who had 
gone to Todd county. While on their route, 
after night, they came upon some Confed- 
erate cavalry, and the Nationals seeing that 
resistance would be useless, took the woods. 
One of them, named Wilkins, was sepa- 
rated from his companions, and in winding 
through the woods, came several times in 
close proximity to Confederate squads, but 
succeeded in eluding them. He at last 
overtook three of them, and seeing that 
his chances were desperate, he determined 
to join them and pass himself off as one of 
their number. By keeping a little in the 
rear he watched a favorable opportunity, 



when he drew his revolver, and firing 
rapidly, killed one, badly wounded another, 
and caused the third to take to flight. 
Wilkins succeeded in making his escape, 
and returned to camp at Calhoun, where 




Characteristic Pluck. 

a gentleman arrived the next day from 
Elkton, and stated that the Confederate 
cavalry reported that the country was 
overrun with Federal troops, and that they 
had been forced to retreat before a supe- 
rior force. 



Loved the Old Flag Still. 
After the battle of Mill Spring, when 
the Minnesota regiment returned to its 
quarters at Camp Hamilton, they marched 
past the Colonel's marquee with banners 
flying, and their splendid band playing 
" Hail Columbia." Standing in front of 
the tent were Dr. Cliff, Zollicoffer's Brigade 
Surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel Carter, of 
the Twentieth Tennessee (Confederate) 
regiment, and several of the Federal offi- 
cers. It was observed that " Hail Colum- 
bia " affected both the Confederate officers 
to tears — they wept like children — and 
Carter remarked that: "Although com- 
pelled to fight against the old flag, he 
loved it still." 



Fiendish Deeds of a Western Amazon. 
The operations of Sue Munday, the fe- 
male guerrilla, will long be remembered 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



297 



in Kentucky. About the middle of Octo- 
ber, 1864, Sue, in company with Captain 
Berry, made a descent at the head of their 
marauding gang, upon Jeffersontown, and 
took possession of the place. Sue Munday 
dismounted at the Davis House and had 
her canteen filled with whisky. A negro 
boy was mounted on horse, armed in the 
most complete manner, and rode with the 
gang. He stood guard over the horses, 
while the scoundrels were scattered about 
ie town engaged in robbing the people. 
The discharge of fire arms was heard 
by several parties residing in the vicinity, 
but they were ignorant of the cause. A 
short time, however, after these reports 
were heard, Mr. James Simpson, on his 
way to Jeffersontown, was met in the road 
by the outlaws and robbed of twenty- 
seven dollars in money. He observed that 
Sue Munday's pistol was empty, and the 
fresh stains showed that it had very re- 
cently been discharged. "While Mr. S. 
was being robbed, she was engaged in re- 
ading her revolver. She pointed the 
muzzle at the breast of Mr. S., and smiled 
with fiendish satisfaction at his embarrass- 
ment as she capped the tube of each bar- 
rel of the cylinder. After being released, 
Mr. Simpson rode directly to Jefferson- 
town and related his adventure. He was 
informed that, with the prisoner in Federal 
uniform, the party numbered eight when 
in town. He met but seven on the road, 
and no prisoners. 

The citizens at once surmised that the 
soldier had been murdered, and, following 
the trail of the guerrillas, they approached 
the dark ravine, and found their worst 
apprehensions too true. His body was 
marked with five pistol-shot wounds, and 
two deep stabs, as if made by the keen 
blade of a dagger. All the circumstances 
went to prove that the murder was com- 
mitted by one hand, and that hand Sue 
Munday's, the outlaw woman, and the 
wild, daring leader of the band. By a 
record in a small memorandum book, 
found upon the dead body, it was learned 
19 



that the name of the murdered man was 
Hugh Wilson. Upon his person was also 
found a letter dated Mount Vernon, Illi- 
nois, and presumed to be from his wife, as 
it commenced with ' My dear husband.' 
She wrote in an affectionate manner, and 
spoke with loving fondness of their pleas- 
ant home and the little darling ones who 
' sent love to pa.' This letter was found 
in his bosom, pierced by balls and stained 
with blood gushed in warm life-streams 
from his heart. 



Saved a Comrade's Life, "but Lost His Own. 

In one of the battles of the autumn 
campaign of 1864, there was a young man 
killed, a member of the Massachusetts 
Fifty-Eighth regiment, who used to live in 
the town of Concord. His name was 
Broad, and, on account of his having been 
connected with the ambulance train, he 
had never been in battle before. He met 
his death, at last, in the following manner, 
— than which no instance of braver self- 
devotion is anywhere on record : There 
was a man struck by a solid shot, it cut- 
ting one of his legs nearly off. The poor 
fellow was bleeding to death, but if 
brought off, would in all probability get 
well. Broad proved to be the only man 
who would volunteer to go out and fetch 
him in. It was almost certain death for 
any man ; but, said Broad, in the generos- 
ity and self-sacrifice of his noble nature, 

" I have neither wife nor child to suffer 
if I am killed." 

So out he went, and picked the bleeding 
soldier up, put him on his strong and wil- 
ling shoulder, and brought him safely in, 
though the bullets flew like hail around 
him. He came in so promptly that they 
all thought he had escaped the bullets. 
But, alas ! poor Broad himself was a mor- 
tally wounded man. He laid his burden 
tenderly on the ground, saying, as he did 
so, 

" I may have saved your'life, but I have 
lost my own." 

He had been shot through the bowels. 



298 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



and died very sojn after. He was 
brave a man as ever lived. 



"O'Meara is Dead." 
"O'Meara is dead, then?" said the 
General, at Chattanooga. " Yes, sir," re- 
plied the officer of the day, to whom the 
inquiry was addressed, " his body is about 
being sent forward." " Gallant O'Meara ! " 
continued Grant, as if communing with 
his own spirit, and the spirits of the brave 
around him, " Gone ! A braver man never 
filled a saddle." " He is at the landing 
now, waiting to be put on the boat." " I 
knew him well," the General spoke on, as 
if he heeded not what was said by his 
companion — " he was with us in the Army 
of the Tennessee. I shall never forget his 
noble defence of the trestle-work at Holly 
Springs. He saved us all from starvation. 
Noble O'Meara ! Brave Irish Legion ! " 
"Would you like to see him, General?" 
, fi I should, let us go." The two officers 
passed together to the little steamer by the 
levee of the river. It was a touching 
sight. A group of officers and men had 
gathered on the deck and levee, while 
others stood looking on along the adjacent 
heights. The coffin, covered with the 
American flag, lay on the army bier. The 
procession had halted, and the boat was 
about to start. " Stop the steamer a mo- 
ment," said the General, .solemnly : " I 
want to see him." An orderly removed 
the colors and the coffin-lid. The hero 
bent over his departed comrade, and drop- 
ped a silent tear on the cold face. His 
lip quivered, as it always did when he was 
experiencing deep emotion. He clasped 
his hands over the breast of the brave 
young Irish volunteer, who had come so 
willingly with him from the same State, 
who had stood so gallantly by his side in 
the deadly hurtlings of battle, who had 
fought so bravely to save his whole army 
from death by starvation, and who had now 
offered up a youthful life as a sweet, rich 
sacrifice on the altar of his country. An 
exile and a pilgrim from his own native 



land, he had come to America to die for 
the flag that is the emblem of liberty 
throughout the world. 

All Through a Mistake. 

The first battle of Bull Run broke the 
calm of a peaceful Sabbath in such a 
manner as was never known before in 
Virginia, and terrible must have been the 
scene at the farm houses of Mr. Lewis 
and Mrs. Henry, upon the knolls beyond 
the breastworks, where the awful carnage 
opened up. For hours the fighting goes 
on, with ghastly horror and varying suc- 
cess to both armies. There is marching 
to and fro of regiments. There is not 
much order. Regiments are scattered. 
The lines are not even. This is the first 
battle, and officers and men are inexperi- 
enced. There are a great many stragglers 
on both sides ; more, probably, from the 
rebel ranks than from McDowell's army, 
for thus far the battle has gone against 
them. You can see them scattered over 
the fields, beyond Mr. Lewis's. The fight 
goes on. The artillery crashes louder 
than before. There is a continuous rattle 
of musketry. It is like the roaring of a 
hail storm. Sherman and Keyes move 
down to the foot of the hill, near Mr. 
Lewis's. Burnside and Porter march 
across the turnpike. Franklin and How- 
ard and Wilcox, who have been pushing 
south, turn toward the southeast. There 
are desperate hand-to-hand encounters. 
Cannon are taken and re-taken. Gun- 
ners on both sides are shot while loading 
their pieces. Hundreds fall, and other 
hundreds leave the ranks. The woods to- 
wards Sudley Springs are filled with 
wounded men and fugitives, weak, thirsty, 
hungry, exhausted, worn down by the 
long morning march, want of sleep, lack 
of food, and the excitement of the hour. 
Across the plains, towards Manassas, are 
other crowds, — disappointed, faint-hearted, 
defeated soldiers, fleeing for safety. 

"We are defeated!" 

" Our regiments are cut to pieces ! " 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



299 



" General Bartow is wounded and Gen- 
eral Bee is killed! " 

Thus they cry as they hasten towards 
Manassas. Officers and men in the rebel 
ranks feel that the battle is all but lost. 
Union officers and men feel that it is 
almost Avon. 

The rebel right wing, far out upon the 
turnpike, has been folded back upon the 
centre ; the centre has been driven in upon 
the left wing, and the left wing has been 
pushed back beyond Mr. Lewis's house. 
Griffin's and Rickett's batteries, which had 
been firing from the ridge west of the toll 
gate, were ordered forward to the knoll 
from which the rebel batteries had been 
driven. 

" It is too far in advance," said General 
Griffin. 

"The Fire Zouaves will support you," 
said General Barry. 

"It is better to have them go in advance 
till we come into position ; then they can 
fall back," Griffin replied. 

" No ; you are to move first, those are 
the orders. The Zouaves are all ready 
to follow on the double quick." 

" I will go ; but, mark my words, they 
will not support me." 

The battery galloped over the fields, 
descended the hill, crossed the ravine, ad- 
vancing to the brow of the hill near Mrs. 
Henry's, followed by Rickett's battery, 
the Fire Zouaves, and the Fourteenth New 
York. In front of them, about forty or 
fifty rods distant, were the rebel batteries, 
supported by infantry. Griffin and Rick- 
etts came into position, and opened a fire 
so terrible and destructive that the rebel 
batteries and infantry were driven beyond 
the crest of the hill. 

The field was almost won by the Na- 
tional troops ; the Confederate troops ac- 
knowledged that at this time " all seemed 
about to be lost." 

The battle surges around the house of 
Mrs. Henry. She is lying there amidst 
its thunders. Rebel sharpshooters take 
possession of it, and pick off Rickett's gun- 



ners. He turns his guns upon the hcu^e. 
Crash ! crash ! crash ! It is riddled with 
grape and canister. Sides, roof, doors, 
and windows are pierced, broken, and 
splintered. The bed-clothes are cut into 
rags, and the aged woman instantly killed. 
The rebel regiments melt away. t The 
stream of fugitives toward Manassas 
grows more dense. Johnston has had 
more men and more guns engaged than 
McDowell ; but he has been steadily driv- 
en. But rebel reinforcements arrive from 
an unexpected quarter, — General Smith's 
brigade from the Shenandoah. It comes 
into action in front of Wilcox. There are 
from two to three thousand men. Gen- 
eral Smith is wounded almost at the first 
fire, and Colonel Elzey takes command. 
General Bonham sends two regiments, the 
Second and Eighth South Carolina. They 
keep south of Mrs. Henry's, and march 
on till they are in position to fire almost 
upon the backs of Griffin's and Rickett's 
gunners. They march through a piece of 
woods, reach the top of the hill, and come 
into line. Captain Imboden, of the rebel 
battery, who is replying to Griffin, sees 
them. Who are they ? He thinks they 
are Yankees flanking him. He wheels 
his guns, and is ready to cut them down 
with grape and canister. Captain Griffin 
also sees them, and wheels his guns. An- 
other instant and he will sweep them 
away. He believes them to be rebels. 
His gunners load with grape and canister. 

" Do not fire upon them ; they are your 
supports!" shouts Major Barry, alas! rid- 
ing up. 

" No, sir, they are rebels," replied the 
hawk-eyed Griffin. 

" They are your supports, just ordered 
up." 

" As sure as the world, they are rebels." 
insists Griffin. 

" You are mistaken, Captain, they are 
your supports." 

The cannoneers stand ready to pull the 
lanyards, which will send a tornado through 
! those ranks. 



300 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



" Don't fire !" shouts the Captain. 

The guns are wheeled again towards 
Mrs. Henry's, and the supposed ' supports ' 
are saved from destruction at the hand of 
Captain Griffin. 

Captain Imboden, before ordering his 
men -to fire upon the supposed Yankees, 
gallops nearer to them, to see who they 
are. He sees them raise their guns. 
There is a flash, a rattle and roll — Griffin's 
and Rickett's men and their horses go down 
in an instant ! They rush oh with a yell. 
There is sharp, but decisive work. Close 
musket-shots and sabre-strokes. Men are 
trampled beneath the straggling horses. 
There are shouts and hurrahs. The few 
soldiers remaining to support Griffin and 
Rickett fire at the advancing rebel brigade, 
but the contest is unequal ; they are not 
able to hold in check the three thou- 
sand fresh troops. They fall back. The 
guns are in the hands of the rebels. The 
day is lost. At the very moment of vic- 
tory the line is broken. In an instant all 
is changed. A moment ago we were 
pressing on, but now we are falling back. 
Quick almost as the lightning's flash is the 
turning of the tide. All through a mis- 
take! 



Reporting- at the Front. 
At Stone River, during the second day's 
fight, a young cavalry officer rode up to 
General Thomas for orders. " Report to 
Morton at the front," said the General, 
and shouting to hie men, the young man 
dashed on to where the battle was raging 
hotly. Morton was not there. On again 
he went, through the thick, smoke and the 
hurtling fire, to where Hazen was reaping 
a harvest of death on that terrible " half- 
acre"; but — Morton was not there. 
" Where is Morton ? " he cried. " At the 
front ! " came back from out of the smoke, 
and again he rode on — rode on past the 
Burnt House — past where Rosecrans sat 
like a statue amid a hail-storm of fire — 
past where a reeking funeral pile marked 
the outer line of intrenchments — on to the 



cannon-ploughed, death-strewed cotton- 
field. "Is he mad? Call him back! Call 
him back ! " shouted the General, but the 
bugle was drowned in the awful uproar, 
and still he rode onward. Amazed, the 
rebel gunners stood at their pieces, but 
straight at them he rode with his handful 
of men. " I say, rebs," he shcuted, " where 
is Morton ? " " Gone where you are go- 
ing," they answered, and the cannon echoed 
" Gone," and he Avent back again; not a 
man wounded. That young officer was 
Lieutenant Kelly, Fourth United States 
cavalry. 



One Day Before the Battle : Last Talk of John- 
ston with his Generals. 

The rebel army had warmed up to the 
highest point, in expectation of being the 
conquerors at Pittsburg Landing. The 
troops had received five days' rations on 
Friday, meat and bread in their haver- 
sacks. They were not permitted to kindle 
a fire, except in holes in the ground. No 
loud talking Avas allowed ; no drums beat 
the tattoo, no bugle-note rang through the 
forest. They rolled themselves in their 
blankets, knowing at daybreak they were 
to strike the terrible blow. They were 
confident of success. They were assured 
by their officers it would be an easy victo- 
ry, and that on Sunday night they should 
sleep in the Yankee camp, eat Yankee 
bread, drink real coffee, and have new suits 
of clothes. 

In the evening, General Johnston called 
his corps commanders around his bivouac 
fire for a last talk before the battle. Al- 
though Johnston was commander-in-chief, 
Beauregard planned the battle. Johnston 
was Beauregard's senior, but the battle- 
ground was in Beauregard's department. 
He gave directions to the officers. 

Mr. William G. Stevenson, of Kentucky, 
who was in Arkansas when the Avar broke 
out, Avas impressed into the rebel service. 
He acted as special aide-de-camp to Gen- 
eral Breckinridge in that battle. He 
escaped from the rebel service a feAV 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



501 



months later, and published an interesting 
narrative of Avhat he saw. He stood out- 
side the circle of Generals, waiting by his 
horse in the darkness to carry any des- 
patch for his commander. He says : 

In an open space, with a dim fire in the 
midst, and a drum on which to write, you 
could see grouped around their ' Little 
Napoleon,' as Beauregard was sometimes 
fondly called, ten or twelve Generals, the 
flickering light playing over their eager 
faces, while they listened to his plans, and 
made suggestions as to the conduct of the 
fight. 

Beauregard soon wanned with his sub- 
ject, and, throwing off" his cloak, to give 
free play to his arms, he walked about the 
group, gesticulating rapidly, and jerking 
out his sentences with a strong French ac- 
cent. All listened attentively, and the 
dim light, just revealing their counte- 
nances, showed their different emotions of 
confidence or distrust of his plans. 

General Sidney Johnston stopd apart 
from the rest, with his tall, straight form 
standing out like a spectre against the dim 
sky, and the illusion was fully sustained 
by the light-gray military cloak which he 
folded around him. His face was pale, but 
wore a determined expression, and at times 
he drew nearer the centre of the ring, and 
said a few words, which were listened to 
with great attention. It may be he had 
some foreboding of the fate he was to meet 
on the morrow, for he did not seem to take 
much part in the discussion. 

General Breckinridge lay stretched out 
on a blanket near the fire, and occasionally 
sat upright and added a few words of coun- 
sel. General Bragg spoke frequently, and 
with earnestness. General Polk sat on a 
camp-stool at the outside of the circle, and 
held his head between his hands, buried in 
thought. Others reclined or sat in various 
positions. 

For two hours the council lasted, and as 
it broke up, and the Generals were ready 
to return to their respective commands, 



General Beauregard said, raising his hand 
and pointing in the direction of the Fed- 
eral camp, whose drums could be plainly 
heard : 

"Gentlemen, we sleep in the enemy's 
camp to-morrow night ! " 

The brilliant result to the Union forces 
of this great conflict is well known. 



"Work of a Second. 

There was in the trenches in front of 
Fort Donelson a rebel soldier with a rifle- 
shot through his head, whose case was in- 
deed an interesting one. He was an ex- 
cellent marksman, and had killed or wound- 
ed several Union officers. One of Colonel 
Birges's sharpshooters, an old hunter, who 
had killed many bears and wolves, crept 
up towards the breastworks to try his hand 
upon the rebel. They fired at each other 
again and again, but both were shrewd 
and careful. The rebel raised his hat 
above the breastwork, — whi-z ! The 
sharpshooter out in the bushes had put a 
bullet through it. " Ha ! ha ! ha ! " laughed 
the rebel, sending his own bullet into the 
little puff of smoke down hi the ravine. 
The Rocky Mountain hunter was as still 
as a mouse. He knew that the rebel had 
outwitted him, and expected the return 
shot. It was aimed a little too high, and 
he was safe. 

" You ^heated me that time, but I will 
be even with you yet," said the sharp- 
shooter, whirling upon his back, and load- 
ing his rifle and whirling back again. He 
rested his rifle upon the ground, aimed it, 
and lay with his eye along the barrel, his 
finger upon the trigger. Five minutes 
passed. " I reckon that that last shot fixed 
him," said the rebel; "he hasn't moved 
this five minutes." 

He raised his head, peeped over the em- 
bankment, — fell back lifeless ! The uner- 
ring rifle-bullet of the old hunter had 
passed instantly through his head. It was 
but the deadly work of one swift-fleeting 
second. 



302 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Ragged Texans : Boots and Booty. 
In one of the frightful contests near 
Yorktown, Virginia, some notable instances 
of bravery and reckless daring occurred, 
nor was this confined to one of the great 
armies only. Conspicuous among these 
cases was the conduct of a tall, hard-fisted, 
and very ragged Texan soldier, who was 
hunting up, very cautiously, "a pair of 
boots and pants." He was warned by his 
Confederate comrades not to show his head 
above the parapet, for the Yankee sharp- 



and delighted at these discoveries ; but 
when he examined the haversack and found 
it well stored with capital rations, inclu- 
ding a canteen full of fine rye whisky, he 
Avas electrified with sudden joy, dropped 
boots, haversack, and money, upon the 
ground, and half emptied the canteen at a 
draught. Setting down the can, he smacked 
his lips, and thus soliloquized upon his rare 
adventure : 

" Well, poor devil, he's gone, like a 
mighty big sight of 'em ; but he was a 




Ragged Texans. 



shooters, armed with rifles of a lqng range, 
with telescopic " sights," were " thick as 
blackberries " in the woods to the front, 
and were excellent shots. " Darn the blue- 
skins, any how ; who's scared of the blue- 
bellies ? (That is, Eastern men.) Let all 

the Yankees go to , for all I care. 

Let 'em shoot, and be — ! I'm bound to 
have a pair of boots, any how ! " And so 
saying, the rash fellow passed over the 
parapet, down its face, and returned with 
the body of a Federal, which he had fished 
out of the water. He first pulled off the 
boots, which proved to be an excellent 
pair ; then, "proceeding to rifle the pockets, 
he found the handsome booty of sixty 
dollars in gold. He was much astonished 



gentleman, and deserved better luck. If 
he'd been a Massachusetts Yankee, I 
wouldn't cared a darn ! but these fellows 
are the right kind. They come along, as 
they should, with good boots and pants, lots 
to eat, money in their pockets, and are no 
mean judges of whisky. These are the 
kind of fellows I like to fteht ! " 



Bleeding to Death, but Sound as a Trout. 
After the fight at Manassas had termi- 
nated, Adjutant Flint, of the Confederate 
ranks, was detailed as one of a burying 
party, and was out all night and most of 
the following day. As his regiment had 
been engaged near Centreville, he was 
hunting along the slopes for any poor fel- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



303 



low who required assistance, when his at- 
tention was called to moans in the bushes 
near by. Calling some comrades, search 
was made for the sufferer. They found 
him leaning againat a tree, near which a 
shell had exploded — his countenance was 
ghastly pale, and he rolled his eyes appar- 
ently in great torture. " What's the mat- 
ter, Lieutenant ? " he was asked ; but he 
groaned and fell on his face. " What can 
we do for you ? " inquired another. " Oh ! 
leave me to my fate, boys," was the sor- 
rowful and faint reply. " I am dying every 
minute, and can't last long — I'm bleeding 
internally, and my blood is flowing fast ! 
Farewell to my own sunny South ; good 
bye, boys, and if any body shall ever visit 
Holly Springs, tell 'em that Shanks died 
like a patriot for his country, and shot four 
Yankees before he fell ! Give my love to 
the Colonel and all the rest of the boys, 
and when you write, don't fail to give my 
last dying regards to Miss Sally Smith, if 
any on ye know her, and say I was faith- 
ful to the last— faithful to the last." 

Affected beyond all words by the poor 
Lieutenant's simplicity and sufferings, they 
determined to carry him to the nearest am- 
bulance, and ask a doctor to look at his 
wound. They placed him in a blanket, 
and in solemn procession had proceeded 
about half a mile, when he positively re- 
fused to go farther. " Let me down gent- 
ly, boys, I can't stand shaking — there isn't 
much blood in me now, anyhow, and I feel 
I'm passing away from this vale of tears 
and wicked world every minute, and can't 
last long." A doctor was passing at the 
time, with sleeves rolled up, looking more 
like a gentleman butcher than anything 
else, and in whispers he was told of the 
condition of poor Shanks, who was now 
groaning more piteously than ever. "I 
think he's bleeding internally, doc," said 
Adjutant Flint, " for I don't see any blood, 
although his momentary contortions are 
awful to look at — if he wasn't suffering 
so much I should be tempted to laugh." 



"Where are you hit, Lieutenant?" in- 
quired the surgeon tenderly. " Oh ! don't 
touch me, doc, pray don't — I'm mortally 
wounded under the left shoulder blade, the 
ball has ranged downwards, and I'm bleed- 
ing internally ! " 

In a trice, Shanks's coat was cut in all 
directions, but yet there was no Around vis- 
ible, until, to stop his lamentable groans, 
the surgeon asked again : " Where are you 
hit, — don't groan everlastingly, Shanks, but 
place your hand upon the wound, and let's 
see what can be done for you." The place 
indicated was as sound as any part of his 
body, and after searching in vain for half 
an hour, and cutting the clothes off his 
back in search of blood, the doctor gave 
Shanks a slap, laughing as he said — 

" Get up, Shanks, and don't make a fool 
of yourself any longer ; you are as sound 
as a trout, man — your wound is all imagi- 
nary." 

They all began to laugh heartily, and 
were about to take signal vengeance on 
him for making them carry him half a mile 
through the mud and bushes, when Shanks 
jumped up as lively as ever and threatened 
to whip any man who should dare laugh 
at him — a threat that would have been ful- 
filled to the letter. It seems that a shell 
had burst within a few feet of him, and 
feeling certain that he was wounded by a 
fragment, he suffered all the symptoms of a 
wounded and dying man. In proof of his 
sincerity, poor Shanks had lain out in the 
rain all night, and when found he looked 
the most lamentable object for a first Lieu- 
tenant that could be imagined. The story 
got wind pretty universally, and Shanks 
always had an engagement on hand to 
' whip somebody,' until at Gaines' Mill he 
at last fell mortally wounded. 



"Waving: the Stars and Stripes from the Sum- 
mit of Lost Mountain. 

The battle of Lost Mountain, in Georgia, 
was one of the most severe battles of the 
war of the rebellion. At daylight on the 



304 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



seventeenth of June, 18G4, the Union right 
was in motion from the third line of rifle- 
pits on Lost Mountain ; and as Hooker 
advanced steadily, he was only supported 
by Schofield, immediately on his left. 
From the beginning the battle raged furi- 
ously ; each succeeding line of rebel works 
was found stronger, and the ascent, as the 
National forces neared the top of the 
mountain, grew more difficult and danger- 
ous. The rebels, too, fought more obstin- 
ately the further they retired, and their 
fire continued to increase in deadly fury 
and power. 

At eight o'clock, the fourth line of rifle- 
pits was carried, resulting in the capture 
of a few rebel prisoners, and of nearly all 
their wounded. The troops who occupied 
the works only left them when absolutely 
pushed out ; for in many places the assail- 
ants and assailed were mingled together 
in a hand-to-hand encounter for several 
minutes, before the Union troops could ob- 
tain positive possession. Schofield moved 
forward toward Pine Hill, carefully keep- 
ing up the unity between his right and 
Hooker's left, and, after a pretty stubborn 
resistance on the part of the rebels, he 
carried two lines of their earthworks. 

After so furious an onslaught as was 
made in the morning, it became necessary 
to rest and recuperate the men for an 
hour or more, which was done by the lines 
lying down in the ditches from which they 
had just dispossessed the enemy. About 
eight o'clock the onset was renewed, and 
more furious fighting occurred ; but the 
Union march was onward, with steady 
tread, and the resistance of the rebels only 
availed to sacrifice thousands of lives on 
both sides — nothing more. From that 
time there was no halt, no real check ; and 
by one o'clock, at high noon, the Stars and 
Stripes waved from the summit of Lost 
Mountain, and Hooker stood proudly on 
the top, greeted by the voices of ten thou- 
sand of as gallant soldiers as ever fired a 
shot or charged a bayonet. 



Bloody Sabre-Charge by Colonel Minty. 

General Kilpatrick made a brilliant raid 
upon the rebel region around Atlanta, 
Georgia, in August, just preceding the 
fall of that place. Four days of constant 
fighting was had under Kilpatrick, and the 
damage and destruction was great. 

Suddenly, however, the Union forces 
were surrounded. With wild yells a Avhole 
division of Confederate cavalry (Jack- 
son's,) five thousand strong, Avere seen 
coming down on the keen run, accompa- 
nied by ten pieces of artillery. Ere Kil- . 
patrick had time to learn what was coming, 
a spirited attack was made upon the rear, 
and shells came tearing over the fields and 
bursting over the columns. Kilpatrick's 
keen eye soon comprehended the situation. 

Minty's brigade was instantly with- 
drawn and hastily formed along the road, 
in line of regimental column. While oth- 
er regiments which were to charge simul- 
taneously with Minty's, were being ma- 
noeuvred into position to meet the on- 
slaught of the rebels, who Avere SAveeping 
doAvn upon them, the men had time to see 
the danger that surrounded them — rebels 
to the right of them, rebels to the left of 
them, rebels in the rear of them, rebels in 
front of them — surrounded, there was no 
salvation but to cut their way out. Spec- 
tres of Libby prison and starvation flitted 
across their vision, and they saAV that the 
deadly conflict coidd not be avoided. 
Placing himself at the head of his brigade, 
the gallant and fearless Minty drew his 
sabre, and his voice rung out clear and 
loud, 

" Attention, column ; forward, trot, regu- 
late by the centre regiment, inarch, gallopi 
march ! " 

AAvay the brigade Avent Avith a yell that 
echoed loud across the valleys. The ground 
from Avhich the start Avas made, and oAer 
Avhich they charged, Avas a plantation of 
about two square miles, thickly streAvn with 
patches of Avoods, deep water cuts, fences, 
ditches, and morasses. At the Avord, aAvay 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



305 



went the bold dragoons, at the height of 
their speed. Fences were jumped, ditches 
were no impediment. The rattle of the 
sabres, mingled with that of the mess 
kettles and frying-pans, that jingled at the 
sides of the pack mule brigade, which 
were madly pushed forward by the fright- 
ened darkies who straddled them. 

Charging for their very lives, and yell- 
ing like unchained devils, Minty and his 
troopers encountered the rebels behind a 
hastily erected barricade of rails. Press- 
ing their rowels deep into their horses' 
flanks, and raising their sabres aloft, on, 
on — on, nearer and nearer to the rebels 
they plunged. The terror-stricken enemy 
could not withstand the thunderous wave 
of men and horses that threatened to en- 
gulf them. They broke and ran, just 
as Minty and his troopers Avere urging 
their horses for the decisive blow. In an 
instant all was confusion. The yells of 
the horsemen were drowned in the clash- 
ing of steel and the groans of the dying. 
On pressed Minty in pursuit, his men's 
sabres striking right and left and cutting 
down everything in their path. The rebel 
horsemen were seen to reel and pitch 
headlong to the earth, while their frighten- 
ed steeds rushed pell-mell over their bod- 
ies. Many of the rebels defended them- 
selves with almost superhuman strength, 
yet it was all in vain. The charge of 
Federal steel was irresistible. The heads 
and limbs of some of the poor rebels were 
actually severed from the bodies — the 
head of the rider falling on one side of 
the horse, the lifeless trunk upon the other. 
Hardly a Union man flinched, in the work 
of death, and when the brigade came out, 
more than half the sabres were stained or 
clotted with blood. Three stands of colors 
were captured — the Fourth United States 
taking two, and the Fourth Michigan one. 
Colonel Minty, whose soldierly form was 
conspicuous in the charge, urging his men 
to follow his lead, had his horse shot under 
him. 



Remember Fort Pillow ! 
The terrible butchery of colored Union 
soldiers at Fort Pillow — kiHed in cold 
blood, instead of being treated as prisoners 
of war — by General Forrest, the Confed- 
erate commander at that post, sent a feel- 
ing of horror throughout the entire coun- 
try. It did not, however, excite astonish- 
ment on the part of those acquainted with 
the antecedents of the rebel chieftain. 
About the middle of the summer of 18G2, 
Forrest surprised the post of Murfrees- 
boro, commanded by Brigadier-General 




Itemember Fort Pillow.'' 



Crittenden, of Indiana. The garrison was 
composed mostly of the Ninth Michigan 
and Second Minnesota infantry and the 
Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry. After 
some little fighting, the troops were sur- 
rendered. A mulatto man, who was a 
servant of one of the officers of the Union 
forces, was brought to Forrest on horse- 
back. The latter enquired of him, with 
many oaths, ' What he was doing there ? ' 
The latter answered that he was a free 
man, and came out as a servant to an offi- 
cer — naming the officer. Forrest, who was 
on horseback, deliberately put his hand to 
his holster, drew his pistol, and blew the 
man's brains out. This statement was made 
by a Confederate officer, with the additional 



306 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



fact that the mulatto man came from Penn- 
sylvania, that the murdered man was not 
a soldier, and, indeed, the occurrence took 
place before the United States Govern- 
ment determined to arm negroes for mili- 
tary service. 

But the example set by General Forrest 
at Fort Pillow furnished the colored troops 
with an avenging watch-word, when, some 
time afterwards, a force of Union black 
troops was sent out, opposite Natchez, 
Mississippi, to disperse a similar force of 
rebels. The latter were badly whipped 
and routed. The blacks went into battle 
with the rallying cry of " Remember Fort 
Pilloiv" Eleven men were captured, but 
were immediately put to the sword on the 
spot where they surrendered. One rebel 
dropped upon his knees before a black 
soldier, and begged for his life. The 
soldier turned to his Captain and said, 

" Captain, what shall I do with this 
man ? " 

" Do with him as he would do with you 
if he was in your place and you was in 
his," was the quick reply. 

Swift as thought, a loyal bullet was sent 
from a Colt revolver through the rebel's 
head, and he fell dead at the hands of one 
who, to that extent, had avenged the 
wrongs of his race. It was the example 
set at Fort Pillow and the policy there in- 
itiated, legitimately carried out. 



the rebel fire, as camly as possible, to 
await developments. The soldiers with- 
in the fort could not raise above the para- 
pet to fire at them, for if they did a hun- 
dred bullets came whizzing through the 
air, and the adventurers were ' nowhere.' 



How the Flag was Planted at "Vickstmrg-. 
For two long hours a terrible cannon- 
ade was carried on during one of the 
eventful days before Vicksburg, when on 
the left, in Smith's, Carr's, and Osterhaus' 
division, a charge Avas made. Winding 
through the valleys, clambering over the 
hills, everywhere subjected to a murder- 
ous enfilading and cross fire, they pressed 
up close to the rebel works to find that a 
deep ditch, protected by sharp stakes along 
the outer edge, lay between them and the 
intrenchments. They planted their flag 
directly before the fort, and crouched down 
behind the embankment, out of range of 




Use for a Shell. 



They adopted another plan. Taking a 
shell, they cut the fuse close off, lighted it, 
and rolled it over the outer slope of the em- 
bankment. Subsequently, with picks and 
shovels, a way was dug into one fort, and 
through the breach the boys walked brave- 
ly in. 

* 

One of Bill Myers's Capers in Missouri. 

Bill Myers was one of the earliest and 
most notorious bushwhackers and horse 
thieves in Missouri ; his stealing of horses, 
guns, and everything else that came in tke 
Avay, being all done in the name of tlfe 
" Southern Confederacy," and he was a 
kind of mean fac-simile of Jeff. Thomp- 
son, and other ' Generals ' of the same 
stripe in that region, in those dark days 
of war and persecution. 

Soon after Bill commenced his patriotic- 
career, he stole from a Union man one of 
the finest horses in the neighborhood, and 
continued to use him as his war-horse 
through many hard chases, both in pursuit 
of plunder and in retreat from the pursuit 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



307 



of the avenging Union soldiers, until lie 
was completely broken down and used up. 
In this condition, Bill rode him into the 
neighborhood whence he stole him, and 
where he (Myers) had previously lived. 

Bill had a particular friend named 
M'Fadden, who owned a fine farm, plenty 
of fine horses, cattle, etc., and a few lively 
darkies ; and there Bill went by night, con- 
fident of a warm reception and good lodg- 
ings for himself and his broken-down 
horse. 

M'Fadden was like thousands in Mis- 
souri, who " took no sides — no part nor lot 
in the Avar " publicly, but would privately 




Jeff. Thompson. 

a id and encourage the bushwhackers in 
every way possible, when it could be done 
without detection. A watch being set to 
guard against any sudden surprise, Bill en- 
tertained his host with many an adventure 
and hairbreadth escape from capture and 
death, in which his listener was greatly in- 
terested and deeply sympathized. M' Fad- 
den noticed the wretched condition of Bill's 
horse, the property of a former intimate 
friend, but now abused as " a black Repub- 
lican," who had contributed but a very 
small amount of what he ought to do in 
support of Southern rights ; and urged Bill 
by all means to get a better horse — that 
one doing the service and running the risks 
he did, in support of " our cause," ought to 



be well mounted all the time, and that not 
at his own expense — it being understood, 
of course, at the expense of " black Re- 
publicans." 

The justice of these ideas was admitted 
by Bill, who, however, spoke of the risks 
of thus taking horses wherever he could 
find them, the exasperation of the commu- 
nity at that kind of war, and of the injury 
it had done to their cause, however proper 
in itself. M'Fadden thought all such 
qualms of conscience out of place, and 
urged, " Every thing for the cause ; noth- 
ing for men." But it was growing late, 
and as Bill had to be up and off before 
daylight, as the " Feds " might be about, 
with many kind wishes and hopes of suc- 
cess each retired to bed with the under- 
standing that Bill, knowing where to find 
his poor broken-down horse, would wait on 
himself when he should leave before the 
light of dawn. 

M'Fadden had got too much exhilarated 
by the exciting scenes narrated by his 
friend Bill to sleep soundly. He was 
wakeful, and distinctly heard the soft foot- 
steps of Bill as he retired quietly, in order 
not to awake his friend or his family, or to 
arouse the suspicion of any thing " wrong 
in Denmark." But M'Fadden was re- 
joiced to know that Bill was again safely 
" at sea "• in the bush, and that nothing had 
occurred to betray him, M'F., as the liar- 
borer of a bushwhacker. 

But alas for the sequel! Quite early in 
the morning the contraband whose business 
it was to feed the horses and prepare for 
the work of the day came thundering at 
his master's door, with — 

" Master, master ! your fine bay hoss, 
Ned Buntline, is dun bin stole and gone, 
and dat old broke-down gray boss what 
Massa Bill rode is thar in the stable whar 
your hoss Avas ! " 

Springing from the bed as if an earth- 
quake A\ r as just beginning to rumble, 
M'Fadden cried out, " Oh, surely, Jack, 
you are mistaken ! " But quickly as possi- 
ble he hauled on his troAvsers and ran to 



308 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



the stable ; and, sure enough, there teas 
old gray — once the elegant charger of his 
old friend and neighbor, but now a hated 
" black Republican," the designation of all 
Union men in that region — and his own 
fine bay was out and gone, " and if for- 
ever," " then still forever," etc. If the 
quotations be not right, readers can hunt 
up the documents for themselves ; but the 
facts of the case are too palpable to be 
misunderstood. Bill had taken his friend's 
advice, and merely exchanged old gray for 
a better charger, — fully agreeing with 
M'F., " Every thing for the causes-noth- 
ing for men," and that qualms of conscience 
were, after all, decidedly out of place. 

But the misfortune did not stop here. 
Had it been in a distant neighborhood from 
the old home of Bill, M'Fadden might have 
retained " old gray," as a stray waiting for 
the call of his proper owner ; but, being 
right at home, old gray, though badly 
broken-down, was too easily recognized to 
be retained on the farm, and was forthwith 
sent home to his proper owner, with the 

•igular explanation that he was found in 
table in place of his own fine bay, 
.11 was supposed to be stolen by some 
unknown bushwhacker. 



time ordering him to come out. After 
looking at Reed for a second, he complied 
with the order. On their leaving the house 
together, the prisoner stated that he was 
a member of Ashby's cavalry, and had 
stopped there to get something to eat. He 
then said : " Since you have got me, you 
may as well have my horse." So they 
walked round to the barn and got his horse, 
also a sabre and a carbine. They then 
proceeded to where the boys had quartered 
themselves, and the gallant private deliv- 
ered to General Geary the prisoner whom 
he had taken from his very domestic re- 
treat. 



Long- Table-Cloths for Southern Cavalrymen. 
Private Reed, of the Seventh Ohio reg- 
iment, while making a reconnoissance with 
other soldiers, in Virginia, was sent to 
search a house about eight hundred yards 
from the road. He went up to the house 
and walked in, but on opening the door 
could not see anybody in the house. The 
table was set, ready for breakfast, the table- 
cloth hanging down, touching the floor. He 
first looked under the bed, but in vain. As 
he was about to go away he thought he 
would look under the table ; so he lifted 
the cloth, and, lo ! a pair of spurs and also 
a cavalryman attached to them ! He lay 
there so quiet, that death would not have 
been more so. As soon as he discovered 
him, Reed, cocking his piece, presented it 
to the hiding man's breast, at the same 



Not Yankees, but— "Wolford's Cavalry. 
Wolford's cavalry distinguished itself by 
some dashing and remarkable exploits in 
its campaign of 1862, in Tennessee and 
that region. That which took place in the 
neighborhood of New Haven was one of 
the most brilliant and successful. Coming 
upon the enemy suddenly, Captain Adams 
shouted : " Halt ! and present arms ! " All, 
with the precision and coolness of veterans, 
in a moment leveled their gims upon the 
now panic-stricken, confused enemy ; and 
the Captain at the top of his voice called 
out : " I demand your immediate, uncondi- 
tional surrender." " To whom must I sur- 
render ? " called out Colonel Crawford in 
command of the Third Georgia cavalry, as 
he now stepped forward. "To Captain 
Adams, commanding the First Kentucky 
cavalry," replied the Captain. " Give me 
a few moments to consult my officers, will 
you ? " said the Colonel. " I have no time 
to fool away," said the Captain. " Two 
minutes and a half, Sir, and I will order 
my men to work upon you." " If I have 
only that time, Captain," said the Colonel, 
" I will surrender at once, expecting good 
treatment from so gallant an officer and 
such- brave men as you have the honor to 
command." The camp was accordingly 
surrendered, and the whole force, consist- 
ing of nearly all the Third Georgia cav- 
alry, a few of iie First Kentucky seces- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



309 



would inevitably call clown upon him the 
hatred of the vast and murderous mob. 
But Crowley was not made of such stuff. 
He had sworn to stand by his standard, and 
with him it was either succeed, or die in 
the attempt. Pistols were freely fired, but 
the company saw at their head that stand- 
ard proudly leading them on. No one 
who has never been in actual service can 
imagine how the colors of a regiment keep 
up its courage. So long as they are de- 
fiant, the company have light hearts ; if 
they should be taken away, a strange dis- 
trust runs through the whole force. 

As it was, the troops had lost their band, 
— they did not even have a fife and dram, 
— and so they kept their eyes upon this 
standard. Tramp, tramp, tramp — left, left, 
left, — the music of their own steady, meas- 
ured tread, — this was all they had. Crow- 
ley was the target for many a missile, for 
the mob knew that to disgrace the regi- 
ment, it was only necessary to down with 
the standard. Paving-stones flew thick 

Bearing the Standard through Baltimore. an( j f ast? gome j ust grazing Crowley's head, 
Previously to the departure of the Sixth j and some hitting the standard itself. Amid 

Massachusetts regiment for the defence | all this, the everlasting pluck of Crowley 



sion cavalry, and some of the Texas 
Rangers, — and all without the firing of a 
gun. Before the other gallant fellows 
could come up, the. whole affair was over, 
and they only had the pleasure of feeling 
that they had also gallantly done their 
part, in coming up to the support of the 
more fortunate advance, to whom the main 
credit of the exploit belonged. As the 
advance dashed around the camp, a group 
stood near them looking on in wonder. As 
they halted, one exclaimed : " You are not 
Yankees, are you ? " " No," answered 
Sergeant Humphrey. He turned to his 
fellows and, clapping his hands, exclaimed : 
'•Didn't I tell you they were not Yankees ? 
Didn't I tell you so ? Who are you? " he 
called out again. " Wolford's cavalry," re- 
plied the Sergeant. Then raising his 
hands in utter despair, the poor Georgian 
exclaimed : " Good heavens ! then we are 
gone." They were marched over to Eliz- 
abethtown. 



of Washington, they were gathered in 
front of the State House, Boston, to hear 
the parting Avords of Governor Andrew. 
At the end of his remarks, the Governor 
presented the regiment with a standard, 
telling them to see to it that no foe should 
ever take it from them. They received it 
with cheers, and swore to die in its de- 
fence. 

Well, when they got out of the cars at 
Baltimore, to march across the city, the 
colors were given to the breeze, and borne 
aloft in defiance of every foe. The stand- 
ard-bearer, as noble a fellow as ever wore 
the uniform of the Old Bay State, was 
Timothy Crowley. His two aids were 
Sergeants Demi and Marland. Unused, 
as, indeed, all the soldiers then were, to 
the rough usage of actual warfare, it would 
not have been strange if Crowley had 
shown some sijms of fear, 



showed itself without a taint. One large 
stone struck him, just between the shoul- 
ders, a terrible blow, and then rested on 
his knapsack. And yet Crowley did not 
budge. With a firm step he went on, car- 
rying the rock on his knapsack for several 
yards, until one of the sergeants stepped 
up and knocked it off. His coolness showed 
him to possess the very highest qualities 
of a soldier. 



Fate of Two German Brothers. 
A member of the Second Connecticut 
regiment captured a German, belonging to 
the Eighth South Cai'olina regiment — at 
the battle of Bull Run — and took him to 
Major Colburn for instructions as to how 
to dispose of the prisoner. The latter re- 
quested one privilege as his last, which the 
Major very readily granted. He said his 
Indeed, he brother lay a short distance off, in a dying 



might have rolled up the colors, which [ condition, and he wished to see him. His 



310 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



captor bade him lead the way, and the two 
proceeded, the prisoner going to an old log 
hut but a few rods from where the regi- 
ment was halted. On the north side, in 
the shade, the wounded man was found. 




Fate of two Germans. 

The prisoner spoke to him — he opened his 
eyes — the film of death had already over- 
spread them, and the tide of life was fast 
ebbing. He was covered with blood, and 
the swarms of flies and mosquitoes, which 
were fattening upon his life's blood, indi- 
cated that he had lain there, helpless, in 
agony, and uncared for, for some time. 
The two unfortunate victims of the war 
clasped hands warmly together, muttered 
a few words in the German language, sup- 
plicating the favor of heaven upon their 
families at home, kissed each other, and 
mutually exchanged the final adieux, — the 
prisoner remarking, as he was taken by 
the arm to be led away, for the column 
was moving, " Brother, you are dying, and 
I am a prisoner." The man was shot with 
a musket-ball, in the back, just over the 
hip. 



Zou! Zou! Zou! 
The battle of Roanoke Island was 
marked by more than one exhibition of 
great and decided bravery. General Fos- 
ter was in active command on the ground. 
His brave and collected manner, the skill- 
fulness with which he, as well as General 



Reno and General Parks, manoeuvred 
their forces, their example in front of the 
line, and their conduct in any aspect, in- 
spired the troops to stand where even older 
soldiers would have wavered. In this they 
were seconded nobly by officers of every 
grade. General Parks, who had come up 
with the Fourth Rhode Island, Eighth 
Connecticut, and Ninth New York, gave 
timely and gallant support to the Twenty- 
third and Twenty-seventh' Massachusetts. 
The ammunition of the artillery getting 
short, and the men having suffered se- 
verely, a charge was the only method of 
dislodging the enemy. At this juncture, 
Major Kimball, of Hawkins's Zouaves — 
New York Ninth — offered to lead the 
charge, and storm the battery with the 
bayonet. General Foster's reply was — 

" You are the man, the Ninth the regi- 
ment, and this the moment ! Zouaves I 
storm the battery ! Forward." 

They started on the run, yelling like 
devils, cheered by the federal forces on 
every side. Colonel Hawkins, who was 
leading two companies in the flank move- 
ment, joined his regiment on the way. 
On they went, with fixed bayonets, shout- 
ing " Zou ! Zou ! Zou ! " into the battery, 
cheered more loudly than ever. The reb- 
els taking fright as the Zouaves started, 
went out when they went in, leaving pretty 
much everything behind them, and not 
even stopping to spike their guns, and 
take away their dead and wounded that 
had not been removed. 



Blenker Scorning' to Retreat. 
The retreat from Bull Run on the 
twenty-first of July, 1861, will ever be 
memorable for its illustrations of the for- 
tunes of war. Stretching far across the 
road, long before the hoped-for refuge of 
Centreville was reached, was a firm un- 
swerving line of men, to whom the sight 
of the thousands who dashed by them was 
only a wonder or a scom. This was the 
German rifle regiment ; and to see the 
manly bearing of their General, and feel 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



311 



the inspiration which his presence gave at 
that moment, was like relief to those ready 
to perish in a desert. Steady and watch- 
ful, Blenker held his line throughout the 
evening, advancing his skirmishers at 
every token of attack, and spreading a sure 
protection over the multitudes who fled 
disordered through his columns. With 
three regiments he stood to fight against 
an outnumbering enemy already flushed 
with victory, and eager to complete its 
triumph. As the darkness increased, his 
post became more perilous and more hon- 
orable. At eleven o'clock the attack came 
upon the advance company of Colonel 
Stahel's rifles, not in force, but from a body 
of cavalry whose successful passage would 
have been followed by a full force, and the 
consequent destruction of the broken Fed- 
eral host. The rebel cavalry was driven 
back, and never returned ; and at two in 
the morning, the great body of Federal 
troops having passed and found their road 
to safety, the command was given to re- 
treat in order, and the brigade fell slowly 
and regularly back, with the same precis- 
ion as if on parade, and as thoroughly at 
the will of their leader as if no danger 
had ever come near them. Over and over 
again Blenker begged permission to main- 
tain his post, or even to advance. " Re- 
treat ! " said he, scornfully, to the mes- 
senger; " bring me the word to GO on, 
sir ! " But the command Avas peremptory, 
and he was left no alternative. 



Hooker's Battle Above the Clouds. 
Quartermaster-General Meigs, in his 
lively account of the three days' conflict 
before Chattanooga, mentions the notable 
fact that in General Hooker's fight up the 
slopes of Lookout Mountain, " much of 
the battle was fought above the clovds, 
which concealed him from our view, but 
from which his musketry was heard." 
There is on record at least one case parallel 
to this, in the campaign of Napoleon in the 
Carnic Alps, in 1797. The battle of the 
Col de Tarvis, March 22, 1797, was fought 



above the clouds — the artillery thundering 
in the very laboratory of storms and 
arsenals of the electric batteries — while 
the cavalry charged and performed their 
evolutions on the ice, and the infantry 
floundered to the attack through snow 
three feet deep. 



Sleeper's Saucy Battery. 
Towards the end of Friday's battle in 
the Wilderness, about nightfall, a desperate 
charge was made by the rebels upon the 
extreme left of the Federals, where a 
number of batteries of the Second Corps 
were in position, being a part of Hancock's 
line. In front of these guns, and below 
their level, was an open field. Bather 
more than half way across this space ran 
the Union line of breastworks — at this 
point not more than one hundred yards 
from those held by the enemy. Every- 
thing was perfectly quiet, — mutual respect 
for each other's fire preventing unnecessa- 
ry exposure. Suddenly, however, a per- 
fectly devilish volley of musketry was de- 
livered from their Avorks, accompanied by 
the dismal howling which, in Dixie, had 
quite superseded honest cheering, and out 
they came, piling over the breastworks, 
and for a short time having things just as 
they wanted them. Their success was 
very short lived, for in a moment Sleeper's 
Tenth Massachusetts battery, Adams's 
Bhode Island battery, the Sixth Maine 
battery, and others, were pouring canister 
into them in so effective a manner that 
they were forced to protect themselves in 
front of the Federal breastworks, from 
which, later in the evening, they were ex- 
pelled, losing terribly in their ' forlorn 
hope ' of a charge. The Tenth Massa- 
chusetts battery, commanded by Captain 
J. Henry Sleeper, proved itself one of the 
best in the service. It was engaged sev- 
enteen times since the army crossed the 
Bapidan, and w r as one of the very few 
batteries which managed to get into the 
memorable Wilderness fight of Thursday 
and Friday. It had come to be called the 



312 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



" saucy battery " in Hancock's corps, of 
which it was part. 



Texas Flag- Captured by the Sixteenth 
Indiana. 
When flags are captured in the height 
of battle, it shows close and severe fight- 
ing. A New Orleans paper states that in 
the bloody engagement which took place 
near Mansfield, the battle-worn and 
weather-beaten banner of a Texas regi- 
ment of rebels was captured by Captain 
Doxie, of the Sixteenth Indiana mounted 
regiment, attached to the first brigade of 
Lee's cavalry, after one of the most des- 
perate hand-to-hand encounters of the 
war. When the stalwart Indianians met 
the rough riders of Texas, there could of 
course be no child's play, and consequently 
the ground was piled with slain in the 
struggle for the possession of that flag, 
which bore the inscription — "Texans never 
can be slaves." Captain Doxie, the hero 
of the fight, came forth from the battle 
covered with wounds, inflicted by sabre- 
stroke and pistol-shot. The dag was 
brought down to New Orleans by Colonel 
Brisbane, of General Lee's staff", and was 
presented to Miss Mary Binny Banks, the 
" daughter of the brigade," in presence of 
her mother, at the residence of the Gen- 
eral. The young lady showed a great 
deal of emotion as she took the battle- 
stained trophy — which had so long waved 
triumphantly in the centre of a hecatomb 
of heroes slain — in her hands. Mrs. 
Banks made a few feeling and commenda- 
tory remarks, complimenting the gallantry 
of Captain Doxie and his brave men, and 
promising to interest herself in securing 
the promotion of those who had so nobly 
contended for the prize and torn it from 
the possession of a desperate foe. It 
was a white and red banner, with blue 
union, but so old, faded, and battle-worn, 
that the colors could scarcely be distin- 
guished. Perhaps it had waved on every 
field from Wilson's Creek to Pleasant Hill. 



Court-Martialing- a whole Division. 

It was near sundown when General T. 
J. Wood, whose conduct all through the 
three days' battle of Lookout Mountain, 
marked him as one of the ablest leaders 
of the National armies, rode along the 
lines of his superb division. Loud shouts 
of enthusiasm everywhere greeted his ap- 
pearance, until at last his feelings, no lon- 
ger controllable, broke out in a speech : — 

"Brave men," said he "you were or- 
dered to go forward and take the rebel 
rifle pits at the foot of these hills ; you did 
so; and then, by the Eternal! without 
orders, you pushed forward and took all 
the enemy's works on top ! Here is a 
fine chance for having you all court-mar- 
tialed! and I myself will appear as the 
principal witness against you, unless you 
promise me one thing." 

" What is it ? what is it ?" laughingly 
inquired the men. 

" It is," resumed the General, " that as 
you are now in possession of these works, 
you will continue, against all opposition of 
Bragg, Johnston, Jeff. Davis and the devil, 
steadfastly to hold them ! " 

At the conclusion of this speech, the 
enthusiasm of the soldiers knew no bounds. 
They left the ranks and crowded around 
their General. " We promise ! we prom- 
ise ! " they cried, and amid such exclama- 
tions as, " Of course we'll hold them ! " 
" Let any one try to take them from us ! " 
" Bully for you ! " " Three cheers for old 
Wood ! " the gallant officer rode off the 
field. 



Brilliant Strategy of General Smith at Red 
River. 
The brilliant and successful strategy of 
General Smith at the close of the second 
day's fighting at Red River, is well known. 
The whole two days had been full of dis- 
aster, when suddenly, in the midst of re- 
treat, a favorable point and a happy 
thought struck the mind of General Smith, 
an educated soldier, and he at once availed 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



313 



himself of" it. He placed a division in 
front in line of battle, and arranging his 
artillery and the residue of his forces 
along the ridges in the valley between 
which the road ran, he awaited the ap- 
proach of the confederates. 

On they came, yelling and foaming with 
the flush of success, and with rebounding 
speed they rushed upon the troops they 
saw before them. Then, apparently 
alarmed at their overwhelming force, re- 
treated, first in order, and then at a trot, 
and the enemy followed. When the gorge 
was completely filled, grape, canister, and 
musket shot opened upon them, and the 
destruction was appalling ; those who 
could, fell back to their main body, the few 
who passed through were taken prisoners, 
and the Federal troops re-formed, the 
forces under Smith continuing to cover 
their retreat until all safely reached Grand 
Ecore. As soon as the army had thus 
been extricated from its crushing danger, 
General Banks rode up to General Smith 
and said — 

" God bless you, General ! You have 
saved the army from destruction." 

" I hope he will bless all of us," was 
the brave soldier's terse and significant 
reply. 



Falstaff in the Cavalry Service. 

In one of the Union cavalry regiments 
there was a Major whose character more 
resembled that of Falstaff in some re- 
spects than that of any other officer. The 
Major blustered when there was no dan- 
ger, and when in a tight place he either 
showed the white feather or attempted to 
conceal it by some act that seemed like 
blind desperation. Being an arrant cow- 
ard, he feared the reputat ; on of a coward 
as much as he did death itself, and there- 
fore would make a terrific charge — but 
without judgment, — if he supposed that 
people whose opinion he feared were look- 
ing on. One of his exploits may here be 
cited. 

20 



Some fortune, kind to him but cruel to 
his regiment, which was composed of 
tough, brave veterans, frequently placed 
him in command — seniority of rank doing 
the business. On the occasion referred to 
he was leading his regiment, under orders, 
on an expedition in Western Virginia, 

when he came near the town of . 

He had felt his Avay cautiously toward the 
town, with skirmishers thrown forward, 
and employing all the precautions neces- 
sary when a strong force of an enemy is 
hi the neighborhood. Thus the valiant 
Major proceeded until he met some of the 
residents of the town, who assured him 
that no rebels were there — that the citi- 
zens of the place were prepared to receive 
the Union troops with a welcome. 

Upon receiving this information, the 
Major was almost instantly transformed 
from an anxious, cautious skirmisher, into 
a terrible son of Mars. His eyes pro- 
truded, his pursy form swelled, he flour- 
ished his saber high in the air, and in a 
stentorian voice ordered his command to 
close up, to trot, and to gallop. Away 
went the Major, followed by his regiment, 
charging directly through the town pell- 
mell, with great rattling of hoofs and. 
clanging of sabers ; nor did he draw rein 
and order a halt until he was a clear mile 
beyond the limits of the village. Once 
safe beyond the possibility of an ambush, 
beyond a town where he had supposed se- 
cesh were lurking, the indomitable Major 
kept on his way rejoicing*. 

But, oh ! the wonderment and terror of 
the women and children of the town, and 
the rage of the Major's veteran troopers \ 
The ladies had prepared a collation for the 
yankee soldiers — either from a friendly 
feeling or a desire to propitiate them, tables 
were spread in front of their houses, and 
women and children were in the streets to 
welcome the hungry warriors and their 
'gallant chieftain' to their repast, — and. 
what was their dismay, when the whole 
body galloped furiously through the streets- 
actually endangering the lives of the inno- 



314 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE .REBELLION. 



cent would-be entertainers, and overturn- 
ins; the well-loaded tables ! 



Hurrah for the Gunspiker. 
Colonel Roberts, of the Forty-second 
Illinois, rendered himself conspicuous for 
his bravery at Island No. 10, (where he 
so gloriously spiked the battery,) and at 
Farmington ; services so distinguished, 
that, in the subsequent battle in which he 
engaged, he acted as Brigadier-General. 
His regiment was also noted for its cool- 
ness and bravery. "When ordered to fall 
back, they did so under a terrible cross- 
fire of grape and shell, with all the regu- 
larity of a parade. Halting occasionally 
and facing about, they would check the 
onward rush of the enemy, and then qui- 
etly resume their retreat. Their coolness 
was so conspicuous, that General Palmer, 
struck with admiration, galloped along 
their lines, hat in hand, shouting : " Brave 
Forty-second, I wish I could be the father 
of every one of you ! " Colonel Roberts, 
exposed himself constantly with perfect 
sangfroid to the hottest fire of the enemy, 
and when the last regiment, the Forty- 
second, passed through the gap, he in per- 
son commanded the rear guard. Several 
times during the fight, as the Colonel rode 
along the lines, the boys ceased from their 
labors to " hurrah for the gunspiker ! " 



Owning: Up. 

Major McKee, at the head of a Union 
force, hunted up a great many secession- 
ists of the rampant sort, in Southern Mis- 
souri, — so actively, indeed, as to nearly 
fill the various county jails. When he 
caught one of this type, he said: 

" Well, how much of a rebel have you 
been ? You know more about what you 
have done than I do. I know some, and 
you know it all." 

One old man said, as he trembled, " Ma- 
jor, I have not done any thing." 

" Stop," said the Major, " you know 
you have got some powder hid." 

" Oh, yes, there is some." 



" Tell it all now," said the Major. 

" Well, I will. I have got twenty-one 
kegs of powder and one gun. I furnished 
four horses to Price, and went down to 




Owning up 

Smith's Chapel to fight the Feds, and I 
have fed any amount of rebels. I won't 
lie any more ! You have got it all. I 
have done all I could to aid the South." ' 

The Major had come down so hard on 
them that they feared to lie to him. An- 
other man came in at the same time as 
the above, to take the oath. 

" Well, Sir, Avhat have you done ? " 

" Nothing." 

" Well, Sir, I will put you in jail for 
not doing something." 

After he had been in jail about two 
hours, he sent for the Major, and told him 
where there Avere eleven kegs of powder, 
and a Government wagon, and owned to 
helping cut up a ferry boat on the Mis- 
souri river, in the summer. 



Seven Rebels Captured by One Fed. 
One of the neatest of military exploits 
during the Avar, Avas that performed by 
Captain Drake DeKay of General Mans- 
field's staff, while aAvaiting the General's 
arrival at a house called Moore's Ranche, 
a kind of summer hotel kept by a man 
named Moore, at Ocean VieAv. All the 
white men, and most of the Avomen of the 
vicinity had fled — it was said by those 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



315 



they had left behind — to the woods, to 
prevent being forced into the rebel ser- 
vice. 

Captain DeKay, while supper was be- 
ing prepared, mounted his horse and de- 
termined to explore the country, followed 
only by his negro servant. As he was 
passing a swamp toward evening, he came 
suddenly upon seven of the secession 
troops, who were lurking by the roadside, 
and were armed with double-barreled 
guns. The Captain turned instantaneously 
and shouted to his (imaginary) company 
to prepare to charge — and then riding for- 
ward rapidly, revolver in hand, told the 
men they were his prisoners, as his cav- 
alry would soon be upon them, ordered 
them to discharge their pieces and deliver 
them to him, which they did without de- 
lay. He then informed them that his 
only ' company ' was his negro servant, 
and directed them to follow him into 
camp. 

An hour later, just after General Wool 
had returned from Norfolk, the Captain 
rode to the beach and informed Colonel 
Cram, as Chief of the General's Staff, 
that the seven prisoners, whom he had 
marched to the beach, were at his disposal. 
Their arms were taken away, and on 
promising to take the oath of allegiance, 
the men were at once dismissed. One of 
them proved to be Moore himself, who 
came over to his house, where he found 
half a dozen Feds in full possession, and 
just preparing to discuss a most comfort- 
able supper which his obliging colored 
cook had got ready for them. Like nearly 
all the rebel soldiers in that section, he 
said that he had haen forced into the ser- 
vice, and was only waiting a chance to run 
away ; but his statements on this point 
did not obtain, to say the least, any more 
credit than they deserved. 



Sheridan Riding- to the Front. 
The victory gained by General Sheri- 
dan at Cedar Creek, Va., October 19 th, 
1864, surpassed in interest the victory 



gained precisely one month earlier at 
Winchester. It was a victory following 
upon the heels of apparent reverse, and 
therefore reflecting peculiar credit on the 
brave commander to whose timely arrival 
upon the field the final success of the day 
must be attributed. 

The General was at Winchester in the 
early morning when the enemy attacked — 
fifteen miles distant from the field of ope- 
rations. General Wright was in com- 
mand. The enemy had approached under 
cover of a heavy fog, and flanking the ex- 
treme right of the Federal line, held by 
Crook's Corps, and attacking in the centre, 
had thrown the entire line into confusion, 
and driven it several miles. The strag- 
glers to the rear were fearfully numerous, 
and the enemy was pushing on, turning 
against the Federals a score of guns al- 
ready captured from them. 

This was the situation a little before 
noon when Sheridan came on the field, 
riding, said one of his staff, so that the 
devil himself could not have kept up. A 
staff officer meeting him, pronounced the 
situation of the army to be " awful." 

" Pshaw," said Sheridan, "it's nothing 
of the sort. It's all right, or we'll fix it 
right ! " 

Sheridan hastened to his cavalry on the 
extreme left. Galloping past the batter- 
ies to the extreme left of the line held by 
the cavalry, he rode to the front, took off 
his hat and waved it, while a cheer went 
up from the ranks not less hearty and en- 
thusiastic than that which greeted him 
after the battle of Winchester. Generals 
rode out to meet him, officers waved their 
swords, men threw up their hats in an ex- 
tremity of glee. General Custer, discov- 
ering Sheridan at the moment he arHved, 
rode up to him, threw his arms around his 
neck, and kissed him on the cheek. Wait- 
ing for no other parley than simply to ex- 
change greeting, and to say '' This retreat 
must be stopped ! " Sheridan broke loose 
and began galloping down the lines, along 
the whole front of the army. Every- 



316 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



where the enthusiasm caused by his ap- 
pearance was the same. 

The line was speedily re-formed ; pro- 
vost-marshals brought in stragglers by the 
scores ; the retreating army turned its face 
to the foe. An attack just about to be 
made by the latter was repulsed, and the 
tide of battle turned. Then Sheridan's 
time was come. A cavalry charge was 
ordered against right and left flank of the 
enemy, and then a grand advance of the 
three infantry corps from left to right on the 
enemy's centre. On through Middletown, 
and beyond, the Confederates hurried, and 
the Army of the Shenandoah pursued. 
The roar of musketry now had a gleeful, 
dancing sound. The guns fired shotted 
salutes of victory. Custer and Merritt, 
charging in on right and left, doubled up 
the flanks of the foe, taking prisoners, 
slashing, killing, driving as they went. 
The march of the infantry was more ma- 
jestic and terrible. The lines of the foe 
swayed and broke before it everywhere. 
Beyond Middletown, on the battle-field 
fought over in the morning, their columns 
were completely overthrown and disorgan- 
ized. They fled along the pike and over 
the fields like sheep. 

Thus on through Strasburg with two 
brigades of cavalry at their heels. Two 
thousand prisoners were gathered together, 
though there was not a sufficient guard to 
send them all to the rear. The guns lost 
in the morning were recaptured, and as 
many more taken, making fifty in all, and 
according to Sheridan's report, the enemy 
reached Mount Jackson without an organ- 
ized regiment. The scene at Sheridan's 
head-quarters at night, after the battle, 
was wildly exciting. General Custer ar- 
rived about nine o'clock. The first thing 
he did was to hug General Sheridan with 
all his might, lifting him in the air, and 
whirling him around and around, with the 
shout : " By — , we've cleaned them out 
and got the guns ! " Catching sight of 
General Torbert, Custer went through the 



same proceeding with him. until Torbert 
was forced to cry out, " There, there, old 
fellow ; don't capture me ! " 

Sheridan's ride to the front, October 
19th, 1864, will go down in history as one 
of the most important and exciting events 
which have ever given interest to a battle 
scene ; and to this event is to be attributed 
the victory of the day. 



Boy Soldiers at the Old Ones' Trade. 
Knoxville, Tennessee, is a town well 
known. Across a little creek is a place 
called Shieldstown. The spirit of war ex- 
hibited itself warmly among the boys six, 
eight, and ten years old, and the fight raged 
fiercely between the Shieldstowners and 
Knoxvillers. They used slings and minie 
balls, which they handled with great dex- 
terity. They had camp-fires built along in 
a line. Every morning each party ap- 
peared on its own side of the stream, 
drawn up in array, ammunition was dis- 
tributed out of a bag, fifteen rounds to the 
man, and they commenced. Old soldiers 
of the Ninth Corps, who had been through 
many a storm of shot and shell, kept at a 
respectable distance as they hurled their 
minies with vigor. One day the Shields- 
towners made a charge at the single plank 
that crossed the stream, the Knoxvillers 
ran, all except one little fellow about eight 
years old — he stood at the end of the 
plank, swearing oaths like Parrott shells, 
calling them cowards, and, by a vigorous 
discharge of minies, repulsed the assault. 
The casualties amounted to bruises and 
cuts in all parts of the body, rather serious 
to look at, or to think what they might 
have been; but every little fellow was 
proud of his Avound. So it went on for 
several days, when one bright morning, as 
they were drawn up in full-fighting array, 
and only awaited the military signal to 
commence, suddenly appeared some women 
in rear of each — a half dozen were caught 
up, severely spanked, and led off. The 
rest were disconcerted and dispersed. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



317 



Foolhardiness and its Terrible Penalty. 

When our forces were at Tybee, a par- 
ty of Germans went one day up to Goat's 
Point. One of the privates stood on the 
summit of a sandhill, perhaps a hundred 
yards less than a mile from Pulaski, (which 
was as near as the Federals could get,) and 
waved his hat. The others went back out 
of sight, but could see the rebels bringing 
a gun to bear. They warned their comrade, 
but he would not heed. As he stood with 
his back to the fort, a barbette gun sent 
out a little cloud. Then came the thun- 
der, the rushing ball, and the rash man lay 
disemboiveled and cut in tivo on the sand. 
It was a splendid shot, such as could not 
be equaled in a month's practice. 



Cost of a Canteen of Water. 

Mr. Hepworth, Chaplain to one of the 
Massachusetts regiments, relates the story 
of a curious capture, as follows : 

One of our men was captured by a very 
neat piece of strategy. About a hundred 
and fifty yards from the front of one of 
our regiments was a spring of clear cold 
water. After having drunk the vile fluid 
which oozes through a clay bank, often- 
times impregnated with a very disagree- 
able odor, and always having the appear- 
ance of mud paste, (being chiefly composed 
of that very necessary but not always pal- 
atable substance,) the boys were willing to 
run some little risk for the sake of a 
draught of genuine water. One day a 
sick man asked a chum to fill his canteen. 
Without hesitation he promised to do so ; 
and so, crawling up with all due caution, 
he at length reached the spring. 

It so happened, however, that a rebel 
sharpshooter had seen him. He waited 
quietly till the canteen was filled, and 
then drawing a bead on the soldier, cried 
out — 

" I say, Yank ! " 

The startled Unionist at once saw his 
predicament, and began to think that his 
last minute had come. He at last got voice 
enough to cry out — 



"Well, what do you want?" 

"Want you. Walk over this way, 
please." 

It was certainly a very courteous invita- 
tion, and there seemed no way to avoid ac- 
cepting it ; for the rebel kept him covered 
with his rifle. He was in an unpleasant 
predicament ; and, when the rebel had en- 
joyed his embarrassment long enough, he 
cried out — 

" I say, Yank, aren't you coming ? or 
shall I send some lead after you ? " 

This was a very pointed remark. Noth- 
ing was left the poor Unionist but to obey ; 
and so, with unwilling steps, he walked 
over to the jocose rebel and gave himself 
up. 

Steedman taking the Flagr. 
It was about four o'clock of that after- 
noon on which occurred the battle of Chick- 
amauga, when a part of General Steed- 
man's division of the Reserve Corps bowed 
their heads to the fierce storm of lead as 
if it had been rain, and betrayed signs of 
breaking. .The line wavered like a great 
flag in a breath of wind. They were as 
splendid material as ever shouldered a 
musket, but then — Avhat could they do in 
such a blinding tempest ? General Steed- 
man rode up. A great, hearty man, broad- 
breasted, broad-shouldered, a face written 
all over with sturdy sense and stout cour- 
age; no lady's man to make bouquets for 
showy fingers, and sing 'Meet me by moon- 
light alone,' like some fancy Generals, but 
realizing fully the description given of the 
stout old Morgan of the Revolution. Well, 
up rode old Steedman, took the flag from 
the color-bearer, glanced along the wavering 
front, and with that voice of his, that could 
talk against a small rattle of musketry, 
cried out, " Go back, boys, go back ; but 
the flag can't go with you ! " grasped the 
staff, wheeled his horse, and rode on. Is 
it necessary to say that the column closed 
up and grew firm, and moved resistlessly 
on like a great strong river, and swept 
down upon the foe, and made a record that 



318 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



shall live when their graves are as empty 
as the cave of Macpelah-? 



Glad for Burnside. 
When the telegram from Cumberland 
Gap reached President Lincoln that " fir- 
ing was heard in the direction of Knox- 
ville." he remarked that he was " glad of 
it." Some person present, who had the 
perils of Burnside's position uppermost in 
his mind, could not see why Mr. Lincoln 
should be " glad of it," and so expressed 
• himself. " Why, you see," responded the 
President, " it reminds me of Mrs. Sallie 
Ward, a neighbor of mine, who had a large 
family. Occasionally one of her numer- 
ous progeny would be heard crying in some 
out-of-the-way place, upon which Mistress 
Sallie would exclaim, " There's one of my 
children that isn't dead yet." 



Bowie-Knife Conflict at the Battle of Pea- 
Ridge. 

While the fight was raging about Miser's 
farmhouse, at the battle of Pea-Ridge, on 
Friday morning, a Union soldier belonging 
to the Twenty-fifth Missouri regiment and 
a member of a rebel Mississippi company, 
became separated from their commands, 
and found each other climbing the same 
fence. The rebel had one of those long 
knives made of a file, which the South has 
so extensively paraded, but so rarely used, 
and the Missourian had one also, having 
picked it up on the field. 

The rebel challenged his enemy to a fair 
open combat with the knife, intending to 
bully him, no doubt, but the challenge was 
promptly accepted. The two removed 
their coats, rolled up their sleeves, and be- 
gan. The Mississippian had more skill, 
but his opponent more strength, and conse- 
quently the latter could not strike his ene- 
my, while he received several cuts on the 
head and breast. The blood began trick- 
ling rapidly down the Unionist's face and 
running into his eyes, almost blinding him. 
The Union man became desperate, for he 
saw the secessionist was unhurt. He made 



a feint ; the rebel leaned forward to arrest 
the blow, but employing too much energy, 
he could not recover himself at once. The 
Missourian perceived his advantage, and 
knew he could not lose it. In five sec- 
onds more it would be too late. His enemy 
glared at him like a wild beast, and was 
on the eve of striking again. Another 
feint ; another dodge on the rebel's part, 
and then the heavy blade of the Missou- 
rian hurtled through the air, and fell with 
tremendous force upon the Mississippian's 
neck. The blood spurted from the throat, 
and the head fell over, almost entirely sev- 
ered from the body. Ghastly sight — too 
ghastly even for the doer of the deed ! 
He fainted at the spectacle, weakened by 
the loss of his own blood, and was soon 
after butchered by a Seminole who saw 
him sink to the earth. 

Kearney, the " One- Armed Devil." 
Of the many noble Generals who took 
part in the battles of the Peninsula, one 
of the most active and efficient was Gen- 




Maj Gen. Phil. Kearney. 

eral Kearney. He was always foremost 
in the fray, and many times it is said he 
was observed with his bridle in his teeth, 
while with his right arm, the only one he 
had, grasping his sword, he charged at a 
furious rate among the enemy. The Con- 
federates styled him the " one-armed devil," 
and at the battle of Williamsburg he was 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



319 



watched by them and their officers, some 
of the most accurate sharpshooters being 
ordered to " draw a bead on that one-armed 
devil ; " yet they did not bring him down. 
Finally, a rebel Colonel ordered his entire 
regiment — according to the statement of a 
prisoner taken at the battle — to withdraw 
their fire from everything else and centre 
it " on that officer with one arm." His or- 
der was obeyed, and the entire regiment — 
the Fifth Carolina — discharged a volley at 
General Kearney, but he was unhurt. 



Negro Rifleman Brought Down at Yorktown. 
One of the best morning's work done at 
Yorktown was that of reducing to a state 
of perfect inutility in this mundane sphere, 
a rebel negro rifleman, who, through his 
skill as a marksman, had done more injury 




Negro Rifleman. 

to our men than any dozen of his white 
compeers, in the attempted labor of trim- 
ming off the complement of Union sharp- 
shooters. The latter had known him a long 
time, had kept an eye on him, and lain in 
wait to pick him off. His habit was to perch 
himself in a big tree, and, keeping himself 
hid behind the body, annoy the Union men 
by firing upon them. He climbed the tree 
as usual one morning, but in advance of 
the others coming out, and, smuggling him- 
self into his position, was anticipating his 
usual day of quietude. The Union men 
might have killed him as he came out, but 
purposely avoided shooting, so as not to 



alarm the others. His tree was about 
twenty rods from one of the Union pits. 
When our men fired on the advancing rebel 
pickets, he of course saw the fix he was in 
— that he was indeed and decidedly up a 
tree. 

" I say, big nigger," called out one of the 
Union soldiers, "you better come down 
from there." 

" What for ? " returned the big nigger. 

" I want you as prisoner." 

" Not as this chile knows of," replied the 
concealed Ethiop. 

"Just as you say," replied our sharp- 
shooter. 

In about an hour the darkey poked his 
head out. Our man was on the lookout 
for him ; he had his rifle on the bead-line 
ready — pulled the trigger — whiz-z went 
the bullet, down came the negro. He was 
shot through the head. 



Tragical Death of General Baker. 

At the battle of Ball's Bluff, while Col- 
onel Wistar was doing glorious service in 
council and action at the crisis hour in that 
hard-fought struggle, a ball shattered his 
sword arm — he dropped his weapon, picked 
it up with his left hand, and General Baker 
himself restored it to its scabbard. Alas ! 
that the chivalric leader should never again 
do such a kindly service fdr a brother in 
arms ! The yelling enemy began to pour 
in overwhelmingly, a large body of them 
pressing down from the left. The General 
ordered the troops around him to stand 
firm, and cried — 

" Who are those men ? " 

" Confederate troops, you — Yankees ! " 

No sooner did they give this reply than 
they rushed almost within bayonet distance. 
One huge, red-haired ruffian now stepped 
from behind the trees, and drawing a re- 
volver, came within five feet of General 
Baker, and fired four balls at the General's 
head, every one of which took effect, and 
a glorious soul fled through their ghastly 
openings, for he fell on his back against a 
tree and died instantly. Captain Beiral 



320 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



seized the slayer by the throat and blew 
out his brains — the hero and the traitor 
falling within the same minute, and face 
to face. In a second the enemy swarmed 
over the spot. " For God's sake, boys," 




General E. D. Baker. 



cried Adjutant Harvey, in his hot English 
way, " are you going to let them have the 
General's body ? " An angry howl was 
the answer, when a dozen of our fellows 
charged, Avith set teeth and bayonets fixed, 
upon the rebels, who surrendered their 
priceless trophy. 

Colonel Baker was in plain dress, wearing 
a regulation hat with a black plume. He 
had no distinguishing mark as Colonel, and 
was not unnecessarily conspicuous. His 
right hand had been maimed a week or two 
before the fight, and he kept it in his breast. 
He constantly passed up and down the 
ranks encouraging his soldiers, saying, — 
'•'■Men, don't run till I run," '•'•Keep your 
courage up," and other words of cheer. 
He was exceedingly anxious for a bayonet 
charge, having more faith in that than in 
any other weapon. Indeed, he was con- 
stantly drilling his men in the bayonet ex- 
ercise, and, when on parade or drill, he in- 
sisted upon their going through every 
movement. He was a whole-souled hero, 
but his bravery cost him his life. His was 
that " good gray head which all men knew 
and loved." He fell gloriously with the 
" light of battle " on his features. 



Too Fond of Chestnuts. 
The capture of Lieutenant Segal, of the 
Confederate army in Virginia, was a neat 
and amusing affair. On Friday, the 4th 
October, 1861, a scouting party of eight- 
een men, under Lieutenant-Colonel B. 
Winslow and Captain L. B. Shattuck, of 
the Thirty-seventh New York Regiment, 
were out in the vicinity of the enemy's 
lines, about five miles from Fall's Church 
in the direction of Fairfax. As they were 
proceeding in silence and caution, through 
dense woods, they heard the tramp of 
horses and the jingle of sabre scabbards. 
The Lieutenant-Colonel and Captain, order- 
ing their men to halt, went to reconnoitre. 
In a short time, one of them came upon an 
open space where they saw four rebels 
seated under a large chestnut tree, by the 
side of a road, and engaged in eating chest- 
nuts. The Confederates saw him, and 
sprang upon their horses. The officer cry- 
ing in a loud voice " Charge ! " by the 
time the scouting party had got up, the 
four " gallant " horsemen were beyond pur- 
suit. Our men Avere about gathering up 
the spoils of victory, which consisted/of 
four sabres, two revolvers, four coats and 




Fairfax Court House. 

blankets, when they saAV a horse tied to a 
tree by the wayside. A further search re- 
vealed its master, perched upon the loAver 
limb of a large chestnut — whither he had 
climbed with his sabre to lop off the tempt- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



321 



ing fruit. A dozen rifles pointed at his 
breast soon brought him to reason, and he 
surrendered himself a prisoner. When he 
got down, and felt safe, he began to "blow," 
with true southern chivalry ; and, when 
brought before General McDowell, coolly 
boasted that in the battle of Bull Run he 
had aimed repeatedly at the General, but 
had always missed. General McDowell 
smiled, and said that " he would send him 
somewhere where he would not have 
another such chance for some time." 



No Calculation of that Sort. 
After the battle of Pittsburg Landing; and 
General Grant's complete victory at that 
point, General Buell, a thorough soldier, 
began criticising in a friendly way the im- 
policy of his having fought a battle with 
the Tennessee river behind him. 

" Where, if beaten, could you have re- 
treated, General ? " asked Bnell. 

" I didn't mean to be beaten," was 
Grant's sententious reply. 

" But suppose you had been defeated, 
despite all your exertions ? " 

" Well, there were the transports to 
carry the remains of the command across 
the river." 

"But, General," urged Buell, " your 
whole transports could not contain over 
ten thousand men ; and it would be im- 
possible for them to make more than one 
trip in the face of the enemy." 

" Well, if I had been beaten," said Gen- 
eral Grant, pausing to light another cigal- 
as he spoke, " transportation for ten thou- 
sand men would have been abundant for 
all that would be left of us." 

This anecdote is eminently characteris- 
tic, the data for the proper appreciation of 
it being that General Grant had about 
fifty thousand men over the river. 



Tragredy of Ellsworth's Assassination. 

It was 2 o'clock in the morning of the 
24th of May, when the expedition planned 
by General Scott started secretly from 
Wellington lo take military possession of 



Alexandria. One half of the troops 
crossed the Long Bridge, and marched 
down the right bank of the Potomac, to 
enter Alexandria by the rear, and to cut 
off any rebel troops who might be lurking 
about the city. The other half, including 
the Fire Zouaves under Colonel Ellsworth, 
descended the river in steamers, from the 
Washington Navy Yard. It Avas in the 
first gray of the morning, when the steam- 
ers touched at the wharves. Of this divi- 
sion Colonel Ellsworth was in command. 
He was one of the first to land. While 




Col. Ellsworth. 

the regiment was forming in line, one com- 
pany Avas sent, post haste, to seize the tele- 
graph station, that no communication could 
be sent to Richmond of their landing 
This Avas of such vital importance, that 
Col. EllsAvorth himself accompanied the 
party, passing through the streets on the 
full run. 

On their way they Avent by the Mar- 
shall House, a hotel kept by one Jackson, 
over the roof of Avhich a secession flag was 
flaunted. " We must have that flag," 
said Col. EllsAvorth, and, rushing in, he 
found a Avhite man, in the front room, half 
dressed, and a negro. " Who raised that 
flag ? " inquired the Colonel. " I do not 
knoAv," Avas the reply, " I am a boarder 
here." Followed by tAvo or three he sprang 
up stairs to the roof of the house, seized 
the rebel banner, and was descending Avith 



322 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



it in his hands, hardly a moment having 
been occupied in the movement, when the 
same half-dressed man, who had said that 
he was a boarder, but who proved to be 
Jackson himself, a brutal desperado, jump- 
ed from a dark passage, and leveling a 
double-barreled gun at Col. Ellsworth's 
breast, at a distance of not more than two 
yards, fired a couple of slugs directly into 
his heart, and which of course, proved 
fatal. 

Ellsworth was on the second or third 
step from the landing, and he dropped for- 
wai'd with that heavy, horrible, headlong 
weight, which always comes of sudden 
death inflicted in such a manner. His as- 
sailant had turned like a flash to give the 
contents of the other barrel to Francis E. 
Brownell, a private, but either he could 
not command his aim, or the Zouave was 
too quick with him, for the slugs went over 
his head, and passed through the panels 
and wainscot of the door, which sheltered 
some sleeping lodgers. Simultaneously 
with his second shot, and sounding like the 
echo of the first, Brownell's rifle was heard 
and the assassin staggered backward. His 
wound — exactly in the middle of the face, 
was frightful beyond description. Of 
course Brownell did not know how fatal 
his shot had been, and so, before the man 
dropped, he thrust his sabre bayonet 
through and through the body, the force 
of the blow sending the dead man violent- 
ly down the upper section of the second 
flight of stairs. 

The body of the murdered Colonel was 
laid upon a bed ; and the rebel flag, stain- 
ed with his blood, and purified by this con- 
tact from the baseness of its former mean- 
ing, was fitly laid about his feet. 



Harp and Shamrock, Stars and Stripes. 

At the fearful battle which opened the 
way to the crossing of the Pamunkey by 
Grant's army, Maurice Collins, of the 
Twelfth Massachusetts, was brought off 
with an ugly wound in the shoulder. He 
was a Catholic, and the priest was showing 



him the crucifix. " Will it be mortal ? " 
he asked. " Perhaps not, if you lie still 
and keep quiet. But you have to lose 
your arm." " Well, I'm willing to give an 
arm to my country," was the reply of one 
who, though born in the ever-green isle, 
and still loving the Harp and Shamrock 
of Fatherland, was willing to uphold to 
the last the Stars and Stripes of his adopt- 
ed country. 

♦ 

Massachusetts and South Carolina Pitted 
against each other in Battle. 

A very curious coincidence happened 
on the left, in the Eighteenth Corps, But- 
ler's army, when engaged in the spring 
campaign of 1864. In General Hickman's 
brigade were the Twenty-third, Twenty- 
fifth and Twenty-seventh Massachusetts 
regiments. Opposed to them, and in a 
brigade opposite to them in the line of 
battle, were the Twenty-third, Twenty- 
fifth and Twenty-seventh South Carolina 
regiments ; and the Twenty-fifth South 
Carolina charged upon the Twenty-fifth 
Massachusetts. They got used up by the 
Yankees they are accustomed to despise. 
The two Twenty-fifths charged each other 
three times, South Carolina getting most 
thoroughly worsted. These facts were as- 
certained from a Captain of the Twenty- 
fifth South Carolina, who was wounded 
and brought in a prisoner. 



" Leatherbreeches " in the Federal Service. 

Captain Dilger, or " Leatherbreeches," 
as he was familiarly called, earned an 
honorable name, as one of the most skill- 
ful and plucky officers in the Union service. 
When the Avar broke out, Captain Dilger 
was an artillery officer in the Prussian 
service. A short time after the battle of 
Bull Run, an uncle of Dilger (a merchant 
in New York) wrote that the present was 
an opportune time to visit America, etc. 

Dilger was desirous of studying war as 
carried on in the Western world, and to 
this end procured leave of absence for a 
year. As soon as he arrived he joined 
the army of the Potomac, as an artillerist, 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



323. 



and commanded a battery. As his year 
drew to a close he managed to get his 
leave indefinitely extended. The term 
of his battery, the First Ohio artillery, 
having expired, he was ordered to Cincin- 
nati, to be mustered out of the service. 

His next appearance with his battery 
was under General Hooker, and by the 
name of " Leatherbreeches " he became 
known to every officer and soldier in the 
army of the Cumber- 
land. In all the bat- 
tle* which occurred, 
from Lookout Moun- 
tain to Peachtree 
Creek, Dilger was 
on hand. He was 
the first to open fire 
upon the eve of a 
battle, taking his guns 
nearly up to the skir- 
mish line. So often 
had he done this, that 
eorae officer, appre- 
ciating the frightful 
destruction which his 
practice wrought, 

presented the Captain with bayonets for 
his pieces. 

At one time, upon the eventful day of 
the Hooker and Johnston contest, Captain 
Dilger took his " smooth bores " up to Gen- 
eral Johnston's line of battle, and for half 
an hour poured a raking fire of grape and 
canister into the enemy in front of Hooker. 
So conspicuous and deadly was his move- 
ment, that he became at one time the 
target for three rebel batteries, and lost 
seven men during the day. He fired by 
volley when he got a ' good thing,' and the 
acclamations of the infantry drowned the 
reverberation of the cannon's roar on all 
such occasions. Captain Dilger impressed 
e very one by his fine appearance ; he 
always wore close buckskin breeches, with 
top boots, and stood by his gun in his shirt- 
sleeves during battle, eliciting the admira- 
tion of the whole army by his coolness 
and intrepidity when in action. 



Horrors of the Old Bull Bun Battle-Field. 
At the old Bull Run battle-field, adja- 
cent to the Warrenton pike, as described 
by a visitor fourteen months after, bullets 
are still picked up and exhibited by the 
handful. In the long, luxuriant grass, the 
visitor strikes his foot against skulls and 
bones, mingled with the deadly missiles 
that brought them to the earth. Hollow 
skulls lie contiguous to hemispheres of ex- 




Bull Run Battlefield, Va. 

ploded shells. The shallow graves rise 
here and there above the grass, sometimes 
in rows, semetimes alone, or scattered at 
irregular intervals. Through the thin 
layer of soil one sees the protruding ribs 
whence the ram has washed their covering, 
a foot or an arm reaching out beyond its 
earthy bed ; and in one case one of these 
long sleepers was seen covered snugly up 
to the chin, but with the entire face exposed 
and turned up to the passer by, — one could 
imagine him a soldier lying on the field 
wrapped up in his blanket, but the blanket 
was of clay and the face was fleshless and 
eyeless. 

In one case a foot protruded, with the 
flesh still partially preserved ; in another, an 
entire skeleton, lay exposed upon the sur- 
face, without any covering whatever. The 
tatters of what had been his uniform 
showed that he had been a cavalryman. 
The flesh was decomposed ; but the tan- 



32-A 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



ned and shrivelled skin still incased the 
bony framework of the body, and even the 
finger-nails were in their places. The 
ligaments that fasten the joints must have 
been preserved, for he was lifted by the 
belt which was still around the waist, 
and not a bone fell out of its place. 
When found, he lay in the attitude of 
calm repose, like one who had fallen asleep 
from weariness. This was in the camp of 
the Ninth Massachusetts regiment. He 
was buried, as were more that night, who 
had waited a long fourteen months for 
their funeral rites. In fact, the different 
pioneer corps were engaged some time in 
paying this last tribute to the gallant dead. 
The Pennsylvania reserves bivouacked, 
fourteen months afterwards, for a night, on 
the same ground where they themselves 
were engaged in the deadly strife of bat- 
tle, and the skulls and bones of some of 
their former companions in arms lay 
around within the light of their camp 
fires. It may even have happened that 
men pitched their tents over the grave of 
a lost comrade, and again unwittingly 
rested under the same shelter with one 
who had often before shared their couch 
on the tented field. A soldier of the First 
regiment struck his foot against a cart- 
ridge box, near his tent, and, picking it up, 
read on it the name of an old associate 
who had been among the missing, and 
whose death was only known from his pro- 
longed absence. His resting place had at 
length been found. 



Shotted Salute at Midnight from Grant to 
Lee. 
Sherman's victories and the fall of At- 
lanta were celebrated in true military 
style in the army of General Grant before 
Petersburg. By special order of the 
General, thirty-six shotted guns from each 
battery was fired at midnight, directly into 
the city or into the enemy's works, while 
the bands at the rear played " Hail Col- 
umbia,' ' Star Spangled Banner,' and ' Red, 
White and Blue.' Pleasant and soldierly 



way of celebrating victory, certainly. Of 
course, the shrieks of the dying or the 
maimed and mangled sufferers beyond the 
federal lines, formed .10 part of the chorus 
as heard by the celebrants ; but what was 
heard was novel and warlike, in the high- 
est degree. 

Away, above all, in its majestic sweep, 
the " Petersburg Express " sped on its 
way from the far rear to the devoted city 
in the far front. Curve crossed curve of 
fire. Blazing ball passed blazing ball. 
Hiss, and howl, and crash, and crackle, 
mingled in the burdened air. Ragged 
fragments of iron fell all around. Bits 
of singing lead flew by or dropped briskly 
about. 

When the salute was finished, there 
was some cross-firing of words between 
the aroused pickets along the vidette line. 
" How are you, Atlanta ? " cried out one 
of the Yankee boys. " You'd better try 
and take Petersburg, now," was the rebel 
response. " Sherman is after you fellows, 
sharp," said Yank. " Won't you send 
some more of your colored brudders into 
another mine ? " asked Johnny. " Don't 
you want some coffee and sugar ?" inquir- 
ed the Yankees, tauntingly. " Wouldn't 
you like to exchange your wormy hard 
tack for our johnny cake ? " was the re- 
sponse. This last hit was a hard one, and 
unexpected, — the poor soldiers having for 
some little time had shockingly bad bread ; 
and though the worms in it were very 
large and lively, it was not known that 
they had been seen from the enemy's 
works ! There was much more of this 
verbal sharp-shooting. 

Do They Miss Me at Home P 
After one of the battles in Louisiana, a 
boy of sixteen was lying on his cot, mo- 
tionless, from a ball that passed through 
the brain. The worthy surgeon in charge 
was probing the wound, during which, to 
the astonishment of all, for his young life 
was ebbing fast away, he sang sweetly, 
clearly and strong, the tender strain, " Do 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



825 



they miss me at home?" Poor little fel- 
low, he missed the warm hands and hearts 
of his far-off home, which he thus recalled 
in that gentle fireside song. 



Neutral Cornfield before Petersburg. 
There was a cornfield between the Un- 
ion and Confederate lines at a certain 
point before Petersburg, during Grant's 
autumn cafnpaign, — a little to the left df 
Cemetery Hill. The opposing pickets of 
the two great confronting armies would, 
in spite of all, occasionally creep into that 
field for a friendly chat, or for a barter, or 
for a game of cards ! Two of them were 
playing a game one day, with Abe Lincoln 
and Jeff Davis as imaginary stakes. The 
Lincolnite lost. " There " says the win- 
ner, " Old Abe belongs to me." " Well, 
I'll send him over by the ' Petersburg 

w 



ances were revived. A Connecticut ser- 
geant found a townsman and schoolmate 
in a sergeant from over the way. A Con- 
necticut officer found a kinsman in a rebel 
officer. A loyal Maryland regiment was 
vis-a-vis with a Maryland secession regi- 
ment. Many links of union were there. 
One found a brother on the other side, and 
yet another his own father ! After a little 
time the swapping of the day was done, 
and officers and men returned to their 
respective lines. All was quiet again 
until the artillery re-opened fire. Then a 
half score of loiterers sprang up from their 
concealment in the corn and scrambled 
back to their places behind the works. 
Thus the fighting and the chatting alter- 
nated. 




express,' responded the defeated Yank. 
At another time there had been lively 
shelling and some musketry firing during 
the forenoon — of course but little talking. 
After dinner there was a slack of hostili- 
ties. A Johnny rose up on the parapet 
of his line, and shook a paper as a sign 
of truce, then sprang over into the corn- 
field. At once a hundred men from either 
line were over their works and side by side, 
swapping papers for papers, tobacco for 
coffee or jack-knives, hard tack or sugar 
for corn cake. New acquaintances Avere 
made. In some instances old acquaint- 



Mower's Successful Trick upon the Rebel 
Dispatch Eearer. 

A capital manoeuvre was practiced by 
General Mower upon the rebels, at Hen- 
derson's Hill, and by means of which he 
gained that little victory over the bewil- 
dered chivalry. Overtaking one of the 
couriers, General Mower, in very indig- 
nant terms accused him of being a d 

Yankee spy, at which the rebel dispatch 
bearer became alarmed, and protested his 
innocence, asserting that he was a good 
Confederate, on his Avay with highly im- 
portant dispatches. As a proof of his 
identity he handed over his papers for the 
General to examine, asking him to read 
them quickly, as he did not wish to be de- 
tained. General Mower pronounced the 
documents forgeries, and said — 

" You are a Yankee, sir, and I intend 
to take you before the Colonel. I am 
General Walker, and you can not deceive 
me in this way." 

" Very well, General," replied the aston- 
ished soldier, " I will lead you to the 
Colonel's head-quarters, and he will ex- 
plain that I am not a Yankee." 

Suiting the action to the word, the de- 
luded rebel piloted General Mower and 
his staff some two miles. As fast as the 



326 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



General neared the cavalry pickets, 
who were seated in picturesque groups 
around their camp fires, scarcely noticing 
our troops as they passed, they were or- 
dered to the rear. Approaching the 
encampment on Henderson's Hill, General 
Mower sent for two companies of infantry 
to march forward. Before giving this 
order, he questioned the courier as to the 
disposition of the cavalry and artillery, 
telling him the Yankees were not far off! 
Eager to be of service, tine messenger ex- 
plained the precise location of each gun to 
'his General.' 

As soon as the courier overheard the 
order for infantry to advance, made under 
such circumstances, he discovered the 
terrible situation and its consequences 
into which he had been brought, but it 
was too late. The terrified soldier ex- 
pected to be shot, and he became highly 
excited, telling the General to "hurry and 
take that gun on that road," — pointing out 
the various positions of each cannon. 



Joe Johnston's Whipping at Resaca. 

The battle of Resaca, Georgia, was one 
of the handsomest operations performed 
under the splendid leading of General 
Sherman. 

Let any one imagine the army of Mc- 
Pherson, with the able corps commanders, 
Dodge and Logan, on the right, the army 
of Schofield on the left, and the grand army 
of the Cumberland, with Thomas, Hooker, 
Howard and Palmer in the centre, with 
immense bodies of cavalry upon the flanks, 
— and there is Sherman's, complete army 
in line of battle. 

Opposite, on splendid ground, were sev- 
enty thousand Confederates, commanded 
by Joe Johnston, with Hardee on the right, 
the Right Rev. Bishop Polk on the left, 
and the one-legged, one-armed fighting 
devil, Hood, in the centre. The Federal 
army being a few thousand stronger, but 
Johnston having the ground. 

This was on Saturday. Early in the 
morning, skirmishing commenced all along 



the line. A short time before noon, Bishop 
Polk made an artillery bark at McPher- 
son, who reciprocated in magnificent style. 
At this time, Howard's corps was on the 
extreme left, Schofield to the right of him, 
then old Palmer, and Joe Hooker between 
him and McPherson. The thunders com- 
menced rolling to the left, and Hooker was 
in for it, throwing the bulk of his corps to 
the right, as McPherson was Being most 




General J. E. Johnston. 

vigorously assaulted ; the thundering war 
increased in fury, and the whole line event- 
ually were using artillery. It was the 
diapason of five hundred cannon ! 

All of a sudden the brigades were 
shifted from the right to the left, and con- 
j siderable changing took place on the left 
j and in the centre. Presently the Federal 
: line wavered, the gi'eater part of it fell 
! back, and some portions of it in confusion. 
: General Judah made a good fight, got se- 
verely handled, and was obliged to get out, 
I which he did with confused ranks. Har- 
dee was at work, and was very vicious. 
General Cox got into a snarl, too, and 
couldn't be found for some time. 

But ah ! now the Federals get at them 
again handsomely, and the rebels go back 
the way they came, and more rapidly. 
The gallant Generals Manson and Harker 
receive wounds. Everything is going on 
well at the left now ; both parties recover 
and maintain their own ground, and bang 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



327 



away at each other at a respectful distance. 
Considerable hand-to-hand fighting took 
place during the day, and brigades were 
pitted against brigades upon several occa- 
sions. The happiest thing of the day was 
the thrashing which General King's Brig- 
ade of Regulars administered to a Missis- 
sippi Brigade under General Anderson, 
and an Alabama Brigade under General 
Deas. 

The heaviest fighting of the day occurred 
in the centre, Palmer's corps bearing the 
brunt. Baird's division achieved a multi- 
plicity of successes, and Turchin and Car- 
lin fought like butchers. "Wood's splendid 
division also added to its world-wide re- 
nown by its spirited behaviour, and little 
Willich pitched in, in his usual style, dur- 
ing the afternoon. At a critical moment, 
Joe Hooker came around with his Avhole 
corps, and some magnificent fighting took 
place, the engagement lasting above an 
hour. 

It was near midnight when the conflict 
ceased — one of the most remarkable clay's 
fight, and one of the most interesting bat- 
tles of the war. From eight until ten 
o'clock P. M., the roar of artillery and 
small arms, and the additional din, was 
tumultuous, especially upon the extreme 
right, where Dodge and Osterhaus had 
several pitched engagements with the en- 
emy in the moonlight. About an equal 
number were engaged on both sides, and 
it was at last settled by the respective par- 
ties remaining in the positions which they 
occupied at the commencement. There 
was no slaughter whatever compared with 
the excessive fighting — the entire line be- 
ing nearly all day at work. 

Notwithstanding that with midnight 
came the cessation of the hostilities of the 
day before, the battle of Sunday opened 
at sunrise, and before nine o'clock the 
fighting was general. Hooker was the 
man of the day. Early in the conflict his 
corps was ordered to the extreme left, and 
there it was that the most brilliant events 



of the Sabbath transpired. Hooker stormed 
a fort, and carried the works handsomely, 
capturing a number of guns and several 
hundred prisoners. During this time, how- 
ever, a terrible conflict Avas going on — the 
National troops gaining ground. Slowly 
but surely were the disciplined forces of 
Joe Johnston relinquishing their claims to 
the field. On, on marched the enthusiastic 
columns of the Federals, seemingly at- 
tempting to drown the terrific roar of theii 
guns with shouts and yells, while back — 
back moved the mad columns of the foe, 
the valor and desperation of the partici- 
pants degenerating into despair, at times 
almost precipitating them upon certain de- 
struction. 

The day ended with the Federal troops 
occupants of the rebel ground. 



Vice President Breckinridg-e's Son. 
John Tyler, of Virginia, formerly Pres- 
ident of the United States, and John C. 
Breckinridge, formerly Vice President, 
were the only persons at any time holding 
those distinguished offices, who raised their 
voice or their sword against the National 
Government, and openly sided with its 
armed enemies. Breckinridge's son, Lieu- 
tenant James C, at one time bid fair to 
duplicate his father's consummate prowess 
as a leader, but was captured in one of the 
battles of the Southwest — or rather, was 
captured in the National lines, having 
made a mistake while carrying a dispatch. 
He bore a remarkable resemblance to his 
father, and was quite youthful in appear- 
ance ; possessed the fascinating deportment 
of his sire, and, in conversation, was quite 
winning. He was on his father's staff, and 
had been in service during the past two 
years. Like the rest of the Confederate 
officers, he was attired in a coarse, but 
neat-fitting suit of gray clothes, with a blue 
military cap. He did not appear to be 
more than eighteen or twenty years of age, 
though evidently a young man of more 
than ordinary ability. 



328 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



Bravo for Pea Bidg-e. 

Pea Ridge battle crowned with honor 

the military skill of General Curtis and 

his brave comrades in arms for the good 

old Union flag. In the midst of the con- 



three weeks previous on that stream, and 
the two battles would be confounded. Mr. 
Knox, correspondent of the New York 
Herald, suggested the name of "Ozark 
Mountain," because of the place being in 



flict, or during a cessation of the terrible \ the midst of that extensive range. The 

name had a rich sound, 
but was objected to, 
on account of its not 
being sufficiently spe- 
cific. The name of a 
battlefield should indi- 
cate with all possible 
precision, its locality. 
The name of Leetown, 
a small hamlet, with 
half a dozen poor ten- 
ements, was proposed, 
but owing to the in- 
significance of the 
place, the appellation 
was not received with 
favor. At length, 
General Curtis in- 
quired of one of the 
natives standing by, 
and who was dressed 
in Confederate clothes, 
but who had sided with 
the Union army, — 

"What name do 
you call your country 
here ? " 

" This," said the 
man, " is Pea Ridge." 
" That" responded 
Curtis, " is the name 
I want. I like the 
name. It is some- 
thing new." 

Some opposition was 
made to this christen- 
ing, but the General 
stood firm, and adhered to the name of Pea 
Ridge. The next day, therefore, he sent 
a Major of the Third Iowa cavalry, through 
to Kietsville, with a dispatch to Halleck, 
ered an important battle had been fought | announcing the victory of " Pea Ridge," 




Climbing the Mountains. 

cannonade, the question came regarding 
the name of the battlefield. Somebody 
proposed Sugar Creek, to which General 
Curtis objected, because what he consid- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



329 



and it was not long before brave fellows 
were making the welkin ring with "Bravo ' 
for Pea Ridge!" 



New Federal Troops against Rebel Veterans. 
On the 19th of May, 1864, the First 
Massachusetts and First Maine heavy ar- 
tillery, which were armed as infantry, were 
lying in the woods west of Spottsylvania 
and Fredericksburg road, two miles in 
rear of the Federal front line, when they 



rode to Stannard's brigade, composed of the 
First Massachusetts and First Maine. 

" The sons of Maine and Massachusetts 
are not cowards ! " shouted the General. 

"No! No!" was the response. 

" Follow me, then ! " 

Away they went with a cheer. They 
came within irusket range, and the contest 
began. Ewell's old veterans on the one 
hand, and the troops who until the previous 
week had not handled a musket, on the 




Union Bushwhackers attacking Rebel Cavalry. 



were startled by the appearance of a body 
of rebels which were coming upon them 
from the west. It was Rhodes's division 
of Ewell's corps, who had moved out from 
Spottsylvania up the Beach road to the 
north-west, starting at one P. M. Their 
advance was most unexpected to the Union 
forces. 

General Tyler, who commanded the 
division of heavy artillery, called upon 
his men to move against the enemy. The 
troops never had been under fire. They 
had arrived, some of them only the day 
before. They hesitated. General Tyler 
21 



other. The heavy artillery knew little 
about infantry tactics, of handling muskets, 
of loading and firing, but they poured in 
their volleys — or, rather, each man loaded 
a piece, irrespective of all orders. It was 
a continous roll. Meanwhile the rest of 
Tyler's division — four regiments — joined, 
and the contest became furious. The Sec- 
ond Corps, which was near at hand, was 
swung round to form a second line, but be- 
fore it could be brought into action, the 
heavy artillery had repulsed the rebels. 
It was a short, sharp, decisive engage- 
ment. The result had a great effect on 



330 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



the army, raising its spirits to the highest 

pitch. 

*■ 

Devotion of a Private to General McPherson. 
There were thousands of instances of 
bravery displayed by the real heroes of 
this war — the gallant privates — that never 
found their way into print. Here is one 
of this class which is happily, however, 
rescued from oblivion, namely, the gallant- 
ry displayed by Private George D. Rey- 
nolds, Company D, of the Fifteenth Iowa 




Maj Gen McPherson. 

regiment, on the battlefield before Atlanta, 
in the summer of 1864. This tried and 
trusty veteran had been engaged in the 
savage contest for several hours, and at 
last was severely wounded in the arm, the 
bullet fracturing the bone so that amputa- 
tion of the fore-arm seemed to be necessa- 
ry to save his valuable life. This George 
Reynolds saw the noble McPherson when 
he fell mortally Avounded, and remained 
with his General till the brave heart ceased 
to beat longer for the land he loved, and 
the pulse, which ever throbbed with heroic 
blood, grew silent. The storm of shot and 
shell did not intimidate the soldier, but 
growing faint from the loss of blood and 
the pain of his wound, he was compelled 
to start for the hospital to get' his wound 
properly dressed. After marching nearly a 
mile in the hot sun and dust, he met Lieut- 
enant-Colonel Strong, Inspector- General 



on McPherson's staff, and Captain Buell, 
Chief Ordnance Officer of the Department 
and Army of Tennessee, who were anx- 
iously inquiring for the General's body. 
Reynolds volunteered to pilot them to the 
spot where he had left the body, notwith- 
standing the Confederates were rapidly 
advancing, and the bullets whistled through 
the branches of the trees. The entire 
party had a very narrow escape from death 
or capture, for they had barely placed the 
body of their inanimate chieftain in an am- 
bulance when a squad of rebels fired sev- 
eral shots after them. 



Compliments of the Season. 
During a temporary lull in the conflict 
attending the rebel attack on Franklin, 
Tennessee, General Forrest, who had 
seen one of Lieutenant Hopkins' white 
signal flags working, sent a flag of truce 
to Colonel Baird. The flag was borne by 
what passed for an extremely courteous 
young rebel officer, whose first benign sal- 
utation was, "Ah ! you've surrendered, 
have you, — — you?" Colonel 
Baird's officer, under the influence of pas- 
sion thus provoked, with more regard for 
strength than beauty or blandness in his 
reply, remarked to the rebel, " Not much, 

you fool!" This ended the 

peaceful conference, and warlike opera- 
tions were at once resumed. Query: 
How many and what kind of religious 
tracts were sent to that army ? 



Fight for the Flag- at Petersburg-. 
Among the many incidents of bravery 
and personal daring exhibited in storming 
the enemy's intrenchments at Petersburg, 
under General Grant, the capture of a 
rebel battle-flag by a private in the Third 
New York Regiment, in General Smith's 
corps, was one of the most notable. 
While the contest was at its height, and 
the tide of battle swaying to and fro, he 
espied the flag, borne by a rebel captain, 
who picked it up as its former bearer fell 
at his side. The gallant New Yorker 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



331 



singled him out for personal encounter, 
and, after a*hard hand-to-hand fight, suc- 
ceeded in capturing the flag and its hearer, 
and emerged from the dust and smoke of 
the conflict victoriously hearing the ban- 
ner and driving the Captain before him. 

General Butler heard of this incident, 
sent for the daring man, ascertained that 
he was formerly a mechanic, but then a 
humble soldier in the ranks; obtained 
a specimen of his handwriting ; found by 
conversation that he was sensible and in- 
telligent, and commissioned him a lieuten- 
ant of volunteers on the spot. The bat- 
tle-flag was of blue bunting, about four 
feet square, with white binding, two inches 
wide, around the edges ; had a white diag- 
onal cross, six inches wide, with thirteen 
blue stars on both arms, extending from 
corner to corner, and well mounted on a 
staff about ten feet in length — the whole 
presenting an elegant and well finished ap- 
pearance, though somewhat soiled and 
worn. 

The banner was neatly folded around 
the staff and given in charge of Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Babcock, of General Grant's 
staff, to convey to head-quarters. On the 
way from Petersburg, the soldiers he 
passed in the road were unusually demon 
strative and exultant, which occasionally 
broke out in vociferous cheering as he 
passed along the line. The Colonel was 
unable to account for his sudden popu- 
larity, until he discovered that his orderly 
had unfurled the rebel colors, and was ex- 
plaining its capture to all the troops he 
passed, by grimaces and pantomine. 



Our Generals among- the Bullets. 

General Grant afforded a remarkable 
illustration of the fortune through which 
some men, in the thickest showers of bul- 
lets, always escape. He had participated 
in two skirmishes and fourteen pitched 
battles, up to the time of the Pittsburg 
Landing conflict, and was universally pro- 
nounced, by those who had seen him on 
the field, daring even to rashness ; but he 



never received even a scratch. One Sun- 
day evening, or afternoon, he was sitting 
upon his horse, just in the rear of our line 
of batteries, when Captain Carson, the 
scout who had reported to him a moment 
before, had fallen back, and was holding 
his horse by the bridle, about seven feet 
behind him — instantly a six-pound shot) 
which flew very near General Grant, car- 
ried away all of poor Carson's head, ex- 
cept a portion of the chin, — then passed 
just behind Lieutenant Graves, volunteer 
aid to General Wilson, tearing away the 
cantle of his saddle, cutting his clothing, 
but not injuring him, and then took clean 
off the legs of a soldier in one of General 
Nelson's regiments, which were just as- 
cending the bluff. 

About the same hour, further up to the 
right, General Sherman, who had been 
standing for a moment while Major Ham- 
mond, his chief of staff, was holding his 
bridle, remounted. By the prancing of 
his horse, as he mounted, General Sher- 
man's reins were thrown over his neck, 
and he was leaning forward in the saddle, 
with his head lowered, while Major Ham- 
mond was bringing them back # over his 
head, when a rifle ball struck the line in 
Major Hammond's hand, severing it within 
two inches of his fingers, and passing 
through the top and back of General 
Sherman's hat Had he been sitting, as 
usual, upright, it would have taken his 
head clean off. At another time, a ball 
struck General Sherman on the shoulder, 
but his metallic shoulder-strap warded it 
off. With a third he was less fortunate, 
for it passed through his hand. General 
Sherman had three horses shot under him, 
two with three balls each, and the last 
with two. General Hurlbut had a six- 
pound shot pass between his horse's head 
and his arm ; a bullet passed through his 
horse's mane, and one of his horses was 
killed under him. 



Told the Truth at the Right Time. 
When General Sturgis went on hit 
great expedition at the southwest, the 



332 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



main body of his command halted at Sa- 
lem, and a detachment of three hundred 
men was sent out to reconnoitre the road to 
Ripley, a little town southwest of Corinth. 
When within a few miles of that place, the 
advance guard of the detachment came 
upon and captured a squad of half a dozen 
rebel cavalry without firing a gun. As is 
customary, the prisoners were closely ex- 
amined, with a view to eliciting such in- 




region than Mississippi before he would 
tell him any thing at all. 

" Very well," said the officer, drawing 
and cocking a revolver, '* I will send you 
there to wait for me." 

" You may shoot me if you want to,' 1 
said the Confederate, "but you will be 
sony for it." 

"Why?" 

" Because there are a hundred men 
over yonder in the woods, and if they hear 
you shoot they will come up and murder 
every man of you." 

" Well," said the officer, " since you 
have told me just what I wanted to find 
out I guess I won't shoot you." 

In thirty minutes the whole hundred meu 
were prisoners. 



General Barksdale 

formation of the enemy's whereabouts and 
intentions as they might be able to give. 
A gaunt, stringy haired man," who seemed 
to be the leader of the rebel party, was 
conducted to the officer in command of 
our advance, who asked him, 

" What regiment do you belong to ? " 

" I won't tell," was the pointed reply 
of the rebel. 

" How far is it to Ripley?" was the next 
question. 

" Don't know," answered the man, sul- 
lenly, with the true Barksdale grit. 

" Who is your commander ? " 

" Won't tell." 

" How far off is the command to which 
you belong ? " still inquired the persever- 
ing Federal, pretending not to notice the 
crusty demeanor of his prisoner. Here 
the rebel informed him in terms that 
would not be altogether comely in print, 
that he would see him in a much hotter 



Kind o' -wanted to be in the Front. 

Sergeant Hunter, of the Kentucky 
soldiery, exhibited the bravest soldierly 
qualities in the conflict at Springfield, Mo. 
His superb figure never failed to attract 
the eye in the ranks of the Guard. He 
had served in the regular cavalry, and the 
Body Guard (Fremont's noted men) had 
profited greatly from his skill as a drill- 
master. He lost three horses killed under 
him in the fight. As soon as one was 
killed, he caught another from the rebels : 
the third horse taken by him in this way 
he rode into St. Louis. The Sergeant 
slew five men. Said he — 

" I won't speak of those I shot — another 
may have hit them ; but those I touched 
with my sabre I am sure of, because I felt 
them." 

At the beginning of the charge he came 
to the entreme right and took position next 
to Major Zagonyi, whom he followed 
closely through the battle. The Major, 
seeing him, said: 

" Why are you here, Sergeant ? Your 
place is with your company on the left." 

" I kind o' wanted to be in front," was 
the answer. 

" What could I say to such a man ! " 
exclaimed Zagonyi, speaking of the mat- 
ter afterwards. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



333 



An Hibernian's Tustle with a " Mississippi 
Tiger." 

The dogged, obstinate, and bitter char- 
acter of the rebel Gulf troops was one of 
the familiar facts of the war, as the follow- 
ing incident which happened near Mar- 
tinsburg, Va., will show. A son of Erin 
captured one of the famous 'Mississippi 
Tigers,' but while bringing him to the 
Union camp, the ' Tiger,' an immense fel- 
low, managed to free himself and run. 
The plucky Hibernian disdained to use 
his musket, but chased him with the wild- 
est speed. At last, seizing him, at it they 
went, in the most logical style of rough- 
and-tumble. The ' Tiger,' maddened by 
the stinging whacks which the lusty Hiber- 
nian dealt, basely bit him, nearly severing 
his thumb. The Celt dropped the soldier 
then, and retaliated in the same way ; 
finally he conquered him after a tremen- 
dous whaling, which dislocated his shoul- 
der. The next day he visited the son of 
the " Repudiation State," in the hospital, 
went up to him, and shaking his well arm 
with a hearty grip, observed, with his ' rich 
Irish brogue,' " I haven't a bit of a grudge 
agin ye ; be jabers ! ye are almost as good 
as meself." 



" Old Rosy," and not " Old Pap." 

General Rosecrans was one of those 
wide-awake commanders who could not 
be caught napping. He was accustomed to 
visit all the camps and outposts, to see 
that the soldiers under him were thoroughly 
on the alert. One night, the General, ac- 
companied by Major Bond, mounted his 
horse and galloped out to Camp Sheridan, 
the stamping ground of General Pike's 
enrolled militia. It was midnight when 
the two officers arrived at the camp, and 
not being hailed, they dashed into the cen- 
tre of the camp, and dismounted. A sol- 
dier came forward from some place of con- 
cealment and hailed the officers — 

" Who goes there ? " 

" Friends," answered the General. 

" Friends, heh ? Well, what next ? " 



" Nothing next ; but you are all pris- 
oners." 

The militiaman got his eyes open by 
this time, and seeing the stars of a Major 
General before him, supposed the veritable 
old Pap Price had him in hand. He 
dropped his gun by his side, folded his 
arms, and appeared resigned to his fate. 
A German soldier now came up and asked 
what was going on. He was told that the 
camp had been captured, and he had to 
surrender. 

"We will see about that!" said the 
German, tightening his belt and preparing 
for a fight. The two soldiers then escort- 
ed the General and his aid to head-quar- 
ters, and when they discovered that it was 
"Old Rosy," and not " Old Pap," who had 
captured the camp, they felt greatly reliev- 
ed and made up their minds not to be 
caught napping again. 



Mighty Big- Risk. 
The Union pickets near the James river, 
while one night quietly sitting around their 
fires, were startled by the report of a sin- 
gle rifle from the enemy's line, followed by 
an irregular volley. Of course every man 
sprang to his arms in an instant, ready to 
repel any assault of the enemy. " Don't 
fire, boys," was the order given in a low 
tone by the Lieutenant in command, who 
had received instructions not to fire unless 
the Johnnies saw fit to thoroughly initiate 
the barbarous practice. For a few sec- 
onds the enemy's bullets continued to 
whistle spitefully by, and the Lieutenant 
was about giving the order returning the 
fire, when three Johnnies came 'piling' 
over the works into the Federal lines, and 
with a fervent ' Thank God ! ' sank down 
behind the embankment. This occurrence 
accounted for the sudden outbreak of the 
Confederate pickets, who upon discovering 
the flight of their treacherous videttes, had 
opened fire upon them. Out of eight who 
attempted to run the perilous gauntlet, 
only the three succeeded, the remaining 
five being either killed or disabled by the 



334 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



shots of their companions. By a precon- 
certed arrangement, three cartridges were 
elevated and successively flashed above 
the Federal works by the lucky Johnnies, 
to indicate to their less fortunate friends 
the number reaching the Union lines in 
safety. On being invited to warm them- 
selves at the picket fire, they refused, 
fearing lest the light might reveal them to 
their former companions, but a few yards 
from the line. " We un's run a mighty 
big risk in getting to you un's, and now 
we's safe, we don't care to rim any more," 
was their reply, and so they remained 
shivering under cover of the federal works, 
until sent to head-quarters. 



Delirious Bravery of a Southern Hotspur. 
On the last day of the fight at Pea 
Ridge, while the force under General 
Sigel was gallantly charging the rebels, 
and driving them from the heights they 
had occupied, one rebel officer, Captain of 
a Louisiana company, seemed resolved to 
throw away his life. As his fellow soldiers 
retreated, he advanced further towards our 
troops until he was almost alone. He 
waved his sword and cried in a loud ring- 
ing voice for his men to follow him, de- 
nouncing them as cowards if they retreated. 
They heeded not his appeals, and seeing 
himself deserted he ran towards our ad- 
vance, shouting like a madman and saying 
something that sounded like, " I am brave 
as Cresar. If we are whipped, I do not 
want to live. Come on, you Yan- 
kees ! " The Union infantry were anxious 
to take this southern hotspur prisoner, and 
Avould have done so had not one of their 
batteries opened from the left, and in its 
storm of iron swept down the single life 
which, so full of fierceness, ebbed itself 
away in the sodden and unpitying ground. 
He was the son of a sugar planter living 
up the Bayou La Fourche, and was given 
to drunkenness — which perhaps accounts 
for his delirious conduct. 



Delivering: up their Swords at Fort Pulaski. 

After a truly heroic defence, Fort Pu- 
laski yielded to the superior prowess of its 
assailants, and became again part of the 
possessions, as well as of the property of 
the glorious Union it was designed to pro- 
tect and preserve. 

First, an interview of one hour took 
place between Colonel Olmsted, the rebel 
commandant, and General Gillmore on the 
Union side. The terms of capitulation 
having been settled, General Gillmore was 
shown over the fort by the Colonel, and 




Gen. David Hunte* - . 

took his leave, accompanied by Colonel 
Rust. • Messengers from General Hunter 
had meantime arrived. The«fi, together 
with General Gillmore's aid, made the 
rounds of the fort under the escort of Colo- 
nel Olmsted, who introduced them to his 
officers, and comprised the only persons 
present when the swords were delivered. 
Major Halpine, as the representative 
of General Hunter, received the weapons. 
The ceremony was performed in the 
Colonel's head-quarters, all standing. It 
was just at dark, and the candles gave only 
a sombre half-light. The weapons were 
laid on the table, each officer advancing in 
turn, according to his rank, and mentioning 
his name and title ; nearly every one added 
some remark, the Colonel's being defined: 
" I yield my sword, but I trust I have not 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



335 



disgraced it." Major Alpine, in reply, 
spoke gracefully of the painfulness of the 
duty he had been called upon to perform 
— to receive the swords of men who had 
shown by their bravery that they deserved 
to wear them. As soon as the surrender 
was complete, the Stars and Stripes once 
more flapped their glorious folds in the 
secession breezes of that famed region of 
the 'Sunny South.' The officers invited 
the Unionists to their quarters, where sev- 
eral took supper, and some even slept with 
the rebels whom they had been fighting 
with such bloody desperation only a few 
hours before. 



Big Black, and I guess its now in active 
service, by the way it plays into these 
works. 

Reb. — Why don't you come and take 
Vicksburg ? 



Picket Repartee at Vicksburg. 

The richness of rebel repartee and 
fecundity of Federal fun during the long 
and familiar vis a vis at Vicksburg is 
pretty well illustrated in the following 
verbatim colloquy : 

Rebel Picket. — What are you men doing 
over there ? 

Union Picket. — Guarding about twenty 
to thirty thousand rebels in and about 
Vicksburg. Guarding your army as pris- 
oners, and making you board yourselves. 

Reb. — Why, you fools, Pemberton 

has a strong line of guards for the same 
purpose. 

Reb. — How's Hooker ? He had to re- 
cross the river, did he not ? 

Fed. — Yes, but he was not as big a fool 
as your General was. He did not burn 
the bridges before his men all got across ! 

Reb. — What do you think of the gun- 
boat Cincinnati? 

Fed. — Gunboat ? Why, don't you know 
the difference between a gunboat and a 
hay-rack ? 

Reb. — (just in the act of throwing a 
hand-grenade) — Antn'y, over ! 

Fed. — (in the act of hurling it back) 
— Look out for the skillets and camp-ket- 
tles ! 

Fed. — (addressing a rebel lieutenant 
of artillery) — Where's your gun? 
. Reb. — Turned it over to Grant at the 




Union and Rebel Pickets. 



Fed — Oh, we're in no particular hurry. 
General Grant is not yet ready to transfer 
you North. 

Reb. — (boastingly) — We've got a lot 
of your old flags over here. 

Fed. — Have you, though ? You'd bet- 
ter make shirts of 'em, for they'd look 
better'n that butternut. 

Reb. — (in a husky voice) — I want to 
trade some corn-meal for some coffee. 

Fed. — What did you say ? 

Reb. — (louder) — Won't you trade some 
coffee for some corn-meal ? 

Fed. — You'd better get some coffee, or 
something else, for you've eat corn-meal 
till you can't talk plain. 

Reb. — When are you going to make a 
change ? 

Fed. — Oh, in about two years. We are 
in no hurry — are living fine over here — 
have a pleasant place, and ammunition to 
last us the rest of the time. 



Six Generals "Waiting: to Receive Battle. 
Six Union Generals waiting upon Pleas- 
ant Hill, for the second day's attack of the 
enemy, formed a war picture of rare in- 



336 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE KEBELLION 



terest. The plateau had the appearance 
of a parade-ground on a holiday. Regi- 
ments marching to the right, and regi- 
ments marching to the left, batteries being 
moved and shifted, cavalry squads moving 
in single file through the brush, now and 
then an aid galloping madly, or an orderly 
at full speed, driving his spurs, and holding 
an order or a dispatch between his teeth, 
bugles sounding the different cavalry calls, 
and drums repeating the orders • of the 
Captains, — all passed and re-passed, and 
controlled the vision, making very much 
the impression that a spectator in the 
theatre receives as he looks upon a melo- 
drama. 

In an enclosure near the roadside was a 
small cluster of gentlemen, to whom all 
this phantasmagoria had the meaning of 
life and death, power and force. 

General Banks, with his light-blue over- 
coat buttoned closely around his chin, was 
strolling up and down, occasionally con- 
versing with one of his staff, or returning 
with his accustomed suavity the salute of 
a passing subaltern. No one could possi- 
bly forget Banks after once seeing him. 

Near Banks was General W. B. Frank- 
lin — his face as rough and rugged as when 
he rode through the thick and furious 
storms of the Peninsula, — the ideal of a 
bold, daring, resolute, indomitable fighting 
soldier. 

There were few braver men in that 
group, or elsewhere, than Major General 
Charles O'Malley. He had two horses 
shot under him the day before. His face 
was very calm that morning, and occa- 
sionally he pulled his whiskers nervously, 
as though he scented the battle afar off,. 
and was impatient to be in the midst of 
the fray. 

General Charles P. Stone, the chief of 
staff, a quiet, retiring man, and regarded 
by the few that knew him as one of the 
finest soldiers in the service, was sitting 
on a rail smoking cigarettes, and apparent- 
ly more, interested in the puffs of smoke 



that curled around him than in the no!se 
and bustle that filled the air. 

There, too, was General Smith, with 
his bushy, grayish beard, and his eager 
eye, as it appeared through spectacles, 
giving him a strong resemblance to a 
schoolmaster, as indeed he was, in the mil- 
itary sense, to the enemies of his country. 

General Arnold, the chief 'of artillery, 
with his high boots, and slouched hat 
thrown over his head, seemed the busiest 
man of all. 



Bumside Directing a Retreat. 

A wounded soldier who served in Burn- 
side's expedition in North Carolina, men- 
tions that at Newbern, on one occasion, 
the Federal troops, on account of the nu- 
merous batteries they had to encounter, 




Gen. A. E Bumside 

became discouraged, and were falling back ; 
thereupon an officer rode up in haste to 
Burnside, and asked if he would order, a 
retreat. " Retreat ! " said Burnside, " yes, 
right into the face of the enemy. That is 
how I want you to retreat." A forward 
movement was immediately ordered, and 
by a forward retreat, the Union troops 
carried all before them, driving the enemy 
from their entrenchments, and capturing 
all their strongholds. 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



337 



Three Soldiers Captured by a Boy with a j 
Coffee Pot. 
An amusing instance of the value of a , 
ready wit and presence of mind occurred 
during the advance of the Second Corps j 
of Federal troops, near Hatcher's Run. 
A young lad in the Fourteenth Connecti- 
cut regiment, going with a coffee-pot to get 
water from the stream t suddenly found 
himself surrounded by three of the enemy. 




ment of the United States. A noble look- 
ing, white-haired man, of very imposing 
appearance, he nevertheless proved an ut- 
ter failure as a military leader, running 
like a coward before the veterans of Cur- 
tis and Sigel on that bloody day. 



Soldiers Captured by a Boy 

With all the fierceness of voice the little 
fellow could muster, he commanded them to 
throw down their arms and surrender. 
Supposing that the brave youth had com- 
panions near to enforce his command, they 
complied, when he seized one of their 
muskets and marched them into camp in 
great triumph. This story was related in 
his camp as the capture of three Johnnies 
with a coffee-pot. 



Career of the "Handsomest Man in the 
Southwest." 

Albert Pike is a name which will long 
he remembered in the Southwest, as that 
of one of the most remarkable men who 
have lived in that region. It was not to 
be expected that he would be otherwise 
than conspicuous in the great rebellion 
which enveloped that section with the rest. 
In the battle of Pea Ridge, he led 
the Cherokee Indians, whom he had se- 
duced from their allegiance to the Govem- 




It was in another sphere, and a totaHy 
different one, that Pike was destined to 
shine ; and shine he did. He was a man 
of extraordinary genius, and had pocketed 
a hundred thousand dollars as the fees of 
a single lawsuit. He had been known, 
during a term of court, to meet his brother 
lawyers for an evening carousal, drink with 
them till the stoutest was ' laid out ' under 
the table, and then seat himself, and, in 
the midst of their convivial singing and 
roaring, draw up a most intricate bill in 
chancery, without an erasure or interlinea- 
tion. He would do this same thing in 
court, apparently undisturbed by the noise 
of a trial in progress. But, with all his 
genius and wonderful versatility of talent, 
he was utterly and persistently wayward in 
liis habits, and half a dozen forUines pass- 
ed from his hands — spent in reckless and 
prodigal excesses. Once young, highly 
educated, graced with personal accomplish- 
ments and a physique which won for him 
the distinction of being called the " hand- 
I somest man in the Southwest," his magic 
! touch had swept the lyre of the gods, com- 



338 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



pelling a busy, din-resounding nation to 
stop and listen in enraptured silence. 

But from all this eminence, he became 
an exile from his home, a traitor to his 
country, the pusillanimous leader of red- 
handed savages against the valiant defend- 
ers of the Union and the noblest flag that 
ever floated, and, to cap the climax, desert- 
ed the savage victims of his own silver- 
tongued eloquence, and ran like a coward 
in the day of battle ! 



General Howard on the Wrong Side of the 
Battle-field. 

A short time subsequent to the magnifi- 
cent charge made on the rebel breastworks, 
in the midnight -conflict at Lookout Valley, 
by General Geary, General Howard, tak- 
ing with him a small escort of cavalry, 
started for that part of the field where 
General Geary was supposed to be. He 
had not gone far, when he came up with 
a body of infantry. " What cavalry is 
that?" was the hail. "All right," re- 
sponded General Howard, at the same time 
calling out, " What men are these ? " 
' Longstreet's," was the reply. " All right 
— come here," said General Howard. 
The men approached. " Have we whip- 
ped those fellows ? " asked the General, 
iu a manner to keep up the deception. 
" No, — them, they were too much for 
us, and drove us from our rifle-pits, like 
devils. We're whipped ourselves." By 
this time the rebels had gathered nearer. 
" Lay down your arms ! " demanded Gen- 
eral H., in a stern voice. The men sur- 
rendered. 

Taking his prisoners in charge. General 
Howard proceeded on his way. He had 
not gone far, before another party of rebel 
infantry called out, " What cavalry is 
that?" "All right," was the response 
again, of General Howard, as he proceed- 
ed. On approaching the position occupied 
by Geary, that officer had observed the 
advancing horsemen, and infantry, as he 
supposed the prisoners to be, and taking 
them to be rebels, he had ordered his gun3 



to be loaded with canister, and in a mo- 
ment more Avould have given the intrepid 
Howard and his little force the benefit of 
it. But the general who had successfully 
deceived the enemy, found a way to make 
himself known to his friends, and so es- 
caped a reception of that kind. 



Intrepid Conduct of Two Drummer Boys. 
Two drummer boys of the Tenth Con- 
necticut Volunteers, while off duty, and 
while Gillmore Avas pounding Fort AVag- 
ner, determined to discover the effect made 
upon the fort, and for this purpose bor- 
rowed an opera glass and went out a dis- 
tance from camp, to obtain a favorable site 
to witness the operations. They had pro- 
ceeded about three-quarters of a mile, 
when they came suddenly upon a burly 
rebel, who upon sight of the boys, snap- 




intrepid Conduct. 

ped his gun at them, which however did 
not explode, the piece not being capped. 
One of the boys at that moment, thrusting 
the glass into the case which hung at his 
side, the rebel thought he was drawing a 
revolver, and immediately threw down his 
gun, crying out, " I surrender ! " The 
boys immediately sprang forward, seized 
his gun, and at a "charge bayonet" drove 
the big fellow into camp. When he dis- 
covered that the only appearance of a 
weapon in the boys' possession was an 
opera glass, he was much incensed, declar- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



339 



mg lie could not be held as a prisoner of 
war. The fact was witnessed by the 
Colonel of the regiment, who highly com- 
mended the intrepid conduct of the boys. 



Bob, the Spunky Drummer Boy. 
The battle of Fredericksburg was* at- 
tended by many memorable instances of 
individual heroism. It is known that, for 
several days a curtain of thick fog rose up 
from the waters of the Rappahannock, 
completely hiding from view the artillery 
that crowned the opposite hills, and the in- 
fantry that crowded the sheltering ravines. 
But the preparation for the great fight, so 
hopefully commenced, was continued amid 
the thunder of cannon and the eruptions of 
exolodins batteries. 




Bob, the Drummer Boy 

The hazardous work of laying the pon- 
toon bridges was frequently interrupted 
by the murderous fire of Confederate 
sharpshooters, concealed in the stores and 
dwelling-houses on the bank of the river. 
To dislodge these men, and drive them out 
of their hiding-places, seemed an impossi- 
ble task. At a given signal, the Union 
batteries opened with a terrific fire upon 
the city, crashing through the walls of 
houses and public buildings. But in this 
storm of shot and shell, which ploughed 
the streets and set the buildings on fire, 
the sharpshooters survived, like salaman- 
ders in .'he flames, and continued to pour 



a deadly fire upon the Federal engineers 
and bridge-builders. 

In this dilemma it became evident that 
the bridges could not be laid except by a 
bold dash. Volunteers were called for to 
cross in small boats ; forthwith, hundreds 
stepped forward and offered their services. 
One hundred men were chosen, and at 
once started for the boats. Robert Henry 
Hendershot was then a member of the 
Eighth Michigan — acting as drummer boy. 
Seeing a part of the Michigan Seventh 
preparing to cross the river, he ran ahead, 
and leaped into the boat. One of the offi- 
cers ordered him out, saying he would be 
shot. The boy replied that he didn't care, 
that he was willing to die for his country. 
When the boy found that the Captain 
would not permit him to remain in the 
boat, he begged the privilege of pushing 
the boat off, and the request was granted. 
Whereupon, instead of remaining on shore, 
he clung to the stern of the boat, and, sub- 
merged to the waist in water, he crossed 
the Rappahannock. Soon as he landed, a 
fragment of a shell struck his old drain, 
and knocked it to pieces. Picking up a 
musket, he went in search of relics, and 
obtained a secesh flag, a clock, a knife, and 
a bone ring. On opening a back door in 
one of the enemy's houses, he found a 
Confederate wounded in the hand, and 
ordered him to surrender. He did so, and 
was taken by the boy-soldier to the Seventh 
Michigan. When the drummer boy re- 
crossed the river from Fredericksburg, 
General Burnside said to him, in the pres- 
ence of the army: 

" Boy, I glory in your spimk ; if you 
keep on this way a few more years, you 
will be in my place." 

Robert is a native of New York, but 
moved with his parents to Michigan when 
he was an infant. His father died, leaving 
the mother in destitute circumstances, and 
with a family of four children to support 
and educate. Bob went from Jackson (Mich- 
igan) to Detroit, with Captain Deland, in 
the capacity of waiter in the Ninth Michi- 



340 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



ean. With that regiment he went to 
Louisville, West Point, Ky., and Eliza- 
bethtown, Ky., — at the last named place 
being appointed drummer boy. Subse- 
quently he was in six battles, namely, 
Lebanon, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, 
Shelbyville, McMinnsville, and Freder- 
icksburg. At the battle of Murfrees- 
boro, where the Union forces were taken 
by surprise before daylight, in the morn- 
ing, after beating the long-roll, and pulling 
the fifer out of bed to assist him, he threw 
aside his drum, and seizing a gun, fired 
sixteen rounds at the enemy from the 
window of the court-house in which his 
regiment was quartered; but the Union 
men were compelled to surrender, and they 
were all taken prisoners, though immedi- 
ately paroled, and afterward sent to Camp 
Chase, Ohio. Soon as the news came 
from the Rappahannock that Bob had lost 
his drum in that terrible tempest of fire 
and iron, the New York Tribune Associa- 
tion promised to make good his loss and 
give him a new drum. If ever a little 
fellow deserved both drum and drumsticks, 
it was Robert Hendershot, the gallant 
little Western drummer boy, whose 
" spunk " elicited the admiration of Burn- 
side. 



Heavy Firing 1 — No Causalties: and Why. 
It was almost always observed that 
when the Confederate and Union troops 
were lying near one another for any length 
of time, they became quite communicative 
and friendly. They forgot that they were 
enemies, and a kind of chivalric honor and 
courtesy was strictly observed during their 
self-appointed truce. If they were com- 
pelled to fire during the existence of this 
self-constituted armistice, they fired the 
first volley in the air, so as to give the 
others time to get back. The following 
incident, which happened in front of the 
Fourteenth Corps, at Atlanta, Georgia, 
shows how much ticklishness there was 
about ' honor ' on such occasions : 



The Federal works were pretty close to 
those of the Confederates, and the pickets 
nearly met in the centre. There was no 
firing along the lines, and it occurred to 
the poor fellows on both sides that it would 
be pleasant to get up out of their rifle-pits, 
stratch their cramped limbs, and have a 
little friendly intercourse with their neigh- 
bors. So a sort of ventriloquism conver- 
sation ensued from the pits, and, all pre- 
liminaries being satisfactorily arranged, a 
regular truce was agreed upon. They 
jumped up, shook off the dirt, and met in 
so friendly a way that one would have 
thought they were the best and most lov- 
ing neighbors in the world. Trade was 
carried on on a small scale, escapes and 
adventures recounted, and home friends 
and scenes warmly discussed. In the 
midst of all this, the rebels in the rear 
called out to their comrades, 

" Boys, come back, the Major is com- 
ing." 

Now it happened that " the Major " was 
an old, rusty, crusty customer, and had ifo 
hand in the truce at all, so when he came 
up he was in a fume, and called out, 

" — you, come back here ; and why 
the — don't you fire ? " 

The men went back, but refused to fire 
on the Federals until they had got to their 
pits, which set the major in such a boiling 
rage that he snatched a gun and popped 
at one of the Yankees, slightly wounding 
him. A regular cry of indignation at 
such a violation of faith was raised by his 
men, and five of them actually walked out 
of his lines into the Union, owning that 
they could not, in justice to their honor, 
serve any longer in an army where honor- 
able treaties were so grossly violated. 
Their comrades refused to interfere, and 
evidently deeply sympathized with their 
offended dignity. The Union boys re- 
ceived them warmly; even the wounded 
man joined in the welcome. The following 
day the rebel picket called out in a quiet 
way to the Yankees, 

" Boys, we ain't allowed to hold any in- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC. 



341 



tercourse with you ; but if you attack us 
to-night, we ain't going to fight hard." 

It was settled to the satisfaction of all 
parties that the Federals were to attack 
them, and both parties to fire in the air, 
and while the firing was hottest the Fede- 
ral boys was to capture them. Accord- 
ingly at night the Federals made a vigor- 
ous attack, and, after some very heavy 
firing, captured over one hundred men and 
seven officers. What sounded strange to 
the uninitiated was — " heavy firing, no cas- 
ualties.'" 




General H. W. Slocum. 

Paying to have a Hand in the Fight. 

In the conflict that took place at West 
Point in the spring of 1862, as General 
Franklin came on the ground, (late in 
the afternoon,) he discovered a soldier 
scrambling up the sand bank, and hailed 
him. " What are you doing there, Sir ; 
where is your regiment ? " thundered the 
General. " From that transport, yer 
honor, and I paid the fellow three dollars 
to bring me over, so that I could take a 
hand in the fight." " You're a brave 
fellow," remarks the General, " and I will 
see you cared for." He was directed to 
his regiment. The General subsequently 
ascertained that the man was so anxious 
to take part in the fight, that he had paid 
the boatman three dollars to land him, so 
that he might take a hand in it. General 
Franklin sent him a five dollar gold piece, 



and promised to reward him for his 
bravery. 

Ignoble End of a Washing-ton. 

The death of John A. Washington cre- 
ated quite a sensation throughout the 
whole country, on account of his identifi- 
cation with the great name and family of 
the Father of his Country. He fell, on 
the afternoon of September loth, 1861> 
about seven miles south of Elk Water 
camp. It seems that, in company with 
three other Rebel officers he was approach- 
ing the Federal fortifications with a view 
of making a reconnoissance. Secreted in 
the bushes, by the road-side, were a num- 
ber of the Seventeenth Indiana regiment, 
and, as Washington and his companions 
came up the road, the Indiana boys rose 
from their concealment and fired. Wash- 
ington fell from his horse, on the first 
round, having received three bullets, two 
of which passed entirely through his botly, 
entering at the right breast. One of the 
other officers was also hit, but the two re- 
maining unhurt managed to get him away 
by supporting him on his horse. 

The body of Washington was conveyed 
to the quarters of Colonel Waggoner. 
He lived for the space of half an hour, 
and never spoke save to' utter once, " O, 
my God ! " The next day his body was 
sent to the rebel camp, under a flag of 
truce. In the pockets of Washington 
were found one hundred dollars in United 
States gold currency, and a splendid gold 
watch. His dress was new, and of the 
most elegant make, broadcloth coat and 
pants, and a white satin vest. His shoul- 
der-straps denoted him to be a Colonel. 
He early paid the penalty of treason to 
that Government, in defence of which he, 
above all other American citizens, ought 
willingly and proudly to have raised his 
arm and poured forth his blood, instead of 
fatuitously following the lead of such men 
as Letcher, Wise, and other Virginia high- 
priests of treason and blood. To Wise's 
example and threats, in especial, is due 



342 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



the sacrifice of the noblest blood of the 
Old Dominion, for to none more than to 
him did the chivalry of Virginia look for 
their political cue. 

Shade of George Washington — pa 
ter patrice — alas ! 




Gen. Henry A. Wise. 

Determined Capture of a Texan Battle-Flag^ 
On the 9th of October, 1862, Colonel 
Fuller, commander of the First Brigade. 
Second Division, of the Mississippi Army, 
forwarded to Governor Tod, of Ohio, the 
battle-flag of the Sixth Texas Regiment, 
which was captured by a private of the 
Twenty-seventh Ohio Infantry, at the bat- 
tle of Corinth, October 4th. The history 
of the capture of this flag is most inter- 
esting. 

The rebels, in four close columns, were 
pressing with gallantry, amounting to 
•recklessness, upon the Ohio Brigade, with 
the evident intention of breaking our lines, 
when the terrible and incessant fire of our 
men drove them back in the utmost con- 
fusion. 

The Sixth Texas bore down upon the 
left centre of the Twenty-seventh Ohio, 
with this flag at the head of their column, 
and advanced to within six or eight yards 
of our lines, when Orrin B. Gould, a pri- 
vate of Company G, shot down the color- 
bearer, and rushed forward for the rebel 
fias. 



A rebel officer shouted to his men to 
" save the color," and at the same moment 
put a bullet into the breast of Gould, but 
the young hero was not to be intimidated. 
With the flag-staff in his hand, and the 
bullet in his breast, he returned to his 
regiment, waving the former defiantly in 
the faces of the enemy. After the battle, 
Colonel Fuller visited the hospital, and 
found young Gould stretched upon a cot, 
evidently in great pain. Upon seeing the 
Colonel, his pale face was instantly radi- 
ant with smiles, and pointing to his wound, 
he said, " Colonel, I don't care for this, 
since I got their flag." 



Captain Tilden's Lucky Escape. 
Captain Tilden, of the Sixteenth Maine 
regiment, was taken prisoner in the fight 
for the Weldon Railroad, in August, 1864, 
and carried on the way to Richmond about 
four miles from Petersburg, when he 
slipped from a car and escaped. Having 
on a light colored and broad brimmed 
Kossuth hat, and a rubber overcoat, was 
unquestionably his bodily salvation. The 
fact that it rained nearly all the time he 
was a prisoner gave no look of strange- 
ness or ground for suspicion in his wear- 
ing his rubber coat, while his broad brim- 
med beaver gave him the air and tone of 
a true southerner " to the manor born." 
At all events, he walked freely through 






Captain Tilden's Lucky Escape. 

the streets and public places of Peters- 
burg, picking up much valuable informa- 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



843 



tion, which he afterwards imparted to- the 
Union commanding generals. When he 
first struck the rebel lines with a view to 
get through them, he was fortunate enough 
in his plan of concealment and observa- 
tion to hear a Confederate soldier remark 
to another: ''The yanks will have hard 
work getting through our three battle 
lines here, but down below, where there is 
only a thin skirmish line, it ain't so safe, I 
reckon." The Captain thought he would 
take a look after that " thin skirmish line," 
and he found it. The heavy storm and 
dense darkness of the night enabled him 
to get through the line. He did not get 
through any too quick, for two shots were 
fired at him while between the Confede- 
rate skirmish line and his own. He finally 
came upon the pickets of his own brig- 
ade — a piece of good fortune pleasingly 
agreeable, and quite as remarkable as 
agreeable. 



; you can't flap that bastard flag in these 
! lines. Who's got another ? " That was 
the last of the flag insults. 

As Good as a Captured Gun. 
There was an odd character among 
Berdan's Sharpshooters, near Yorktown. 
known as " Old Seth." He was quite an 
' individooal,' and a crack shot — one of the 
best in the regiment. " His " instrument," 
as he termed it, was one of the heaviest 
telescopic rifles. One night, at the time 
of roll call, Old Seth was non est. This 
was somewhat unusual, as the old chop 
was always up to time. A sergeant went 
out to hunt him up, he being somewhat fear- 
ful that the old man had been hit. After 



A lOesi&n's Plucky Defence of the Flag. 
The transport of the Confederate prison- 
ers from New Orleans, to Baton Rouge, on 
board the steamer Empire Parish, elicited 
many a merry incident. In the saloon of the 
steamer there was noticed a lubberly rebel 
with a little flag, to which he seemed de- 
sirous to attract attention, as he occasion- 
ally flourished it, with remarks disparaging 
to the Union cause. An under-sized 
Union soldier was on guard, apparently 
indifferent to what was going on ; but the 
sequel proved that, though his mouth was 
shut, his ears were open, for suddenly he 
dropped his musket, and, quick as light- 
ning, "let go his left mawley," and the 
frontispiece of the rebel color-bearer being 
in the way, there was a collision, in which 
the frontispiece got the worst of it, its 
owner trying the while to secure his flag 
by hiding it in his bosom. He was foiled, 
as the plucky little Milesian (for he proved 
by his brogue that he was a " broth of a 
boy,") went down after it, secured it, and 
flapping the well-earned trophy in the face 
of his foe, remarked, " You bloody ribil, 




As good as a Captured Gun. 

perambulating around in the advance of 
the picket line, he heard a low " Halloo ! " 
" Who's there ? " inquired the sergeant. 
" It's me," responded Seth, " and I've cap- 
tured a secesh gun." " Bring it in," said 
; the sergeant. " Can't do it," exclaimed 
Seth. It soon became apparent to the 
sergeant, that " Old Seth " had the exact 
range of one Qf the enemy's heaviest guns, 
and they could not load it for fear of being 
picked off by him. Again the old man shout- 
ed, " Fetch me a couple of haversacks full 
of grub, as this is my gun, and the cussed 
varmints sha'nt fire it agin, while the 



344 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



scrimmage lasts." This was done, and 
the old patriot kept a good watch over 
that gun. In fact it was a captured gun 
as good as that. 



Pemberton's Question about Grant 
Answered. 

In one" of the assaults upon Vicksburg 
Lieutenant-Colonel Graham, of the Twen- 
ty-second Iowa infantry, was taken prisoner. 
This officer, with three companies, had 
gained a position in the ditch in front of 
the rebel works. Sending for spades, he 
commenced to throw up traverses to pro- 
tect him from an enfilading fire, and then 
sent for reinforcements. The Lieutenant- 
Colonel, however, had barely time to con- 
gratulate himself on the security of his 




>* 



Gen. John C. Pemberton. 

position, and the fact that the colors of 
the Twenty-second had been planted on 
the parapet of the fort before them, ere 
an awkward turn was given to his reflec- 
tions, by the ingenious enemy. Unable 
to reach our men with musket, bayonet or 
artillery, they resorted to the effective 
mode of lighting the fuses of shells and 
dropping them over the parapet into the 
ditch below. Unable to either run or stay, 
our men took a middle course, and surren- 
dered. 

The party was conducted to the county 
jail, with the exception of Colonel Gra- 
ham, who was taken before General Pem- 



berton. The rebel commander propounded 
the following questions : 

" What regiment do you belong to ? " 

"Is the Twenty-second Iowa an Abo- 
lition regiment?" 

" How many nigger regiments have you 
fellows got out there ?" 

" What is that fellow Grant trying to 
do?" 

" How many men have you got in your 
army ? " 

The answers of the indignant officer at 
these interrogatories can be readily imag- 
ined ; assuring Pemberton that " that 
fellow Grant " meant to and would take 
Vicksburg, and receiving the reply, " No, 

by , he won't ! " Colonel Graham 

was sent to join his friends in the prison. 



Emptying a Hawk's Nest. 
At one point in the battle of Chatta- 
nooga there was a lull — at least it had 
gone shattering and thundering down the 
line, and the boys were as much " at 
ease" as boys can be upon whom, at any 
moment, the storm may roll back again. 
To be sure occasional shots, and now and 
then a cometary shell, kept them alive ; 
but one of the boys ran down to a little 
spring, and towards the woods where the 
enemy lay, for water. He had just stopped 
and swung down his canteen, when, ' tick ! ' 
— a rifle ball struck it at an angle and 
bounded away. He looked around an 
instant, discovered nobody, thought it was 
a chance shot — a piece of lead, that goes 
at a killing rate without malice prepense ; 
and so, nowise infirm of purpose, he again 
bent to get the water. ' Ping ! ' a second 
bullet cuts the cord of his canteen, and 
the boy " got the idea " — a sharpshooter 
was after him — and he went to the right- 
about on the double quick to the ranks. 
A soldier from another part of the line 
made a pilgrimage to the spring, was 
struck, and fell by its brink. But where 
was the marksman ? Two or three boys 
ran out to draw his fire, while others 
watched: ' Crack ! ' went the unseen piece 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC 



345 



again, and some keen-eyed fellow spied a 
smoke rolling out from a little cedar. 
This was the spot, then, where the rebel 
had made him a hawk's nest — in choice 
Indian, a Chattanooga in the tree — and 
drawing the covert around him, was taking 
a quiet hand at ' steeple-shooting ' at long 
range. 

A big, blue-eyed German, tall enough 
to look into the third generation, and a 
sharpshooter withal, volunteered to dis- 
lodge him. Dropping into a little runway 
that neared the tree diagonally, he turned 
upon his back, and worked himself cau- 
tiously along ; reaching a point perilously 
close, he whipped over, took him as he 
lay, and God and his true right hand 
" gave him good deliverance." Away 
flew the bullet, an instant elapsed, the 
volume of the cedar parted, and, " like a 
big frog," as the boys described it, out 
leaped a gray-back, the hawk's nest was 
empty, and a dead rebel lay under the 
tree. It was neatly done by the German 
man grown. May he live to tell the story 
a thousand times to his moon-faced grand- 
children. 



Polk, the Reverend General, in the very 
Tightest Place. 

An English officer, Colonel Freemantle, 
who served for some time in the rebel 
army, and lived long enough in the South 
to make the acquaintance of a number of 
the prominent men there, afterward pub- 
lished a book relating his experience. 
In this book he tells the following story, 
as it was told him by Lieutenant-General 
Polk : — Well, sir, it was at the battle of 
Perryville, late in the evening — in fact, 
it was almost dark, when Lindell's battery 
came into action. Shortly after the arrival, 
I observed a body of men, whom I thought 
to be Confederates, standing at an angle 
to this brigade, and firing obliquely at the 
newly arrived troops. I said, " Dear me, 
this is very sad and must be stopped ;" so 
I turned round, but could find none of my 
young men, so I determined to ride my- 
22 



self and settle the matter. Having can- 
tered to the Colonel of the regiment that 
was firing, I asked him, in angry tones, 
what he meant by shooting his own friends. 
He answered with surprise, 

" I don't think there can be any mistake 
about it ; I am sure they are the enemy." 

" Enemy ! Why, I have only just left 
them myself. Cease firing, sir. What is 
your name ? " 

" My name is Colonel , of the 

Indiana ; I pray, sir, who are you ? " 



Then I saw, to my astonishment, that I 
was in the rear of a regiment of Yankees. 
Well, I saw there was no hope but to 




Gen Leonidas Polk. 

brazen it out ; my dark blouse and the in- 
creasing obscurity befriended me ; so I 
approached quite close to him, and shook 
my fist in his face, saying. 

" I'll show you who I am, sir ! Cease 
firing, sir, at once !" 

I then turned my horse and cantered 
slowly down the line, shouting authorita- 
tively to the Yankees to cease firing ; at 
the same time I experienced a disagreea- 
ble sensation, like screwing up my back, 
and calculating how many bullets would 
be between my shoulders every minute. 
I was afraid to increase my pace till I got 
to a small copse. When I put the spurs 
in and galloped back to my men. I went 
up to the nearest Colonel, and said : " Colo- 
nel, I have reconnoitered those fellows 



546 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



pretty closely, and there is no mistake who 
they are; you may get up and go at them." 
And I assure you, sir, that the slaughter 
of that Indiana regiment was the greatest 
I have seen in this war. 



Hovey's Brilliant Charge— the Preachers' 
Regiment. 
One of the most brilliant and daring 
operations in the fight at Vicksburg, was 
performed by General Hovey, at the head 
of several of his regiments. He had met 
with varied success all the morning — some- 
times gaining a little, and again being 
driven. The heights were steep, the ene- 
my numerous, their positions almost inac- 
cessible and protected by timber, while 
from every crest on the heights their bat- 
teries rained hurricanes of death upon his 
thirsty, weary col- 
umn. Finally, about 
noon, the General 
arranged a storming 
party, and heading 
them in person, mov- j 
ed directly up a gorge j 
in the hills,every inch I 
of which was swept 
by the musketry and iS 
artillery of the ene- 
my. Two four and 
one sfec gun batten 
commanded the 
gorge, and on both 
sides of it were mass- 
ed heavy supports of 

infantry. On went the storming party, 
and in twenty minutes the gallant rem- 
nant of those avIio started were hurrah- 
ing over the possession of all the guns, 
the crest of the hills, and the total rout 
of the infantry. In this charge the Twen- 
ty-fourth Iowa — a iregiment made up 
largely of clergymen, and hence known 
as the "preachers' ueginient" — was fore- 
most, and was nearly annihilated. No 
more gallant thing has been done in the 
history of gallant .effurts. 



Ahead of his Trocps. 
During the fog and darkness of the 
night on Avhich Decatur was taken. Gen- 
eral Dodge, Colonel Spencer, of his staff, 
and a few others, thinking that the troops, 
who were to cross at another point, had 
quietly occupied the place, started in a 
little boat to row directly across to the 
town. The fog was so close that it was 
impossible to see anything. As the boat 
neared the Decatur shore, a sentinel on 
shore heard it splashing and hailed, "Who 
goes there ? " Thinking it to be a Union 
soldier, the General sang out, " General 
Dodge." Bang ! went the gun of the 
sentinel — he was a rebel picket. The 
boat Avas instantly put to the right-about, 
and got safely away, although fired at 
by all the guard. The General wisely 




d o. his Tr< ops. 



determined not to take Decatur without 
the aid of troops, and waited until he 
knew they had made a landing. 



Lee's Great Army Surrendered and the Re- 
bellion in its Final Gasp. 

The first week in April — immediately 
following the evacuation and surrender of 
Richmond to General Grant — General 
Lee found himself in a position from which 
he could not possibly extricate himself. 
His army lay massed a short distance west 



GREAT CONFLICTS, INDIVIDUAL HEROISM, ETC, 



347 



of Appomattox Court House; his last 
avenue of escape toward Danville on the 
southwest was gone; Mead was in his 
rear on the east and on his right flank 
north of Appomattox Court House ; Sheri- 



On receipt of this, General Lee at once 
dispatched another, requesting a personal 
interview for the object named in General 
Grant's previous communication, viz., the 
surrender of the entire rebel army. A 



dm had headed him off completely, by j flag of truce proceeded to Appomattox 
getting between him and Lynchburg ; j Court House shortly after noon, and at 



General Ord was on the south of the 
court-house, near the railroad ; the 
troops were in the most enthusiastic 




Surrender of Gen. Lee and uis Army to liej. ij.^uc 

spirits, and the rebel army was doomed. 
Lee's last effort was that of attempting to 
cut his way through Sheridan's lines, but 
it totally failed. 

On the seventh, a correspondence, look- 
ing to the surrender of Lee's army, com- 
menced between himself and General 
Grant, the purport of General Lee's first 
note being to ascertain the best terms on 
which he could surrender his army. Gen- 
eral Grant's reply not being to Lee's mind, 
the latter communicated to General Grant 
a request for a personal interview at a 
certain place, at ten o'clock on the morning 
of the ninth, to arrange " terms of peace." 
As this was changing the question at issue, 
and under discussion, and one which Gen- 
eral Grant had neither the inclination nor 
the authority to decide, he replied in a 
note which admitted of no misconstruction, 
and which virtually ended the negotiations. 



about two o'clock the two generals met at 
the house of Mr. TV. McLean. General 
Lee was attended by General Marshall, 
his adjutant-general ; 
General Grant, by 
Colonel Parker, one 
of his chief aids-de- 
camp. General Grant 
arrived about fifteen 
minutes later than 
General Lee, and en- 
tered the parlor where 
the latter was await- 
ing him. 

The two generals 
greeted each other 
with dignified courte- 
sy, and after a few 
moments conversation, 
proceeded to the busi- 
ness before them. Lee 
immediately alluded to the conditions 
named by General Grant for the surren- 
der, characterized them as exceedingly 
lenient, and said he would gladly le%ve all 
the details to General Grant's own discre- 
tion. The latter stated the terms of pa- 
role — that the arms should be stacked, the 
artillery parked, and the supplies and mu- 
nitions turned over to him, the officers 
retaining their side arms, horses, and per- 
sonal effects. General Lee promptly as- 
sented to the conditions, and the agreement 
of surrender was engrossed and signed 
by General Lee at half-past three o'clock. 
Thus substantially ended the interview. 
Both generals wore the very impersona- 
tion of dignity and courtesy in their bear- 
ing. Lee looked very much jaded and 
worn, but, nevertheless, presented the 
same magnificent physique for which he 
was always noted. He was neatly dressed 



348 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



in gray cloth, without embroidery or any 
insignia of rank, except three stars worn 
on the turned portion of his coat collar. 
He a 1 so wore a very fine sword. Grant 
had no side arms. 

The large marble-topped centre table 
on which the two generals signed the 
minutes, was of a somewhat antiquated 
style, and was afterwards purchased by 




lien Geo. A Custer 

General Ord for fifty dollars. General 
Custer purchased the other table, of small 
size, on which the documents were pre- 
pared, for twenty-five dollars. The only 
trophies left Mr. McLean were the chairs 
occupied by the two generals and the 
room itself in which the meeting took 
place. Numerous offers were made for 
the chairs, but Mr. McLean steadily re- 
fused to part w T ith them. Finally, two 
cavalry officers, one of them a Colonel, 
finding that they could not obtain the 
chairs by any other means, seized them 
by force and made off with them. They 



had endeavored to make the owner take 
money for them, but he had thrown the 
proffered greenbacks on the floor. After 
they had been gone some time a cavalry 
officer rode up to the house, called Mr. 
McLean out, thrust a ten dollar note in 
his hand, and shouting, " that is for the 
Colonel's chair," rode off in hot haste. 

After the interview, General Lee re- 
turned to his own camp, about half a mile 
distant, where his leading officers were 
assembled awaiting his return. He an- 
nounced the result and the terms, where- 
upon they expressed great satisfaction at 
the leniency of the conditions. They 
then approached him in order of rank, 
shook hands, expressing satisfaction at his 
course, and their regret at parting. The 
fact of surrender and the liberal terms 
were then announced to the troops, and 
when General Lee appeared among them 
he was loudly cheered. 

On Monday, between nine and ten 
o'clock in the forenoon, General Grant 
and staff rode out in the direction of the 
rebel lines, and on a hill just beyond the 
court-house, where a full view of the 
rebel army could be obtained, General 
Lee was met, attended by but one staff' 
officer and orderlies. The Generals halted, 
and, seated on their horses, conversed for 
nearly an hour upon the prospects for the 
future, each seeming to realize the mighty 
influence which the events of the present 
were to have upon it. General Lee sig- 
nified very emphatically his desire for a 
total cessation of hostilities, and indicated 
his intention to do all in his power to effect 
that end. This was the last interview 
between the two great commanders. 




PART IV.— NAVAL SCENES AND EXPLOITS. 



PART FOURTH 

ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION— NAVAL AND COMMERCIAL. 
SQUADRON, FLEET, FLOTILLA, STEAMER, GUNBOAT, TRANS- 
PORT, AND PRIVATEER— THEIR CRUISES, OFFICERS, CREWS. 
PERFORMANCES, ETC. 

Terrible Engagements; Suffering and Death for the Flag; Horrors and Havoc 
of Modern Bombardment ; Blockade Exploits; Daring Feats of Seamanship; 
Furious Personal Combats; Long and Exciting Chases; Escapes, Rescues, Prizes; 
Thrilling Catastrophes and Tragedies; Captures, Sinkings, and Surrenders; 
Awkward Landsmen, Raw Marines, Jolly Veterans, and Treacherous Pilots: 
Jack Afloat and Ashore ; Freaks, Drolleries, Haps and Mishaps, among the 
Tarpaulins and Blue Jackets ; &c, &c 



li Shall we give her a broadside once more, Di3 r brave men ? 

' Ay ■ ay ! ' ran the full, earnest cry ; 
A broadside ! a broadside ! we'll give them again, 

Then for God and the Right nobly die '. " 

Never, never will we surrender the ship ' — Lieut. Morris, of the " Cumberland.' 1 ' 1 

Before I will permit any other flag than the Stars and Stripes to fly at her peak, I will fire a pistol into her maga 
rine and blow her rp. — Oapt Porter's reply to the demand to surrender the U. S ship i% St Mary." 

I hope we'll win it '. I hope we'll win it ' — Dying words of Coxswain Jackson, of the" Wabash,'' 1 at Port Royal. 



Tarpaulin Ha'dag- a Traitor Fore and Aft. 

the early days of the 
rebellion, there were 
at the United States 
Marshal's office in 
San Francisco, sev- 
eral models of ships 
which had been or- 
namented with little 
secession flags about 
half the size of one's 
hand. They were made of paper, and 
colored with red and blue ink. One, at 
the mast head of the largest ship, bore the 
name of Jeff. Davis, and the others were 
the ordinary three-striped rag, adopted as 
the Confederate ensign. On account of 
the display of these flags, the only public 
place in the city, the Marshal's office be- 
came a sort of privileged quarters for 




secessionists, and nothing was more com- 
mon than to hear secession talk there. 
This was particularly the case after the 
news of the breaking out of hostilities. 

The story goes, that while several gen- 
tlemen were sitting in the Marshal's office, 
attending to business, a big strapping fel- 
low, all the- way from South Carolina, 
with a revolver peeping out from under 
his coat-tail, strode into the place, with the 
air of a Tarquin, and exclaimed : 

" Well, at last, thank God ! we've got 
these nutmeg-selling, mackerel- 
catching, cod-livered Yankee sons 

to come to it. That's just what I've been 
wanting this many a day ! — the nigger- 
thieving, psalm-singing abolitionists ! We'll 
skin 'em out of their boots." 

The braggart had scarcely finished his 
low-lived tirade, when one of the gentle- 
men, Captain , of the ship , who 



352 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



was observed to be getting nervous, sud- 
denly jumped up, and taking his place in 
front of the fellow, and shaking his fists, 
replied : 

" Now, sir, I don't know you, and don't 
want to know you ; but I suppose you 
designate me as one of those nutmeg-sell- 




Raking a Traitor. 

ing, mackerel-catching, cod-livered Yan- 
kee . I am captain of the 

ship , and I want you to understand 

that I will not allow any man to use such 
language respecting me and my people, in 
my presence. And if you don't recant, 
I'll whip you here and now. I see your 
pistol, but I don't care for it. You have 
insulted me, sir, and you shall answer 
for it." 

The boaster, seeing the Captain's deter- 
mined bearing, and finding that he was in 
downright earnest, replied by saying that 
his remarks were general in their nature, 
and not by any means intended to apply 
to any particular person. Nothing was 
further from his purpose than to insult 
any person present, and particularly a 
stranger. 

To this the irate captain retorted: "The 
language, sir, is an insult to the American 
name, and I for one will not stand it from 



any living man. No one but a traitor and 
a coward can talk in that way. Retract 
it ! retract it ! " — and with this he com- 
menced advancing upon the secessioni- 1 
Hercules, who began weakening in the 
knees, and finally wilted, while tarpaulin 
raked the traitor's fore and aft without 

mercy. 

* 

Not a Star Obscured. 
There were many touching illustrations 
evoked during the rebellion, of the love 
cherished by some for the power under 
which they had been nurtured from their 
very cradle, notwithstanding the contrary 
pressure of circumstances and surround- 
ings. One of these illustrations took the 
following form : When Captain Armstrong 
was about to surrender the navy yard at 
Pensacola, his daughter, after vain en- 
deavors to persuade him not so to act, de- 
manded of him a dozen men, and she 
would protect the place until aid came ; 
but no — he was untrue and disloyal, and 
determined to act as he had decided ; the 
old flag was hauled down from where it 
had so long waved, and the renegade 
Renshaw run his sword through it, vent- 
ing his spleen upon the flag by which he 
had so long lived in competence and lux- 
ury. Human nature could not stand it, 
and the brave, glorious-hearted woman, 
seizing the flag, took her scissors and cut 
from it the ' Union,' telling them that the 
time was not far distant when she would 
replace it unsullied ; but for the stripes, 
she left them as their legacy, being their 
just deserts. Not a star on that flag 
would she allow to be obscured or destroy- 
ed by the hand of treason. Brave-hearted, 
noble woman ! 



Last Gun of the Cumberland. 
One of the greatest instances of patri- 
otie devotion ever recorded in our own or 
any other nation's naval history, is that 
of the last broadside of the Cumberland, 
in her struggle with the Merrimac. Amid 
the dying thunders of those memorable 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



353 



guns, the noble vessel sank with her devoted 
crew, with the Stars and Stripes still 
proudly waving above their heads. 

Neither the shots of the Congress, nor 
of the Cumberland, had any more effect 
upon the Merrimac than if they had been 
so many peas or peanuts. But if they 
could have kept the Merrimac off, she 
never could have sunk the Cumberland. 




Naval Peacemaker. 

They had then, nothing to do but stand 
and fight and die like men. Buchanan 
asked their commander, Lieutenant Morris, 
" Will you surrender the ship ? " 
" Never," said Morris, " never will we 
surrender the ship." 

Buchanan backed his infernal machine 
off again, and the Cumberland fired as 
rapidly as she could, but the Merrimac 
once more ran her steel prow in ; and now 
it was that Buchanan asked Lieutenant 
Morris, calling him by name, 

" Mr. Morris, will you surrender that 
ship ? " 

" Never" said Morris ; " sink her /" 
The remaining act in this startling 
drama is well known. The guns of the 
Cumberland were coolly manned, loaded 
and discharged, while the vessel was in a 
sinking condition, and the good ship went 



down with the flag flying defiantly at the 
gaff, and many a heroic patriot perished 
with her. 



Going to See the Rebel Ram. 

A captured Confederate vessel, iron 
clad, and of the style commonly denomi- 
nated " a ram," lay for several weeks in 
the Delaware, off the Philadelphia navy 
yard. She was something of a curiosity, 
and was visited by many hundreds of citi- 
zens and strangers. Prompted by this 
feeling, the keeper of a restaurant pro- 
posed one day to follow the track of the 
multitude and treat his wife with a 
sight of the rebel " ram." She consented, 
and off they sailed. They duly reached 
the iron deck of the vessel, went into her 
iron hold, examined her armament, in- 
spected the damages wrought upon her 
by the guns of Uncle Sam, gazed upon 
her iron nose, which was constructed to 
be thrust impertinently into the affairs of 
our aforesaid Uncle's webfooted property, 
and, in short, investigated her, inside and 
out. Having satisfied his curiosity, the 
husband proposed to return to shore, win n 
the following conversation occurred : 

" Now, my dear, we have seen the ves- 
sel, let us go," said the husband. 

" Well, yes, — but as we have taken the 
trouble to come so far, Ave might as well 
see Avhat we came to look at," said' the 
wife. 

" You have seen enough of it, I should 
think," said he. 

" Why, no ! I have not seen it at all," 
she replied. 

" Seen what ?" he at last inquired with 
surprise. 

" Why, the animal that Ave came to see 
— the sheep, or ram, or what you call it." 

Then there was an explosion. 

The story was too good to be kept. It 
was told to a visitor who called in the 
morning for one of the capital 'stews' got 
up at the friendly establishment in ques- 
tion. The visitor enjoyed it very much — 
he did ; and, after finishing his repast, 



154 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



directed the waiter to inquire of his mis- 
tress whether she had in her larder any 
nice chops cut from the rebel " ram." The 
simpleton actually delivered the message, 
and the con-equence was, that the last 
seen of the impertinent inquirer was the 
tail of his coat, as he was leaving the 
premises precipitately, with sundry broom- 
sticks, boot-jacks, three-legged stools, 
long-liandled sauce pans, and other missiles 
flying after him. At last accounts he was 
only too glad to be still running. 



Final Answer of Farragut to the Emissa- 
ries of Treason. 

Just previous to the fall of Norfolk, Va., 
Admiral Farragut, himself of Southern 
birth, as was also his true and noble wife, 
was invited by the emissaries of the insur- 
gent chiefs to join his fortune to their 
cause. He promptly declined. The effort 
to change his purpose Avas repeated. He 
was urged by every consideration that it 
was supposed could influence his pride or 
ambition, by the ties of consanguinity and 
place of birth, to side with his native 
South ; he still refused. Those chiefs well 
knew the man. They knew him better 
than his own government then did, and 
they knew the lion-like qualities that slum- 
bered beneath his modest and habitually 
retiring demeanor, and the achievements 
of which he was capable when the latent 
powers of the man should be roused to 
active energy. As a last effort to win 
him over to their cause, they offered him 
any position which he should be pleased 
to name. Admiral Farragut is a man of 
sincere but unobtrusive piety, a piety as 
modest as his own habitual deportment ; 
but this assault upon his loyal virtue was 
more than his nature could endure, and, 
with a sudden and sailor-like burst of in- 
dignation, he replied, as he pointed to the 
emblem of the republic, which floated 
near him, — 

"Gentlemen, your efforts are useless. 
I tell you I would see every man of you 

, before I would raise my arm against 



that flag." This answer was an extin- 
guisher. 

Norfolk soon fell, and Farragut was 
warned that the South was no place for 
him. A few hours only w T ere allowed 
him for escape with his family, leaving, as 
he was compelled to do, all his property 
behind, which was immediately absorbed 
by the relentless confiscation of the foe. 
He reached the house of a friend, north- 
ward of the Potomac, exclaiming, as he 
did to him, — 

" Here I am, without a farthing, or a 
place where I can lay my head ! " 

In this way came Farragut to the North 
— to the government to which he gave his 
allegiance — to the flag he so nobly upheld 
in many a fierce conflict with armed trea- 
son. 



Unknown Lady Visitor at the New Orleans 
Fleet. 

Just before the city of New Orleans had 
been definitely surrendered by the author- 
ities, and while the national fleet was 
anchored off in sight, a small boat, pulled 
by one pair of oars, was observed leaving 
the levee. A closely veiled lady was no- 
ticed in the stern. When she reached one 
of the vessels, she drew back her veil and 
beckoned to the officer of the watch. The 
Captain, who had remarked that she was 
young and apparently very winsome, 
dreaded the influence of the fair syren 
upon his subordinate, as with a gesture he 
forbade his responding to the mute appeal, 
and repaired himself to the gangway. 
Probably he imagined that forty odd years 
were more secure than twenty from trea- 
sonable temptation. 

" Pray, Sir," she asked, in the most mu- 
sical voice imaginable, " might I inquire 
if a person named McLellan is on board ?" 

At the same time she made him a brief 
but imperative sign, which he construed 
to signify that he was expected to reply in 
the affirmative. 

" Certainly there is, Madam ! " 

(The white lie is accounted for by the 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC. 355 



brilliancy of the flashing eyes which par- 
tially bewildered the Captain.) 

" Might I trouble you to give him this 
letter ? " 

As the Captain descended to take it 
from one of the smallest and most delicate- 
ly gloved hands he had ever seen, he par- 
tially recovered that presence of mind 
which had not deserted him once during 
the fierce struggle of the preceding days. 
He was unwilling that the first pair of 
bright eyes he had seen for weeks should 
vanish so quickly. Fluttered and perspir- 
ing with excitement, he managed to say — 

" Would you not wish to step on board, 
Madam, and speak with him ? " 

A wicked smile flitted over the charm- 
ing face before him, and but for his age? 
and the wife he had left in the North, he 
would infallibly have lost his heart. As 
it was, he felt it almost going, and laid his 
heavy hand upon it to check its disposition 
for levanting from its legitimate owner. 

" No ; I thank you" ; she said, " such 
an unexpected pleasure might prove some- 
what embarrassing." 

Saying this, she again sat down, drew 
her veil over her face, and making a sign 
to the colored boatman, was pulled once 
more towards the levee. 

The Captain gazed after her, sighed, 
and then looked at the letter. 

"I suppose I must do duty lor 'McLel- 
lan' on this occasion," he said; "But who 
the deuce can she be ! " He then opened 
it. 

The letter contained a great deal of val- 
uable information respecting the temper 
of the population of the city. It also 
stated that Forts Pike and Livingston 
had been evacuated, and their garrisons 
dispatched to join Beauregard at Corinth, 
and distinctly affirmed that no Union sen- 
timent could find expression in New Or- 
leans until those who felt it could be guar- 
anteed the protection of United States 
troops against the temper of the populace. 
Subsequent events proved that the fair 



correspondent was right ; and the young 
subaltern, who was oidy able to catch an 
occasional glimpse of those magnetic eyes, 
as she w;u speaking to his commanding 
officer, sai I that, " Never before was the 
flashing glance of beauty one half so 
agreeable." 

There was more than one on board that 
craft that night, whose pair of eyes will- 
ingly forgot their accustomed slumber in 
the deeper reverie caused by the charming 

lady visitor. 

♦ 

Majer Downing- on the Merrymac. 

The prowess of the monster Merrimac, 
and the fate which she met at the hands 
of the brave and gallant Worden, has been 
the theme for many pens, both grave and 
satirical. A good specimen of the latter 
will be found below. 

It was a good joke, (according to Majer 
Jack Downing) that the Kernel got off 




Lieut. Worden. 

one day on Seward. You know (quo'h 
the Majer) what a solemn looking chap he 
is naterally. Wal, since he has got to be 
Chief Clerk to the President, he seems to 
look solemer than ever. He cum into 
Linkin's room, and the Kernel ses, " Have 
you heard the news. Boss ? " " No," ses 
Seward, " what is it ? " " Wal," ses Lin- 
kin, "the Giascutis is loose." "What's 
that ? " ses Seward. " Why," ses Linkin, 



356 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



'' ain't you never heard the story of the 
Giascutis?" Seward sed he never had. 
" Wal," ses the Kernel, " I must tell you. 
Several yeas ago a couple of Yankees 
were travelin out West, an' they got out 
of money. So they konkluded to 'raise 
the wind ' as follers : They were to go into 
a village an' announce a show, pretendin 
that they had a remarkabal animil, which 
they had jest captured on the Rocky 
Mountings. A bran new beast, such as 
was never seen before. The name was 
the ' Giascutis.' It was to be shown 
in a room, and one of the fellers was to 
play Giascutis. He was put behind a 
screen, an' had some chains to shake, an' 
he also contrived to growl or howl as no 
critter ever did before. Wal, the people 
of the village all cum to see the Giascutis, 
an' after the room was filled, his compan- 
ion began to explain to the audience what 
a terribal beast he had, how he killed ten 
men, two boys an' five hosses in ketchin 
him, an' now how he had got him, at 'enor- 
mous expense,' to show him. Jest as 
everybody was gapin an' starin, thar was, 
all at once, a most terrific growlin and 
howlin, an' rattlin of chains, an' in the ex- 
citement the showman almost breathless? 
yelled out at the top of his voice, " the 
Giascutis is loose ! Run ! run ! run ! " 
An' away went the people down stairs, 
heels over head, losin all they had paid, 
an' seein nothin." " Now," ses Linkin, 
" the Merrymac is out, an' wen I read 
about the wessels, an' tug boats an' steam- 
ers all scamperin off as soon as she was 
seen, I thought she was the Giascutis sure, 
only I'm afraid she is real Giascutis an' no 
mistake." Since then, Linkin calls the 
Merrymac the Giascutis all the time. 



Yankee Doodle in the Storm of Shot. 

Master's Mate Arbane, of the Owaseo, 
had a very narrow escape from death at 
the battle of Galveston, three shot having 
struck him in different places. One of 
the bullets passed completely through the 
crown of his cap, another penetrated his 



pantaloons just below the right knee, tak- 
ing the piece of cloth with it. The thir 1 
shot struck the gallant fellow's sword just 
as he raised it in the air, and was ordering 
his men to give a rousing cheer for 
" Yankee Doodle." The cheer was given 
in the storm of shot. 

''Charge! Chester, Charge!" 
Captain Chester was a man of grit ; 
without any of the oleaginious mixture. 
He belonged to Pittsburg, and used to 
carry coal to Memphis. When the war 
broke out, the Confederates seized his 
steamboats and his coal-barges, and re- 
fused to pay him for the coal they had al- 
ready purchased. The act roused all his 
ire. He was a tall, athletic man, and had 
followed the river thirty years. Although 
surrounded by enemies, he gave them plain 




"Charge! Chester, Charge"* 

words. 

" You are a set of thieves and rascals ! 
You are cowards, every one of you ! " he 
shouted. 

He took off his coat, rolled up his shirt- 
sleeves, bared his great brawny arms, 
dashed his hat upon the ground. 

" Now come on ! I'll fight every one of 
you, you infernal rascals. I'll whip you 
all. I challenge you to fight me. You 
call yourselves chivalrous people. You 
say you believe in fair play. If I whip 
you shall give up my boats, but if I am 
beaten, you are welcome to them." 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



They laughed in his face, and said, 
" Blow away, old fellow. We have got 
your boats. Help yourself if you can." 
A hot-headed secessionist cried out, " Hang 
the Yankee." The crowd hustled him 
about, but he had a few old friends, who 
took his part, and succeeded in making his 

escape. 

* 

Thirty Tremendotis Minutes. 
The bombardment of Fort Sumter by 
the iron-clads under Admiral Dupont was 
equally magnificent and terrible. Unfor- 
tunately, the Ironsides got disabled by the 
current at a most critical hour. In this 
plight, however, it only remained for Ad- 
miral Dupont to signal to the fleet to dis- 
regard the movements of the flagship. 
This he did, and the ships then assumed 
such positions as were available and they 
could gui, the whole number being at the 




Admiral S. F. Dupont. 

mouth of the harbor, between Cumming's 
Point and Sullivan's Island, and opposite 
the northeast and eastern face of Fort 
Sumter, at distances of from six hundred 
to a thousand yards. While the manoeu- 
vres of the Admiral were thus going on, 
the enemy was not inactive. The power- 
ful work on Cumming's Point, named 
Battery B, opened ; the long range rifle 
ordnance of Fort Beauregard joined in ; 
Moultrie hurled its heavy metal, the fifty 
guns lining the Redan swelled the fire ; 



and the tremendous armament of Sumter 
vomited forth its fiery hail. 

There now ensued a period of not more 
than thirty minutes, which formed the cli- 
max and white heat of the fight ; for 
though, from the time when the fire was 
opened on the head of the approaching 
line, to the time when the retiring fleet 
passed out of the enemy's range, there was 
an interval of two hours and a half, yet 
the essence of the fight was shut up in 
those thirty tremendous minutes. 

The best resources of the descriptive 
art, are feeble to paint so terrific and aw- 
ful a reality. Such a fire, or anything 
even approaching it, was simply never 
seen before. The mailed ships were in the 
focus of a concentric fire of those five 
powerful works, from which they were re- 
moved only some five to eight hundred 
yards, and which in all could not have 
mounted less than three hundred gun-, 
viz., the finest and largest guns from the 
spoils of the Norfolk navy-yard, the splen- 
did and heavy ten and eleven inch guns 
cast at the Tredegar Works, and the most 
approved English rifled guns, Whitworth 
and others, of the largest calibre made. 
There was something almost pathetic in 
the spectacle of those little floating circu- 
lar towers, exposed to the crushing weight 
of those tons of metal, hurled against 
them with the terrific force of modern 
projectiles, and with such charges of pow- 
der as were never before dreamed of in 
artillery firing. During the climax of the 
fire a hundred and sixty shots were count- 
ed in a single minute, and the shot struck 
the iron-clads as fast as the ticking of a 
watch. 

It was less of the character of an ordi- 
nary artillery duel, and more of the pro- 
portions of a war of the Titans in the 
elder mythologies. 



Final Scene Aboard the Steamer Mississippi. 

There is a startling combination of the 

romantic and tragical in the dcstruC' 

tion of the United States steam frigate 



358 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



Mississippi. The most exciting scenes 
portrayed in the best English and Ameri- 
can naval novels hardly exceed in vivid- 
ness of description the matter-of-fact nar- 
rative of this staggering event. 

The Mississippi was the last in the line 
of the fleet which attempted the passage 
of the Port Hudson batteries, on the night 
of March 14th. In going up, she was 
struck by three or four shot only, and the 
damage done was comparatively insignifi- 
cant. But when she was at a point near- 
ly in the centre of the range of batteries, 
the smoke and steam from the boats in 
advance, and from the batteries on shore, 
so enveloped the ship that her pilot lost 
his bearings, and the frigate grounded on 
the right bank of the river. 

For forty minutes she was exposed to a 
terrific fire from all the batteries. During 
this time she fired two hundred and fifty 
rounds ; but her guns, one after another, 
were nearly all dismounted ; her portholes 
on the starboard side were knocked into 
one ; twenty-five or thirty men were kill- 
ed, and four wounded ; she was riddled 
through and through with shot ; there 
was no prospect of her ever floating again 
— and, at last, in the utter hopelessness of 
the case, Captain Smith gave the order for 
her abandonment. 

It is said that during all the time she 
was under fire there was no particular ex- 
citement on board. The orders were 
quietly given and executed. The crew 
were told to load and fire at the batteries 
as rapidly as possible, and they did so as 
long as there was a mounted gun to fire. 
After the order to abandon the ship had 
been given, and the crew had all left, 
Captain Smith and Lieutenant Dewey 
went around to see if there were any liv- 
ing men among those lying on the deck, 
and sprinkled turpentine in the ward-room, 
setting it on fire. The Captain of the 
forehold was ordered to fire the ship for- 
ward, and they then abandoned her, leav- 
ing the dead on deck. The Captain and 
Lieutenant pulled in a boat for the Essex. 



The abandoned ship was soon wrapt in 
flames, and presently the fire reached the 
magazine, blowing up the ship with a tre- 
mendous explosion ; — and that was the 
finale of the United States steam frigate 

Mississippi. 

■*- 

Roberts's Half-Hour's Visit at Island No. 10. 

One Wednesday night, five launches, one 
from each gunboat, and carrying in all fifty 
seamen and soldiers, armed to the teeth, 
" might have been seen," a little after dark, 
pushing out from the various gunboats at 
Island No. 10, and gathering under the 
shadows of the willows that fringe the 
Kentucky shore. Each boat had an officer 
in command, and the whole were in charge 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts, of the For- 
ty-second Illinois infantry. 

The strictest silence was observed — not 
a whisper nor even the splash of an oar 
broke the stillness. At length everything 
was ready, and giving themselves to the 




Half-hour's visit at Island .No lU. 



current, the boats started down the stream, 
the oarsmen quietly giving each boat suffi- 
cient motion only to enable the steersman 
to it to keep close within the shadows. In 
this mysterious manner they departed, and 
speedily disappeared in the darkness. 

An hour later, and the solitary rebel 
sentry, who, musket in hand, paced for- 
ward and backward along the parapet of 
the upper battery, had his thoughts dis- 
turbed by a remarkable appearance. He 
had just entered the depths of a cogitation, 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC. 



359 



the main features of which probably were 
that Yankees are vulgar, base, low-born 
mud-sills ; that Southerners are chivalrous, 
noble, kirghtly, superior ; and that one of 
the latter is just an equal match for from 
five to twenty-five of the former, — when 
suddenly happening to glance toward the 
river, his eyes caught sight of numberless 
black objects drifting slowly toward him, 
and above these dark masses were lumi- 
nous points and flashes, which seemed to 
envelope them like a net-work of ghostly 
phosphorescent flame. He rubbed his 
eyes, looked again at these mysterious 
phenomena, and was about to conclude 
that something was abroad, when suddenly 
a voice was heard, " Give way!" — fifty 
oars dropped in the water, and the dark- 
looking objects, with the swiftness of 
thought, shot straight for his position. He 
had only time to see that the supernatural 
light was the gleam of bayonets, and then 
to his disordered vision there appeared to 
be coming at him a hundred boats, each 
carrying a thousand Yankees. With a yell 
of horror he pulled off his piece in the air, 
and fled with the darkness, no more to be 
seen. 

He had no more than left when the five 
boats struck the bank, their contents poured 
a-diore and took possession of the battery, 
guards were posted around, and their rat- 
tail tiles and sledge-hammers were brought 
into requisition with a success that, in the 
course of half an hour, effectually spiked 
every gun — there were seven — in the bat- 
tery. The party remained in the works 
about an hour, and then, without hearing 
a word from the enemy, returned to the 
fleet. A very profitable evening call at 

' No. 10. 

* 

"Western Steamboat Saved by a "Woman. 

The steamer City of Alton, belonging 

to St. Louis, and plying between that city 

and Cairo, was nearly surprised and taken 

by the rebels under Jeff. Thompson, who 

had stolen down the river at the town of 

Commerce, and were prepared to board 



the boat on its arrival at that place, — and 
which would all have been carried out but 
for the interposition of a brave woman. 

On approaching Commerce, the mate, 
who was on the watch, saw a woman (Mrs. 
Eversoll) on the bank, gesticulating vio- 
lently, surrounded by a few men, and ever 
and anon her two little girls would tug at 
her dress, as if to induce her to keep 
quiet. The mate was uncharitable enough 
to think that the woman had been indulg- 
ing in liquor, and knew not what she did ; 
but there was 'method in her madness.' 
The mail was to be put out, and wood to be 
taken, and despite the continued waving 
of the woman's hand northward, the boat 
stood into shore. At last the boat Avas 
about to touch the shore, and the plank 
was half way over the bow, when — the 
knot of persons of which the ' guardian 
angel ' formed the most attractive object, 
being about fifty steps from the water — 
thv mate heard her exclaim: 

" Go back ! go back ! n Jeff. Thompson 
is here with soldiers ! " 

The mate instantly appreciated the stale 
of affairs on shore, and rapidly gave the 
order to " back her strong." Captain 
Barnes at this moment rushed out of his 
room, coat and boots off, to find the boat 
backing out and the balls plunging into 
his room and all around. When the mate 
issued the order mentioned above, he re- 
treated behind the chimney, in time to 
escape a ball which struck the bell with a 
thud and broke into fragments. He then 
saw the full force of the assailants spring- 
ing up from behind the wood pile, and 
rushing like madmen doAvn a lane to the 
bank of the river. One of the balls went 
through the pilot house directly over the 
head of the pilot. There were Minie balls, 
musket balls, and bi5ck-shot. One ball 
struck the office bulkhead between the 
clerk and barkeeper, who were in quiet 
conversation ; they prudently ceased talk- 
ing and went to the other side of the bulk- 
head. 



360 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



The boat swiftly sped to an island be- j 
low, where lived a loyal Frenchman, and 
procured forty muskets and one pistol. 
The boat returned, her crew eager for the 
fray, and determined to give JetF. and his 
rascals battle, — but all were gone, leaving 
not a wreck behind. The lady who thus 
saved the boat, as well as saved lives, re- 
sided in Commerce, and her husband was 
made a prisoner by the bandits that same 
day. When they were cutting down a 
pole, from which had floated a loyal flag, 
she boldly said to them, with flashing eyes, 
and in a tone which all could hear, that if 
she was a man she would kill at least one 
of them, and if she had no better weapon, 
she would break their heads with a brick. 
She herself was a glorious " brick." 



Glorious Success of General Butler in saving 
" Old Ironsides." 

One of General Butler's first acts, on 
taking possession of the city of Annapolis, 
was to save the glorious old ship Constitu- 
tion — used by the cadets of the Naval 
School as an exercise ship, and universally 
known as " Old Ironsides," one of the most 
revered of our national relics — from the 
clutch of some insurgents who were about 
to pounce upon her, after the usual fashion 
of Southern honesty and chivalric honor. 
The General, learning of the helpless con- 
dition, from want of a crew, of the old 
ship, of historic fame, mustered his men 
and declared to them that " if there are 
any men in the ranks who understand how 
to manage a ship, let them step forward." 
Fifty-three presented themselves, and they 
were immediately put on board. The 
steam ferry-boat Maryland, which General 
Butler had seized on the Susquehanna, 
then took her in tow, and she was safe'ly 
borne out of harm'| way. 

The honored frigate had for a long time 
lain at Annapolis, substantially at the 
mercy of an armed rebel mob. For four 
days and nights, previous to the arrival of 
General Butler, her crew had been at 
quarters with the guns shotted. The in- 



surgents of Maryland were plotting her 
destruction or capture. She had lour an- 
chors and seven chains out when the Mary- 
land was ordered by General Butler along- 
side. One anchor alone was hove up, the 
rest were slipped, and finally by lighting 
and careening, and by dint of hard labor, 
she was dragged over the bar. The crew 
of the Maryland were only kept to their 
work and duty by placing a guard over 
them with armed revolvers. After drag- 
ging her over the bar, the vessel grounded 
on the Outer Spit. About ten P. M., in- 
formation having been brought off that 
the channel outside the ship would be ob- 
structed, kedges were laid out, and it was 
endeavored to warp the ship over the Spit, 
part of the men being at the guns. The 
Maryland having been run aground by her 
officers during the warping, a squall came 
up and drove the ship ashore again. At 
daylight, a steam-tug from Havre de Grace 
came in sight, and Avas taken at once to 
tow the ship out. She was then taken in 
tow by the R. R. Cuyler, and brought to 
New York. Subsequently she was sent 
to Newport, Rhode Island, whither the 
Naval School formerly at Annapolis was 
removed. Surely, it was worth a green- 
back of the largest numeral, to see the 
plucky General, as he presented himself 
at the Navy Department, and narrated 
to white-bearded Gideon, this glorious 
achievement. 

Generosity of Poor Jack. 
There were present almost every day of 
the Sailors' Fair in Boston, some of the 
gallant but unfortunate fellows whose 
names and deeds on the sea had given 
them renown — such as Walter Greenwood, 
U. S. gunboat Massasoit, of Nashua, N. 
H. ; R. D. Dunphy, coal passer, U. S. ship 
Hartford, of New York City; and A. 
Mack, of the U. S. ship of war Brooklyn. 
Greenwood was struck blind by the in- 
tense heat of the fires in the fireroom 
while in search of the privateer Tallahas- 
see ; Dunphy had both arms carried away 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



SGI 



above the elbows by a shell from the ram 
Tennessee, in the engagement in Mobile 
Bay; and Mack lost his left arm during 
the engagement with the same vessel. The 
visitors to the Fair were very generous to 
these brave and shattered heroes, handing 




Light House at Fort Morgan, Mobile Harbor. 

them in all some hundreds of dollars. But, 
said the blind man of his friend, " He 
needs the money more than I do, and un- 
less our friends distinctly state that what 
they give is to be equally divided, I take 
care that he has the whole." What words 
— other than that it is just like Jack — can 
do justice to such a generous spirit ! 



Admiral Porter's Big- Scare. 

The sham Monitor contrived by Admiral 
Porter, for a double purpose, proved, as is 
well known, a big scare. An old coal 
barge, picked up in the river, was the 
foundation to build on. It was constructed 
in twelve hours, of old boards, with old 
pork barrels piled on top of each other for 
a smoke-stack, and two old canoes for quar- 
ter boats. Her furnaces were built of mud, 
and only intended to make black smoke, 
and not steam. 

On the eventful night of the 24th, at 
nine o'clock, heavy guns were heard about 
fifteen miles below. It was known that 



the rebels had nothing but light guns there, 
which could not be heard at any distance. 
So they thought it was the Indianola en- 
gaging the batteries at Carthage, fifteen 
miles below Vicksburg. Not knowing that 
Brown was in peril, the Monitor was now 
let loose. It was towed to within a couple 
of miles of the first battery and let go, 
when it was discovered by the dim light 
of the moon that Vicksburg was in a stew. 
Never did her batteries open with such a 
vim. The earth fairly trembled, and the 
shot flew thickly around the devoted Mon- 
itor, which returned no shot with her long 
wooden guns. The Monitor ran safely 
past all the batteries, though under a heavy 
fire for an hour, and drifted safely down to 
the lower mouth of the canal, where she 
was tucked into an eddy. 

The rebels were completely deceived by 
her. As soon as they saw her by daylight 
they opened on her again with all the guns 
they could bring to bear, but without a 
shot hitting her to do any harm, — for the 
shot went at their convenience through one 
side and came out the other, without caus- 
ing the vessel to sink, as she was full of 
water already. Our soldiers shouted and 




Admiral Porttr. 

laughed like mad men ; but the laugh was 
somewhat against them, when, at daylight, 
the ram Queen of the West was discovered 
lying at Warrenton ; and the question at 
once arose, what had happened to the In- 



362 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



dianola. That the two rams sunk her or 
captured her in the engagement they had 
heard the night before. One or two of the 
soldiers got the Monitor out in the stream, 
and let her go down on the ram Queen. 
All the forts hereupon began firing and 
.signalizing, and as the Monitor approached 
her the ram turned tail and ran down the 
river as fast as she could go, the Monitor 
after her, making all the speed that was\ 
given her by a five-knot current. 



tion just north of the town, opened upon 
her. 

At first the aim was too high, and the 
balls passed over without doing any dam- 
age ; but as the boat neared the batteries, it 
became more accurate, as the sound of the 
passing balls, growing sharper at every 
shot, plainly indicated. 

In order to attack the upper batteries it 
was necessary to drop below them, and 
round-to, with the head up stream. This 





Before Vicksburg. 



Sunk, with the Stars and Stripes still Waving. 

On the 26th of May, 1863, it was deter- 
mined to make an attack upon the rebel 
batteries to the north of Vicksburg, and 
opposite General Steele's column. The 
gunboat Cincinnati, Lieutenant Bache, Was 
to co-operate and attempt to silence the 
water-batteries, previous to the assault 
from the land side. Accordingly, a little 
after eight in the morning, she commenced 
dropping down below Young's Point. 
When about two miles from Vicksburg, 
the famous gun, ' Whistling Dick,' in posi- 



position was a most unfortunate one, as it 
exposed the vessel to a raking fire, from 
one battery in front, and another from be- 
hind. The first shot which struck her, 
hit the iron plating, and did no material 
damage. But the Captain had given or- 
ders to push up to within three hundred 
yards, and by the time she had reached 
that proximity, the shot hit her with fear- 
ful accuracy, generally passing directly 
through her port-holes. 

One battery, which fired from an eleva- 
tion and at some distance, threw plunging 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



363 



shot, which went through her upper deck, 
and did great damage. Lieutenant Sokal- 
ski, of General Steele's staff, who had 
been sent to point out the position to be 
taken in the assault, stated that when 
Lieutenant Bache and two others beside 
himself, were standing in the pilot-house, 
one of these plunging balls entered the 
port-hole of the pilot-house, passed through 
the thigh of the pilot, and then sheered 
down through the floor on the gun-deck, 
at the same time breaking the wheel, and 
wounding another man through the hand 
and arm, with the splinters. Lifting the 
hatchway and rushing down the gun-deck, 
Lieutenant Sokalski found it filled with the 
mangled and dead. It was a slaughter- 
pen. Blood and fragments of bodies, shot 
away, were scattered over the floor. 

It was discovered that one ball had 
passed through the boat below the water- 
line, and that the boat was sinking. It 
was evident that to continue the fight 
lunger would be to throw away the lives 
of the crew, and orders were given to 
s'art up the river as fast as possible. 
Lieutenant Starr, who was second in com- 
mand, went to the pilot-house and directed 
movements as best he could with a broken 
wheel and sinking craft. In the mean- 
time she was riddled by shot after shot, 
and was fast sinking. For three-quarters 
of an hour she was toiling, crippled, up 
stream ; while the enemy, seeing her con- 
dition, redoubled the fury of the cannon- 
hading. More thou fifty shots struck her 
before she reached the shore. But Lieu- 
tenant Bache refused to allow the colors 
to be lowered, and she sunk, like the Cum- 
berland, with the Stars and Stripes still 



into port, but was himself taken and com 
fined in the Libby. When he was ex- 
changed, he went on board the ship that 
was to tow the Monitor to Charleston, and 
when that vessel went down, he, while at- 
tempting to rescue the crew, was drifted 
off into the gulf, and was not picked up 
till the next day. Afterward, while firing 
a salute at St. Domingo, both his arms 
were blown off by the explosion of a gun ; 
and "last of all" — and, it is to be hoped, 
the safest of his many risks — he got mar- 
ried. But further, the tale readeth not. 



Pleasant Hoax all Round 
After the battle between the Kearsage 
and Alabama, there was great excitement 
in Liverpool at the expected arrival there 
of Captain Semmes, and for several hours 
the neighborhood of the Exchange was 
crowded with persons anxious to get at 
least a glimpse of the famous sea raider. 

About one o'clock, a double hoax was 
played in a highly successful manner. A 



Man of Experience— Sure. 
Lewis A. Horton, of Plainfield, Connec- 
ticut, may be set down as a man of ' expe- 
rience ' during the war. At the breaking 
out of the rebellion, he enlisted in the 
navy, and was wrecked on the Bahamas. 
He afterwards undertook to take a prize 
23 




Pleasant Hoax all Kound. 

middle aged man, who had passed several 
years in tropical climates, and delighted in 
sporting a white blouse and a Panama hat 
during summer time, was often to be found 
lounging about one of the landing stages, 
having some connexion with shipping. 
Possessing a bronzed complexion, cle o> ' 



864 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



shaved cheeks and chin, and a pair of fierce 
mustaches, some mad wag conceived the 
idea of palming him off upon the public 
as " Captain Raphael Semmes, Confeder- 
ate States Navy." Accordingly he was 
got hold of, treated very hospitably, and 
then asked to go on 'Change, in order to 
see the redoubtable hero of the Sunday's 
sea-fight arrive. One or two outdoor of- 
ficials connected with the Underwriter's 
room were also got in tow, and under some 



rather nonplussed at first ; out readily catcn- 
ing the drift of the joke, he raised his straw 
hat, ' bobbed around,' and by his extempor- 
ized gracious demeanor, after the maimer of 
' lions,' raised the enthusiasm to fever heat, 
— a special cheer rewarding a reverential 
obeisance that he made on passing Nelson's 
monument. He disappeared, not at the 
main entrance to the newsroom, but at the 
foot of the stairs leading to the Under- 
writer's room, and in a little time it leaked 




Wreck of the Iron Clad Monitor. 



pretence or other the fictitious Captain 
Semmes was taken through Brown's build- 
ings, where the Southern Club's head- 
quarters were, and was then brought out 
at the entrance which abuts on the Ex- 
change flags. 

This ruse was quite enough. Coming 
from such a neighborhood, followed by the 
Underwriter's officials, and making across 
the flags in the direction of the newsroom, 
the expectant crowd at once made up their 
minds that this was the man they were on 
the lookout for, and they clapped their 
hands, waved their hats and caps, and 
cheered vociferously. 

The object ol all this demonstration was 



out that the public had been hoaxed, that 
the object of their ovation was not Captain 
Semmes at all, but a ' highly respectable ' 
sailor's boarding-house keeper, living in 

Leeds street, of the name of . But 

never mind, if he is allowed to be name- 
less. 



Scared before being- Hurt. 
The commanders of the great Burnside 
expedition, on reaching the Southern coast, 
had to apply themselves very busily to ob- 
tain guides and pilots from among the 
loyal natives inhabiting that region. They 
had about a dozen of these chaps, from 
time to time, in the lower cabin of the 
Commodore's ship, calling them up one 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



365 



after another and disposing of them accord- 
ing to circumstances. They were decidedly 
as hard looking a set of men as could be 
gathered together. Their conversation was 
very amusing. They were all strong Union 
men, but none of them were willing to en- 
ter the sendee. A fellow was called up 
who had been recommended for his knowl- 
edge of Croatian Sound, when the follow- 
ing conversation transpired: 

Commodore. — Well, Sir, they say you 
know something about this Sound. 

North Carolinian. — Well, yes, mebbe 
four or five years ago I had a smart knowl- 
edge of that strip of water, Sir. 

Com. — How much Avater (pointing to 
the chart) is there on this shoal ? 

N. C. — Wal, I reck'n there's a right 
smart chance of water there, Sir. 

Com. — Did you pilot boats up and 
down the Sound? 

N. C. — Wal, yes ; I reck'n I've driv a 
few flat-boats up thar, Sir. 

Com. — Can you give us assistance in 
pointing out the safest way to get up 
there ? 

N. G. — Wal, I reck'n I could help you 
a right small chance, Sir. 

Com. — Well, then, we want you. 

N. C. — But, yer honor, I rather wouldn't, 
Sir. 

Com. — What ! don't you want to serve 
your country ? 

N. C. — Wal, yes, but the old woman and 
young 'uas have got powerful little to live 
on, Sir. 

Com. — But we will pay you good wages. 

N. C. — And I haven't anything but these 
ragged, yeller old sou'-westcrs, Sir, — 
(pointing to his clothes.) 

Com. — And will give you good clothes. 

N. C— B-b-b-but 

Com. — But what, Sir? 

N. C. — Wal, you see, yer honor, you 
see, that mebbe ef you shouldn't get up 
thar, them ar seceshers would use me pow- 
erful bad, Sir ! 

The ' devoted Union man ' was dis- 
missed, with orders to hold himself ready 



to lend a ' right smart chance ' of aid to 
the expedition — probably preferring, how- 
ever, a chance of picking up the expedi- 
tion in pieces on the coast, that being the 
chief business of himself and co-loyalists. 



Clinging: to the Gruns. 
The scenes on board the Cumberland, 
when she Avent down, Avere almost past 
description. There Avas scarcely an in- 
stance in the war of more desperate and 
devoted spirit. Tavo of the gunners at 
the bow guns, Avhen the ship Avas sinking, 
clasped their guns in their arms, and would 
not be removed, but Avent down embracing 
them. One eunner had both his lees shot 
away, and his bowels open and protruding, 
but he made three steps on his raAV and 
bloody thighs, seized the lanyard and fired 
his gun, falling back dead. Another lost 
both arms and leg.-?, yet lived, and when 
they would assist him, cried out, " Back to 
your gun, boys ! Give 'em — ! Hur- 
rah for the flao; ! " He lived till she sunk. 



Ccnibat between the Kearsargre and the Ala- 
bama. 

No volume of reminiscences of the Avar 

of the rebellion Avould be complete Avithout 

an account of the memorable naval com- 




-\ rz^= 

Captain John A. Wins'iow. 



bat betAveen the United States steamship 
Eearsarge, Captain John A. WinsloAv, and 



366 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



the Confederate privateer Alabama, Cap- 
tain Raphael Semmes, on the morning of 
June 19th, 1864, off Cherbourg, France. 

The Kearsarge was lying at Flushing, 
Holland, when a telegram came from Mr. 
Dayton, the American Minister in Paris, 
stating that the Alabama had arrived at 
Cherbourg. The Kearsarge immediately 
put to sea, and arrived at Cherbourg in 
quick time, taking the Alabama quite by 
surprise by so sudden an appearance on 
her track. Through the Consular Agent 
there, a sort of challenge was received by 
Captain Win-dow from Captain Semmes, 
the latter stating that if the Kearsarge re- 
mained off the port he would come out 
and fight her, — and that he would not de- 
tain the vessel long. 

After cruising off the port for five days, 
until the 19th of June, Captain Winslow 
at twenty minutes after ten o'clock des- 
cried the starry ensign of the Alabama 
floating in the breeze, as she came boldly 
out of the western entrance, under the 
escort of the French iron-clad Couronne. 
The latter retired into port after seeing 
the combatants outside of French waters. 
Captain Winslow had previously had an 
interview with the Admiral of Cherbourg, 
assuring him that, in the event of an action 
occurring with the Alabama, the position 
of the ships should be so far off shore that 
no question would be advanced about the 
line of jurisdiction. 

The Alabama came down at full speed 
until within a distance of about three- 
quarters of a mile, when she opened her 
guns upon the Kearsarge. The Kearsarge 
made no reply for some minutes, but 
ranged up nearer, and then opened her 
starboard battery, fighting six guns, and 
leaving only one thirty-two pounder idle. 
The Alabama fought seven guns, working 
them with the greatest rapidity, sending 
shot and shell in a constant stream over 
her adversary. Both vessels used their 
starboard batteries, the ships being ma- 
noeuvered in a circle about each other at 
a distance of from five hundred to one 



thousand yards. Seven complete circles 
were made during the action, which lasted 
a little over one hour. At the last of the 
action, Avhen the Alabama would have 
made off, she was near five miles from the 
shore ; and, had the action continued from 
the first in parallel lines, with her head in 
shore, the line of jurisdiction would, no 
doubt, have been reached. From the first, 
the firing of the Alabama was rapid and 
wild ; toward the clo=e of the action her 
firing became better. The Kearsarge gun- 
ners, who had been cautioned against fir- 
ing rapidly, without direct aim, were much 
more deliberate ; and the instructions given 
to point the heavy guns below rather than 
above the water line, and clear the deck 
with lighter ones, was fully observed. 

Captain Winslow had endeavored, with 
a port helm, to close in with the Alabama ; 
but it was not until just before the close 
of the action that he was in position to 
use grape. This was avoided, however, 
by the Alabama's surrender. The effect 
of the training of the Kearsarge's men was 
evident ; nearly every shot from their 
guns told fearfully on the Alabama, and 
on the seventh rotation in the circular 
track she winded, setting fore-trysail and 
two jibs, with head in shore. Her speed 
was now retarded, and by winding her 
port broadside was presented to the Kear- 
sarge, with only two guns bearing, not hav- 
ing been able to shift over but one. Cap- 
tain Winslow now saw that she was at his 
mercy, and a few more guns, well directed, 
brought down her flag, though it was diffi- 
cult to ascertain whether it had been 
hauled down or shot away ; but a white 
nag having been displayed over the stern, 
the fire of the Kearsarge was reserved. 

Two minutes had not more than elapsed 
before the Alabama again opened fire on 
the Kearsarge, wi^l the two guns on the 
port side. This drew Captain Winslow's 
fire again, and the Kearsarge was immedi- 
ately steamed ahead and laid across her 
bows for raking. The white flag was still 
flying, and the Kearsarge's fire was again 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



86! 



reserved. Shortly after this, her boats 
were to be seen lowering, and an officer in 
one of them came alongside and stated 
that the ship had surrendered, and was 
fast sinking. In twenty minutes from this 
time the Alabama went down, her main- 
mast, which had been shot, breaking near 
the head as she sunk, and her boAV rising 
high out of the water, as her stern rapidly 
settled. 



Admiral Foote's Terms to General Tilgrh- 
man. 

When the surrender of Fort Henry was 
found to be no longer avoidable, General 
Tilghman had an interview with Admiral 
Foote, having been conveyed to the lat- 
ter's ship for this purpose. Hoping to 




Admiral A. H. Foote. 

render his doom a little softer and more 
bearable, the rebel chieftain desired to be 
informed what terms of capitulation would 
be allowed. " Unconditional surrender," 
laconically responded the fearless Admiral. 

"Well, Sir," said General Tilghman, 
" if I must surrender, it gives me pleasure 
to surrender to so brave an officer as 
you." 

" You do perfectly right to surrender," 
answered the Admiral ; " but I should not 
have surrendered to you on any condi- 
tion." 

" Why so ? I do not understand you." 



" Because I was fully determined to 
capture the fort, or go to the bottom." 



Exploits of the "French Lady." 

The seizure of the steamer St. Nicho- 
las, in Chesapeake Bay, was a successful 
rebel exploit, accomplished by means of a 
clever ruse, in the enactment of which the 
female sex was made a convenient scape- 
goat. 

The St. Nicholas, Captain Jacob Kir- 
wan, left Baltimore one Friday morning 
in June, 1861, having on board about for- 
ty-five passengers. Among those who 
went aboard the boat previous to her de- 
parture, was a very respectable " French 
Lady," who was heavily veiled, and, plead- 
ing indisposition, she was immediately 
shown to her state room. There was also 
a party of about twenty-five men dressed 
in the garb of mechanics, carrying with 
them carpenters', tinners', blacksmiths', 
and other tools. 

At the usual hour the boat left for 
Point Lookout, and other points on the 
Potomac River, and every thing passed 
off as usual until the boat arrived at Point 
Lookout, on Saturday morning. 

When near the latter place, the ' French 
Lady ' appeared on deck, not in crinoline, 
but in the person of a stalwart man, who 
was immediately surrounded by the party 
of mechanics above named. Captain Kir- 
wan demanded an explanation, when the 
' lady- man ' coolly informed him that he 
designed confiscating the steamer and go- 
ing on a privateering expedition. Finding 
himself overpowered, Captain Kirwan 
was compelled to submit quietly, and the 
boat was formally handed over to the man 
and his crew, who took possession, and 
proceeded to run the steamer to a point 
known as 'The Cone,' on the Virginia 
shore. 

Upon landing at ' The Cone,' the steam- 
er was boarded by about one thousand 
Virginia troops, when the passengers were 
all landed and allowed to go on their way 
unmolested. About one hundred and fifty 



368 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



of the troops were then placed on board 
the steamer, Captain Kirwan and fourteen 
of the crew being detained as prisoners. 
Her subsequent success in taking prizes, 
under her 'new Captain,' is well-known. 

It is satisfactory to record that this "art- 
ful dodger," variously known as Colonel 
Richard Thomas, Zouave, and the ' French 
Lady,' was caught in a second attempt. 
Having returned to Maryland, he took pas- 
sage on board the steamer May Washing- 
ton, bound to Baltimore, but was detected 
before he was able to carry out his pur- 
pose of capturing her. He strove to out- 
face his captors by a protest against the 
invasion of his rights as a passenger. 
This failing, he escaped from those who 
had seized him, and tried to hide himself 
from further pursuit by taking to a chest 
of drawers. He was, however, dragged 
out, and securely held until the arrival of 
the vessel at Baltimore, when he was 
thrust into Fort McHenry. 



Just like Jack. 
In the explosion on the gunboat Essex 
at Fort Henry, one of the noble-hearted 
seamen was most shockingly scalded. His 
clothing was at once removed, linseed oil 
and flour applied to his parboiled flesh, 
and he was carefully wrapped in blankets 
and placed in bed. A few moments after, 
the news came that the rebel flag was 
struck and the fort surrendered. In his 
enthusiasm, and notwithstanding his awful 
condition, Jack sprang out of his berth, 
ran up on deck, and waved his blanket in 
the air, huzzaring for the Stars and Stripes. 
The poor fellow, after the first excitement 
was over, was assisted below, and in the 
night he died, full of rejoicing to the last, 
at the triumph of the old flag. 



Blue-jacket on the Q,uarter-deck of his Mule. 
On the capture of Morris Island by Gill- 
more's gallant army, the whole mass of 
men was thoroughly pervaded by that feel- 
ing of hilarity that follows a quickly suc- 
cessful engagement — soldiers si outing, 



singing, happy. The sturdy Jack Tars, in 
quest of adventure or abandoned " toot," 
doing and saying as only they can when 
thoroughly buoyant in spirit, came upon 
the subject of the following yarn : 

A bronzed blue-jacket had captured a 
mule, and, not without difficulty, mounted 




Blue- jacket on the quarter-deck of his mule. 

it, perching himself as near the animal's 
tail as there was a shadow of a chance — 
the mule objecting in every known way of 
a mule, and in some ways until then unex- 
hibited. 

" Jack, sit more amidships," said Hardy, 
the first engineer of the Weehawken, " and 
you'll ride easier." 

" Captain," quoth old Salty, " this is the 
first craft I was ever in command of, and 
it is a pity if I can't stay on the quarter- 
deck. 

Umbrellas in Military Service. 

" Are you going to keep that poor soldier 
out there in the rain all night? " said Cap- 
tain C's wife to her husband, on seeing a 
sentinel on duty in the rain. 

When it was understood who she meant 
it was explained to her that it was neces- 
sary to do so ; but that he didn't have to 
remain there all the time, being relieved 
by two others in turn. But she didn't 
seem quite satisfied, and presently asked 
again — 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



369 



" Couldn't you let him come in on the 
boat and stand under shelter ? " 

This proposition was necessarily nega- 
tived, and her innocent solicitude on ac- 
count of the presumed hardship to that 
" poor soldier " became so apparent as to 
cause a smile among the listeners. A 
short silence followed, during which it was 
evident she was devising in her tender lit- 
tle heart some scheme for his relief, when 
suddenly a bright idea seemed to have 
struck her, and looking up into her hus- 
band's face with a countenance full of anx- 
ious hope, she said — 

" Dear, couldn't you lend him your um- 
brella?" 

Pleasant little Trade. 

A little trading used to go on between 
the blockading fleets and the coast, not- 
withstanding the vigilance of the relied au- 
thorities, — as the following note sent from 
a feminine ' rebel ' to one of the ships off 
Charleston will show : 

" Madame L. G sends her compli- 
ments to the officers of the United States 
man-of-war, now anchored off* the harbor. 
If they are agreeable, she will exchange 
all sorts of garden vegetables for ice." 

Although the Union stock of frozen wa- 
ter was very short, two pailsful of the best 
" Rockland Lake " went to the lady, 

" And blest forever is she who relied 
On northern honor and northern pride." 



River Steamers and Yankee Pilots. 

The Captain of one of the Mississippi 
river steamers one morning, while his boat 
was lying at her moorings at New Orleans, 
waiting for the tardy pilot, who, it appears, 
was a rather uncertain sort of fellow, saw 
a tall, gaunt Yankee make his appear- 
ance before the Captain's office, and sung 
out — 

" Hello, Cap'n ! you don't want a pilot, 
nor nothin' about this 'ere craft, do ye ? " 

" How do you know I don't ? " respond- 
ed the Captain. 



" Oh, you don't understand ; I axed you 
s'posin' yon did ? " 

" Then, supposing I do, what of it ? " 

" Well," said the Yankee, " I reckon I 
know suthin' about that ere sort of busi- 
ness, provided you wanted a feller of jest 
about my size." 

The Captain gave him a scrutinizing 
glance, and with an expression of counte- 
nance which seemed to say, " I should pity 
the steamer that you piloted," asked — 

" Are you acquainted with the river, 
and do you know where the snags are ? " 

" "Well, ye-as," responded the Yankee, 
rather hesitatingly, " I'm pretty well ac- 
quainted with the river, but the snags, I 
don't know exactly so much about them." 

" Don't know about the snags ? " ex- 
claimed the Captain contemptuously, "don't 
know about the snags ! you'd make a pretty 
pilot ! " 

At this the Yankee's countenance as- 
sumed anything but an angelic expression, 
and with a darkened brow and a fiercely 
flashing eye, he drew himself up to his full 
heighth, and indignantly roared back in a 
voice of thunder : 

" What do I want to know where the 
snags are for, old sea-hoss ? I know where 
they ain't, and there's where I do my sail- 
ingl" 

It is sufficient to know that the Yankee 
was promptly engaged, proving himself, 
according to the Captain's report, one of 
the best. 



Parragrut when a Midshipman. 
Whatever relates to the career of Ad- 
miral Farragut possesses a value to every 
loyal reader. The following anecdote is 
therefore given, as illustrating the connec- 
tion between the twig and the tree. When 
only nine years old, little David determined 
to be a sailor, and was taken by Commo- 
dore Porter on board the Essex as a mid- 
shipman. He shared the fortunes of that 
historic craft in her memorable cruises in 
the Pacific, and took part in the battle of 
Valparaiso. 



370 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



While that famous contest was at its 
height, he was ordered by the Commodore 
to go below and bring up some friction- 
tubes, that were needed for the guns. 
While descending the ward-room ladder, 
the captain of the gun directly opposite 
was struck full upon the face by an 18- 
pounder shot. He fell back against Far- 
ragut, and they both tumbled down the 
hatchway. The man was a stout, heavy 
fellow, and it Avas fortunate for the young 
midshipman that his full weight did not 
fall upon him as they reached the deck. 
As it was, the lad was severely stunned ; 
and recovering, as if awakening from a 
dream, he ran up on deck. Commodore 
Porter, seeing him covered with blood, in- 
quired, — 

" Are you wounded ? " 

" I believe not," was the reply. 

" Then where are the tubes ? " 

The words brought him to his senses, 
and he immediately went below and got 
them. 

When the brave little brig was surren- 
dered, Farragut sobbed like a child, to see 
the American colors hauled down. From 
this heavy grief he was soon aroused, 
however, by hearing an English middy 
exultingly shout to his men, " Prize-oh, 
boys ! here's a fine grunter, by Jove ! " 
He knew the young reefer alluded to a 
young porker that had been petted by 
himself and all the sailors, and had helped 
to beguile away many a weary hour ; 
therefore he energetically laid claim to the 
animal. 

" But," said the Englishmen, " you're a 
prisoner, and your pig, too." 

" We always respect private property,' 
said Farragut, and he seized the squealing 
bone of contention, asserting that he should 
retain possession until compelled to yield 
to superior force. Here was sport for 
the older officers, who called out, — 

" Go it, little Yankee ; and if you can 
thrash ' Shorty ' (a sobriquet for English 
middies) you shall have your pig." 

« Agreed ! " said Farragut ; and the 



lads went at it in pugilistic style. 'Shorty 
soon failed to come to time, and the victor 
walked off with piggy under his arm. He 
afterward remarked that he felt, in mas- 
tering the young Englishman, that he had 
wiped out the disgrace of being captured. 

Death Smiling- in "Victory's Embrace. 
Orderly Sergeant C. H. Plummer, of the 
51st N. Y., was on the gunboat Pioneer, 
mortally sick with typhoid fever, at the 
time of the Burnside Expedition battle, 
North Carolina. Late in the evening a 
boat came off from the shore, and the news 
of our success was told. Plummer, whose 
life was just hanging in the balance, turned 
to the chaplain and asked, " Is our side win- 
ning ? " On being told that it was, he smiled, 
gasped out the words " Thank God ! " and 
died. This brave man's real name was 
Charles Plummer Tidd, and he was one of 
those famous nineteen men who undertook 
to capture Virginia, under John Brown. 



"Dem Rotten Shell." 
An officer in the Mississippi fleet is au- 
thority for the following : After the battle 
and capture of Forts Henry and Donel- 
son, the fleet were lying at Cairo. The 
prisoners were passing the fleet, and among 
them there was a contraband, an old ser- 
vant of one of the officers. In passing 
the ' Essex ' he shook his head, and re- 
marked, " I doesn't like dat one-pipe boat, 
for when she cum along and throwed clem 
rotten shell ob hers we couldn't stan' it no 
longer; den massa run, and after dat I 
leff, too ! " Just previous to the battle I 
had filled my shells with an incendiary 
matter of my own invention, which had not 
the most agreeable smell, and hence the 
old darkey's remark. I used the same 
shell on my attack and destruction of the 

Arkansas. 

* 

Sailing- into the Jaws of the Mohican. 

One day Lieutenant Howe, while in 
command of the Tuscaloosa, learnt that 
the Federal gunboat Mohican was " some- 
where about," lying in wait for him, and 
he received a particular description of her 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



571 



rig and general appearance Next day his 
masthead look-out reported a steamer in 
sierht to leeward. The Tuscaloosa held on 
her course until her commander was near 
enough to make out sufficient of the hull 
and rigging of the distant craft to find that 
he was pleasantly sailing into the jaws of 
the Mohican Of course he immediately 
ran up in the wind and made as long a leg 
as possible, h;id the precious good fortune 
not to be observed, and having a handy, 
smart sailing craft under him, was soon 
out of sight and of danger, — the reward 
of unsleeping wariness. 



schooners alongside of her engaged in 
raising her up, were passed, almost within 
biscuit toss, without a challenge or hail. 
It was not until Lieutenant Gushing 
reached within pistol shot of the Albe- 
marle, which lay alongside the dock at 
Plymouth, that he was hailed, and then in 
an uncertain sort of a way, as though the 
lookouts doubted the accuracy of their 
vision. He made no reply, but continued 
to press towards the great monster, and 
was for the second time hailed. He paid 
no attention to the challenge, but kept 
straight on his way, first detaching the 
Shamrock's cutter to go below and secure 
the Confederate pickets on the South- 
field. 

In another instant, as he closed in on 
the ram, her Captain, Walley, in a very 
dignified, pompous and studied manner, 
shouted, " What boat is that ? " The re- 
ply was an invitation for him to go to — ! 
Thereupon arose a terrible clamor. The 
rattle was vigorously sprung, the bells on 
the ship were sharply rung, and all hands 



Billiards on board the Ironsides. 
The gunners on the Ironsides at Morris 
Island had a neat way of exploding their 
projectiles within the fort. It was impos- 
sible to drive them through the sand and 
cotton of which the work was made, nor 
could the guns be so elevated as to toss 
them in as from a mortar. So the pieces 
were depressed, and the shot, striking the 
water about fifty yards from the beach, 
jumped in. In nearly every instance this 
manner of making the missiles effective 
was successful. " Those are what I call 
billiards,'' said the Captain, watching the fir- 
ing, " they carom on the bay and beach and 
pocket the ball hi the fort every time ! " 

Sinking the Albemarle Ram in the Bottom 
of the Roanoke. 

To Lieutenant William B. Cushing, a | 
young officer of great bravery, coolness 
and resources, was due the sinking of the 
ram Albemarle to the bottom of Roanoke 
River. He submitted a project to Ad- 
miral Lee, in June, 1864, in conjunction 
with Admiral Gregory, Captain Boggs and 
Chief Engineer William W. Wood, and 
having arranged one of the new steam 
picket boats (of about the size of a frigate's 
launch) with a torpedo, took her down 
the Sound for duty, at first making due 
reconnoissances. I were called to quarters, evidently in the 

At about midnight, the little picket boat greatest consternation, 
entered the narrow river, and steamed cau- A musketry fire was immediately opened 
tiously and silently up without giving the upon the torpedo boat, and a charge of 
least alarm. The Southfield, and three I canister fired, injuring some of the crew. 




Lieut. Cushing's Great Exploit. 



372 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Along the dock to which the Albemarle 
was tied were a large number of soldiers,, 
evidently stationed there to guard against 
the landing of any Federal force after a 
surprise. And in front of their lines blazed 
cheerily up a number of camp-fires, which 
threw a strong light upon the Albemarle 
and the bosom of the river. By the aid 
of this glare, Lieutenant Cushing discov- 
ered the pier of floating timbers which 
surrounded the ram on the accessible sides, 
to guard against the approach of rams and 
torpedoes. By the aid of the same light 
he plainly saw a large body of soldiers 
thronging to the wharf and blazing away 
at his boat. To quiet these fellows he 
brought the bow of his boat around a lit- 
tle, and discharged a heavy stand of can- 
ister into them from his twelve-pounder 
howitzer mounted at the bow, and sent 
them flying. Making a complete circle, 
under a scorching musketry fire at less 
than thirty yards, he came around, boAV 
on, at full steam, and struck the floating 
guard of timbers, pressing them in towards 
the ram. His boat soon lost headway, and 
came to a stand-still, refusing to back off 
or move ahead. 

The moment for decisive action had noio 
arrived. 

The enemy fired muskets and pistols 
almost in Cushing's face from the ports of 
the ram, and from the hundred small arms 
on shore. Several of his men were in- 
jured, and Paymaster Swan had fallen 
severely wounded. The officers aift crew 
of the Albemarle cried out, " Now we've 
got him ; surrender, surrender, or we will 
blow you to pieces." The case looked 
desperate indeed ; but Lieutenant Cushing 
was as cool and determined at the moment 
as one could be under the most agreeable 
circumstances. He knew that the mo- 
ment of all moments had come, and he did 
not allow it to glide from his hands. Seiz- 
ing the lanyard to the torpedo and the line 
of the spar, and crowding the spar until 
he had brought the torpedo under the 
overhang of the Albemarle, he detached 



it by one effort, and the next second lie 
pulled the lanyard of the torpedo and ex- 
ploded it fairly under the vessel on her 
port side, just below the porthole of the 
two hundred pounder Brooke's rifle, which 
at that moment was discharged at the 
boat. An immense volume of water was 
thrown out by the explosion of the torpe- 
do, almost drowning all in the boat, and, 
to add to the peril of the moment, the 
heavy shell from the enemy's gun had 
gone crashing through the bottom of the 
boat, knocking the splinters about in a ter- 
rible style. 

She at once began to sink in the most 
rapid manner, and Lieutenant Cushing 
ordered all hands to save themselves as 
best they might. 

Cushing divested himself of his coat 
and shoes, and plunged into the river, fol- 
lowed by those of his men who were able 
to do so. All struck for the middle of the 
river, under a hot fire of musketry, the 
balls penetrating their clothing and strik- 
ing all about them. The rebels took to 
boats and pushed after the survivors, de- 
manding their surrender. Many gave up. 
Lieutenant Cushing swam down the river 
half a mile, until, exhausted and chilled 
by the cold water, he was compelled to 
struggle to the shore, which he reached 
about daylight. After lying in the weeds 
along the river bank for some time, he re- 
covered his strength sufficiently to crawl 
into the swamp further, till daylight found 
him lying in the swamp grass, between 
two paths and in speaking distance of the 
enemy's fort. While thus only partially 
screened by the low sedge, he saw some 
rebel officers and men walk by, and heard 
their conversation, which was entirely de- 
voted to the affairs of the morning. From 
their remarks he learned that the torpedo 
had done its work effectively and thorough- 
ly, and that his great object was accom- 
plished. A short time after, he luckily dis- 
covered a skiff, and in this succeeded in 
reaching the squadron which lay twelve 
miles distant. 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



373 



Lucky Moment on Board the Sumter. 

One of the officers of the privateer 
Sumter gives the following account, in his 
private journal, of an hour of trepidation 
on board that craft, — with a little ' brag ' 
to boot. Under date of August 18, 1861, 
he writes : — After leaving Cayenne the 
vessel's course was shaped for Paramaribo, 
Dutch Guiana, off which port she signal- 
ed for a pilot until sundown ; none having 
arrived at that hour she came to anchor. 
About twilight a sail was seen in the dis- 
tance approaching the Sumter. It was 
soon apparent that she was a steam war- 
vessel. Steam was raised, the anchor 
hove lip, all hands beat to quarters, the 
guns manned, the old charges drawn and 
fresh ones put in their places. By the 
time all these preliminaries had been ar- 
ranged it was ascertained by the aid of 
the night telescope, that the strange vessel 
had anchored. The Sumter followed suit, 
but a vigilant look-out was kept upon the 
movements of the supposed enemy. 

Early on the morning of the 19th, the 
look-outs had reported that the steamer 
outside was under way. Slowly she 
steamed toward the Sumter, seeming to 
have made every preparation for attack. 
She had not yet hoisted her flag, neither 
had the Sumter — each commander being 
apparently desirous of learning the nation- 
ality of the other first, and of letting him 
know, by a death-dealing broadside, that 
an enemy was at hand. The stranger 
looked like an American-built vessel, hav- 
ing long mast-heads and a sharp overhang- 
ing bow. Yes, there was no mistaking 
her — she must be one of the gunboats 
sent in search of the Sumter. •When she 
was near enough for the number of her 
guns to be determined, we were glad to 
find that she carried but one gun more 
than the Sumter, and that the disparity 
was no greater. Slowly and cautiously 
the vessels neared each other. When not 
more than a cable's length off, our first 
Lieutenant hailed her in a loud voice — 



" Ship ahoy ! " 

" Hallo ! " was promptly answered. 

" This is the Confederate States steam- 
er Sumter — what vessel is that ? " 

After waiting about half a minute, 
which seemed an age, the ' enemy ' re- 
plied — - 

" The French steamer Abbeville ! " 

Here was a disappointment — after all 
this preparation for mortal combat, to find 
at last that the supposed enemy was a 
friend ! There was not a single man who 
would not freely have relinquished all the 
prize-money then due to him could he 
have transformed the Frenchman into a 
Yankee. She was nearer the equal of 
the Sumter than they ever expected to 
meet again, and the Sumter had captured 
so many merchantmen that it might be 
said she did not care to meet any other 
class of vessels." 

The advantage to the Sumter of meet- 
ing one so ' nearly her equal ' may be 
judged of by the good luck which befel 
the Alabama in her encounter with the 
Kearsarge, where the ' equality ' was 
nearer still ! 

Presentation to a Brave "Woman. 
On the evening of the fifth February, 
1862, at Cape Girardeau, Captain Ben 
Sousley, in behalf of the Alton Packet 
Company, presented to the loyal and he- 
roic Mrs. Eversol, the sum of two hun- 
dred dollars, in acknowledgment of her 
courage, humanity and patriotism, in hav- 
ing saved the passengers of the steamboat 
City of Alton from being captured by 
Jeff. Thompson's marauding band of Con- 
federates. As that boat was approaching 
the shore where the secessionists waited 
to seize her, Mrs. Eversol ran to the le- 
vee, and by her shoutings and gesticula- 
tions warned those on board of the dan- 
ger, and enabled them to escape. The 
handsome testimonial to her merit was 
richly deserved, but a richer one is assur- 
ed to her in the memories of her country- 



874 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



men and countrywomen, for such an un- 
usual, brave, hazardous, and fortunate act. 
Captain Sousley subsequently received 
from Mrs. Eversol the following appropri- 
ate note : — 

Commerce, Mo., February oth. 

J. J. Mitchell, President Alton Packet 
Company : Dear Sir ; Permit me, 
through you, to tender to the members of 
your Company my thanks for the unmer- 
ited token of respect which they were 
pleased to convey to me through the hands 
of Captain Sousley, and received by me 
to-day. In reply to their earnest solicita- 
tions to visit St. Louis and Alton, allow 
me to say that I would be most happy to 
do so when the weather and traveling are 
pleasant ; although I would again assure 
them, that, in any part I may have taken 
on the twenty-ninth day of December, in 
the preservation of the lives of my fellow- 
beings and their property, I only obeyed 
the impulse of a loyal heart. 

With my kindest wishes for the pros- 
perity and happiness of the members of 
your Company and yourself, I remain 
) ours, respectfully, 

Sarah L. Eversol. 

Laconic Hint to a Pilot by General Butler. 
General Butler one day sent a man of 
the name of Curtis, who had been a pilot 
on the James river, and who professed to 
know the position of the torpedoes, to Ad- 
miral Lee, with the characteristic sugges- 
tion : " If he faithfully and truly performs 
his duty, and answers all queries, return 
him to me at Bermuda Landing ; if not, 
hang him at the yard-arm." This was 
dictated in the presence of Curtis, to whom 
the General then remarked : " Now, my 
good man, go ; you have your life in your 
own hands." The individual certainly 
seemed to realize the fact as thus laconi- 
cally stated. 

— — ♦ — 

Another Cassabianca. 
In an account, by a Confederate prison- 
er who participated in the affair, of the 
capture of the U. S. ship Harriet Lane, the 



following interesting incident is g'ven, a^ 
w r e find it in the papers : — Almost li.e 
first men struck down were the gallant 
Captain Wainwright and Lieutenant Lee, 
who both fought with a desperation and 
valor no mortal could surpass. Though 
bleeding and prostrate upon the deck, they 
were seen to still continue to deal death 
among their enemies. One young son of 




Another Cassabianca. 

Captain Wainwright — only ten years old ! 
— stood at the cabin door, a revolver in 
each hand, and never ceased firing until 
he had expended every shot. One of his 
poor little hands became disabled by a 
ball, shattering his four fingers, and then 
his infantile soul gave way : he burst into 
tears, and cried — " Do you want to kill 
me ? " Blessed young hero — may his 
country never forget him ! And where 
is the Hemans to wed his name to immor- 
tal verse, like another Cassabianca, or the 
artist to portray the scene on historic can- 
vas ? 



Devotion of Farragrut's Men to their Ad- 
miral. 
After the flagship Hartford, with the 
brave Farragut, had hauled off from her 
first fierce assault upon the rebel flagship 
Tennessee, in Mobile Bay, and as she was 
again pointed fair for her, and thundering- 
ly coming down upon her to dash into her 
a second time — suddenly, to the surprise 
of all, she was herself tremendously struck 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



375 



by one of our own heavy vessels, also 
heavily coming down upon the rebel Ad- 
miral, and it was thought for a brief mo- 
ment, so fearful was the blow, she must 
go down. Immediately, and high above 
the din of battle, hoarse, anxious voices 
were heard crying, 

" The Admiral! the Admiral! save the 
Admiral! Get the Admiral out of the 
ship ! " 

The brave men utterly forgot them- 
selves — thought not a moment of their 
own safety, but only of their glorious old 
Admiral, who was all in all to them ! 
Nothing could better illustrate the love 
and devotion of the whole squadron for 
their Admiral than this. When they 
themselves were in imminent peril of 
death, they only cared for him ! Finding 
the vessel would float, notwithstanding the 
possible ultimate serious results, the brave 
old Admiral turned to his gallant fleet 
Captain with the order — 

" Go on with speed ! Ram Iter again /" 

Onward the Hartford sped, determined 
to ' do and die,' if need be ; but just be- 
fore she reached her the white flag of sur- 
render was hoisted above the discomfited 
Tennessee, and soon all the victory was 
with Farrajmt and his noble men. 



Pictorial Humors of the War. 
The benefit of having one's picture in Har- 
per is thus illustrated in an amusing account 
given by a naval officer : A few days ago 
I was standing on the steps of one of the 
hotels of this city, (New York,) when 
several boys applied to black my boots, 
with the well-known cry of " Black yer 
boots, Sir ? Shine them up ! " etc. One 
little fellow had a very dirty face, and I 
told him if he would wash it he should 
black my boots. " What will you give me 
to do it ? " was the prompt reply. " Five 
cents," I said. He hesitated for a mo- 
ment, and then asked, " Who will stand 
your security?" I applied to each boy, 
and all refused with the exception of one 



little ragged fellow, who, after steadily 
looking at me for some time, suddenly ex- 
claimed, " I'll stand ! I've seen that chap's 
picter in Harper! " The boy's face wao 
washed and my boots cleaned. 




Pictorial humors of the war. 

The beauty, accuracy and profusion of 
pictorial illustrations of the scenes and 
heroes of the war, afforded in the pages of 
the above named and kindred serials, have 
constituted one of the most marked facts 
in its history. 

Seeking- a Naval Appointment. 

Mr. was an applicant for an official 

berth in the navy, and, as usual, permis- 
sion was granted by the Secretary of the 
Navy to him to be examined for the posi- 
tion to which he aspired. He presented 
himself in due form before the Examining 
Board, and was duly " put through " by 
the venerable members. At last the final 
question was put : 

" Now, Sir, your vessel being anchored 
in New York harbor, how would you 
proceed if ordered to take her to Key 
West?" 

The aspirant proceeded, by aid of chart, 
rule, and compass, to show to the attentive 
Board the courses he would steer, etc., 
and, at the end of a long (imaginary) 
voyage, brought his charge safely into Key 



376 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



AVest harbor. The member who had asked 
the question astonished the would-be En- 
sign by requesting him to recommence his 
voyage, as he would never get to Key 
West in the maimer he had just tried. 
The long description was again gone 
through with, the same as before, and at 




Secretary Welles. 



its close Mr. 



looked triumphantly at 



the querist, who shook his head, smiled, 
and said : 

" Well, Sir, that is precisely your pre- 
vious voyage ; and again I must say that 
you could by no possibility arrive at Key 
West, in the way you describe, until you 
had heaved up your anchor in the harbor 
of New Tort" 

Suffice to say, the little omission was 

overlooked, and Mr. was soon in the 

full enjoyment of his honors as an Ensign, 
often relating the above as a good joke. 



Bailey's Dam for Saving the Mississippi 
Squadron. 

Immediately after the Union army re- 
ceived its check at Sabine cross-roads, and 
the retreat commenced, Colonel Bailey, 
engineer of the Nineteenth Corps, learned 
that the Red River was rapidly falling, 
and became assured that by the time Ad- 
miral Porter's fleet could reach Alexan- 
dria, there would not be sufficient water 
t> float the gunboats over the Alexandria 
Falls. It was evident, therefore, that 



they were in imminent danger. Colonel 
Bailey, believing that their capture or de- 
struction would involve the destruction of 
the Union army, the blockade of the Mis- 
sissippi, and even greater disaster, pro- 
posed to Major-General Franklin, on the 
9th of April, 1864, previous to the battle 
of Pleasant Hill, to increase the depth of 
the water by means of a dam, and sub- 
mitted to him a plan of the same, which 
was approved. 

General Banks placed at the disposal 
of Colonel Bailey all the force he required, 
consisting of some three thousand men and 
two or three hundred wagons. All the 
neighboring steam-mills were torn down 
for material — two or three regiments of 
Maine men were set at work felling trees, 
teams were moving in all directions bring- 
ing in brick and stone, quarries were 
opened, flat-boats were built to bring stone 
down from above, and every man seemed 
to be working with unequaled vigor, prob- 
ably not one in fifty believed in the suc- 
cess of the undertaking, — the falls being 




Coi Baiiey. 

about a mile in length, filled with ragged 
rocks, and over which at the existing stage 
of water it seemed impossible to make a 
channel. 

The work was commenced by running 
out from the left bank of the river a tree 
dam, made of the bodies of very large 
trees, brush, brick, and stone, cross-tied 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC. 377 



with heavy timber, and strengthened in 
every way which ingenuity could devise. 
This was run out about three hundred feet 
into the river ; four large coal barges were 
then fitted with brick and sunk at the end 
of it. From the right bank of the river, 
cribs filled with stone were built out to 
meet the barges, all of which was success- 
fully accomplished, notwithstanding there 
was a current running of nine miles an 
hour, threatening to sweep everything be- 
fore it. 

After eight days of hard labor it was 
found that one day more Avould raise the 
water sufficiently to enable all the vessels 
to pass the upper falls. Unfortunate^, 
the pressure of the water became so great 
that it swept away two of the stone barges 
which swung in below the dam on one side. 
Seeing this, Admiral Porter jumped on a 
horse and rode up to where the upper ves- 
sels were anchored, and ordered the Lex- 
ington to pass the upper falls if possible, 
ami immediately attempt to go through the 
dam, — thinking to save the four vessels be- 
low, and not knowing whether the persons 
employed on the work would ever have 
the heart to renew the enterprise. 

The Lexington succeeded in getting 
over the upper falls just in time, the wa- 
ter rapidly falling as she was passing over. 
She then steered directly for the opening 
in the dam, through which the water was 
rushing so furiously that it seemed as if 
nothing but destruction awaited her. Thou- 
sands of beating hearts looked on, anxious 
for the result. The silence was so great 
as the Lexington approached the dam that 
a pin might almost have been heard to 
fall. She entered the gap with a full 
head of steam on, pitched down the roar- 
ing torrent, made two or three spasmodic 
rolls, hung for a moment on the rocks be- 
low, was then swept into deep water by 
the current, and rounded to safely into the 
bank. 

Thirty thousand voices rose in one deaf- 
ening cheer, and universal joy seemed to 
pervade the sea of faces there present. 



The Neosho followed next — all her 
hatches battened down, and every precau- 
tion taken against accident. She did not 
fare so well as the Lexington, her pilot 
having become frightened as he approached 
the abyss, and stopped her engine, when a 
full head of steam had been particularly 
ordered. The result was that for a mo- 
ment her hull disappeared from sight, un» 
der the water. Every one thought she 
was lost. She rose, however, swept along 
over the rocks with the current, and fortu- 
nately escaped with only one hole in her 
bottom, which was stopped in the course 
of an hour. The Hindman and Osage 
both came through beautifully without 
touching a thing, and the Admiral thought 
that if he was only fortunate to get the 
large vessels as well over the falls, his fleet 
would once more do good service on the 
Mississippi. 

Colonel Bailey and his men set cheer- 
fully to work to repair the damage, al- 
though they had been working for eight 
days and nights, up to their necks in wa- 
ter, in the broiling sun, cutting trees and 
wheeling bricks. The Admira-1 also made 
the best of the mishap, saying that it was 
on the whole very fortunate, as the two 
barges that were swept away from the cen- 
tre swung around against some rocks on 
the left and made a fine cushion for the 
vessels, preventing them, as it afterward 
appeared, from running on certain destruc- 
tion. 

The force of the water and the current 
being too great to construct a continuous 
dam of six hundred feet across the river 
in so short a time, Colonel Bailey deter- 
mined to leave a gap of fifty-five feet in 
the dam, and build a series of wing clams 
on the Upper Falls. This was accomplished 
in three days' time, and the Mound City, 
the Carondelet and Pittsburgh, came over 
the Upper Falls, a good deal of labor be- 
ing necessary, however, to haul them 
through, the channel being very crooked, 
and scarcely wide enough for them. Other 
vessels followed these in safety. The pas- 



378 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



sage of these vessels was a most beautiful 
sight, only to be realized by seeing. They 
passed over without an accident, except 
the unshipping of one or two rudders. 
The scene was witnessed by all the troops, 
and the vessels were heartily cheered as 
they went over. Next morning, at ten 
o'clock, the Louisville, Chillicothe, Ozark, 
and two tugs passed over without any 
accident except the loss of a man, who 
was swept off the deck of one of the tugs. 
By three o'clock that afternoon the vessels 
were all coaled, ammunition replaced, 
and all steamed down the river with the 
convoy of transports in company. A good 
deal of difficulty was anticipated in getting 
over the bars in Lower Red River, the 
depth of water reported being only five 
feet, while the gunboats were drawing six. 
But there was fortunately a rise from the 
back-water of the Mississippi — that river 
being very high just then, — the back-wa- 
ter extending to Alexandria, one hundred 
and fifty miles distant, enabling them to 
pass all the bars and obstructions with 
safety. Eight valuable gunboats were 
thus saved from destructian. 

His Favorite Flag - for a Winding 1 Sheet. 
The brave Captain Rodgers, as if under 
a presentiment of what was awa ting him 
in the conflict soon to take place, the night 
before he was killed wrote a letter to his 
wife, which he left with his servant, to be 
handed to the Admiral in case any thing 
should happen to him. After his vessel, 
the Catskill, had moved up toward her 
fighting position, Captain Rodgers with- 
drew her from range, and taking a small 
boat, returned to the flag-ship to get a flag 
which he denominated as " his own flag." 
It was the one which he fought under, on 
the Catskill, in the April attack on Sum- 
ter ; and, wishing praise for the same flag 
on the Catskill during the coming, he went 
to the flag-ship, secured it, and returning 
to the Catskill, again moved up into action, 
and in ten minutes was a corpse. Strange 
to say, his body wrapped up in that same 



flag, was conveyed on board the flag-ship, 
which but a few minutes before he had 
left with countenance smiling as was his 
wont. 

Farewell Scene among the Tars. 

On the departure of Commodore Foote, 
of the Mississippi Flotilla, in 1862, on ac- 
count of his impaired health, produced by 
too laborious service, a scene was present- 
ed which abundantly showed the strong 
hold which that gallant officer had upon 
the hearts of his brave and noble men. 
About three o'clock, the officers and crew 
of the flag-ship were assembled in one of the 
gunrooms, when the Commodore presented 
Captain Davis to them, assuring him that 
a more gallant crew never trod the deck 
of a ship. As the friend of his boyhood, 
manhood and age, he hoped the Captain 
w r ould never forget that these sun-browned, 
weather-beaten tars, were also his friends, 
and that their best interests would always 
be near his heart. The old hero then 
took leave of his men in a few touching 
remarks, which brought tears to many an 
eye unaccustomed to weeping. 

An hour later he hobbled on board the 
Cairo packet, De Soto, and seated himself 
on the guards of the boat, in full view of 
his men, who all crowded the decks of the 
flag-ship to see him off. The scene was 
affecting in the extreme. The Commo- 
dore was agitated and very nervous. He 
looked emaciated and worn, bit his finger- 
nails, and frequently raised a palm-leaf 
fan to his face to conceal the briny drops 
which would force themselves, in spite of 
all he could do, from his sunken eyes and 
roll down his hollow cheeks. As the 
packet moved off, he rose to say a few 
farewell words, but the hissing of the 
steam prevented his being distinctly heard. 
There could only be caught such frag- 
mentary sentences as " God bless you ! " 
" You are engaged in a holy cause ! " "I 
know you will succeed ! " &c. Then the 
Lieutenant-Commanding said, 41 Now, 
three hearty cheers, my lads," and they 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



379 



were given with a will, although the poor 
tars felt more like weeping than cheering. 
The order was in questionable taste,but the 
applause was infectious, and the crews of 
other gunboats took it up and made the 
welkin ring, till the steamer turned the 
point and was lost to view. A few months 
elapsed, and a nation mourned the death 
of one of its most heroic officers. 



Gallantry of Commodore Farragnt to Miss 
Victor. 

The truly brave are always good, — and 
the following is one among many instances 
which confirm the adage. Miss Victor, 
Principal of St. Mary's Female Academy, 
at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was one of 
those who really adorned the society of 
the South. She was a northern-born lady, 
of excellent standing as a teacher, and be- 
fore secession swept over the land, she 
was a much courted member of the refined 
circle in which she moved. The lady was 
true to the instincts and principles of her 
northern birth, and, of course, received 
the favors of old friends, and the hatred 
of those who sympathized with the plot- 
ters of the nation's ruin. Enough to say, 
the lady suffered so much at the hands of 
this latter class, that she welcomed the ad- 
vent of Commodore Farragut's fleet. 

The guerrilla band which fired upon the 
boat of the Hartford, and for which act 
the city was shelled by that ship, designed 
to take a last revenge on Miss Victor, by 
destroying her fine estate. But their fear 
of Federal vengeance induced them to flee 
before Miss Victor's place was reached. 
Unfortunately, the shells from the fleet 
found in the Academy a prominent target, 
and a number of shells were put through 
it. The inmates fled in dismay, and the 
fine building was ruined. Miss Victor 
and a younger sister fled to the river bank, 
and signaled for help. A boat put off 
from the Hartford and bore them on board. 
Commodore Farragut, hearing the circum- 
stances, acted a noble part. The ladies 
were assigned the Captain's cabin, and 
24 



treated with such consideration as their 
condition merited. Every officer vied in 
acts of kindness, and offered the protec- 
tion of the flag to those who, shorn of 
their property, were thankful to escape 
from the outrages of guerrillas and the 
shells of the Union fleet. 



Sen-lines Outwitting the Vanderbilt. 
The intelligence that the Confederate 
privateer Alabama was cruising about the 
Cape of Good Hope, created much ex- 
citement. In the Straits of Sunda she 
captured some United States merchant 
vessels, and was put upon her speed by 
the Vanderbilt. When night came on, the 
Alabama was about twenty miles ahead 
of her pursuer, and, under cover of dark- 
ness, she unshipped her funnel, put out her 
fires, and set sail. The ship was then put 
about, and stood in the direction of where 




Captain Raphael Sernmes. 

they had last seen the Vanderbilt. At 
daybreak she was within only a mile of 
her enemy, who actually bore down and 
inquired if they had seen a large steamer 
standing to the norward. Captain Sern- 
mes graciously replied, " Yes ; she was 
going ahead, full speed, and must be one 
hundred miles away by this." At this in- 
formation, so opportunely obtained, the 
Vanderbilt immediately put on all steam, 
and went on a wild goose chase, while 



380 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



Semmes quietly shipped his funnel and 
bore away in an opposite direction. 



Taking: a Hint. 
In one of our squadrons — which may as 
well be nameless — one of the officers, want- 
ing to get leave of absence, went up to 
the Commandant's office, where he found 
no one in but the clerk. The Command- 
ant very soon came in, and anticipating at 
a glance the errand, and pretending not to 
see the officer, at once cried out to the 
clerk, " If any officer comes to-day for 
leave of absence, order him at once on 
board the Starling" — which was about to 
go on active service. Then turning to the 
startled officer, he added, "Ah ! what can 
I do for you to day ? " " Nothing — no- 
thing at all, thank you," he replied, and 
made a masterly retreat. 



Literal Understanding of Terms. 
A surgeon who officiated on one of the 
ships composing the blockading squadron 
off Wilmington, North Carolina, states 
that one day a number of contrabands 
came on board. One of them wore a ma- 
sonic pin, and the Captain, who Avas a "G 
man," became some troubled by the fact, 
for a slave can not be a free mason. So 
he called up the intelligent ' contraband,' 
and said, " You are not a mason." " Oh, 
yes, massa, I is, I'se a bricklayer ! " If 
there was any difference there, Cuffie 
1 didn't see it.' 



Buchanan's Sword Yielded with a Bad 
Grace. 

When it was reported to Admiral Far- 
ragut that the rebel monster ram Tennes- 
see had surrendered, and that Admiral 
Buchanan was wounded, he sent a staff- 
officer off to receive the rebel Admiral's 
sword. Some one asked Farragut if he 
would not go off himself and see Buchan- 
an. The former merely replied : " No, 



Sir, he is my enemy." Subsequently, 
when the staff-officer returned with Bu- 
chanan's sword, it was represented to the 
Admiral that Buchanan had expressed a 
wish to see him. " Well, Sir, he shan't see 
me," replied the old Salamander. Then 
looking with most concentrated expression 




• Buchanan's Sword yielded with a had grace. 

of countenance upon the bloody decks of 
his ship, he added : " I suppose he would 
be friends ; but with these brave men, my 
comrades, mangled, dying and dead about 
me, and, looking upon the destruction he 
has caused in the fleet, I can only con- 
sider him an enemy." On the staff-officer 
getting on board, Admiral Buchanan was 
found to be severely wounded in the leg. 
He yielded with a very bad grace — in fact, 
it was said that, after receiving his wound, 
he gave orders to his next in command to 
continue the fight as long as there was a 
man left ; and then, when he found he 
could do no more, to run the vessel ashore 
and blow her up. But there was no al- 
ternative. The ram must be surrendered ; 
and this was done. The Stars and Stripes 
were hoisted upon the staff of the magni- 
ficent ram, greeted, as they went up, by 
the hearty cheers of the whole fleet. 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



381 



Sharp Practice of Confederate Cruisers in 
English "Waters. 

One Saturday morning a channel steam- 
er put into Plymouth, England, and land- 
ed eighteen persons from the Confederate 
cruiser, Virginia, formerly the Japan. 
Two of these persons were men who had 
been scalded through the bursting of a 
feed-pipe in the engine-room of the Vir- 
ginia, whilst they had been acting as fire- 
men. In consequence of this arrival, 
something was learnt respecting the man- 
ner, the escape, and the arming of that 
notorious Confederate cruiser, and the tale 
is a curious one. 

It appears that the well-known firm of 
the Dennys, of Dennys, of Dumbartown, 
built the Japan for, it was supposed, the 
Emperor of China. She was a very fine 
steamer, of seven hundred tons burthen, 
and fitted with engines of 250-horse power. 
When she left the Clyde, she had been 
named the Virginia, and some forty car- 
penters went out in her to construct a 
magazine. These returned to Greenock 
in the tug steamer that towed the Virginia 
out. The day after she had sailed, an 
order arrived at Greenock, directing that 
she be seized. After the Virginia left the 
Clyde she made her way round into the 
English Channel. In the meantime, one 
of the steamers that ply between Newhaven 
and France, chiefly for the conveyance of 
French produce, intended for the London 
markets, had been taken up by ' a gentle- 
man' to carry some packages and hard- 
ware across the Channel. This ' gentle- 
man ' stipulated for the power of taking 
the steamer to another port than the one 
to which he ordinarily traded, or to dis- 
charge the cargo into another vessel, if he 
thought fit to do so. The steamer, how- 
ever, did take some passengers for France, 
and left Newhaven as if on her regular 
voyage across the Channel. The Cap- 
tain, however, had instructions from the 
owners to follow the direction given by 
the ' gentleman.' 



Well, when they got fairly into the 
Channel, the latter said, that before going 
across he wished to make for a certain 
point, meaning the latitude and longitude 
somewhere between Plymouth and Fal- 
mouth. "All right," said the skipper, and 
away they went and soon arrived at the 
point indicated, and there found a steam 
vessel, with which the 'gentleman' said 
he would like to communicate. He went 
on board the new steamer, but soon re- 
turned and told the Captain that he had 
sold the cargo, and it must be put on board 
that vessel. The Newhaven man brought 
his craft alongside, having the misfortune 
to carry aAvay his boom in so doing. The 
cargo was then transferred to the large 
steamer, which was no other than the Con- 
federate cruiser Virginia, and said cargo 
of the Newhaven steamer was guns, arms 
and ammunition. The cargo thus safely 
transferred, some seventeen men were 
transhipped from the Virginia to the 
Newhaven steamer, and these included the 
two men injured by scalding. With these 
men, on the ' gentleman's ' directions, the 
Newhaven steamer made for Plymouth ; 
and the Virginia went westward on her 
Confederate cruise. 



Impressive Sight aboard Ship on Sunday. 
Ten o'clock was the hour for Divine 
service on board the Union fleet at Island 
No. 10. The church flag was flung out 
on the flag-staff of the Benton, and all 
the commanders called their crews together 
for worship. On board the Pittsburg, 
Captain Thompson, the crew consisted of 
men from Maine, New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island — from the Eastern 
as well as the Western States. Some of 
them were scholars and teachers in Sab- 
bath Schools at home. They were dressed 
in dark blue, and each sailor appeared in 
his Sunday suit. A small table was 
brought up from the cabin, and the Stars 
and Stripes spread upon it. A Bible was 
brought. They stood around the Captain 



382 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



with uncovered heads, while he read the 
twenty -seventh Psalm. Beautiful and ap- 
propriate was that service : — 

" The Lord is my light and my salva- 
tion ; The Lord is the strength of my 
life ; of whom shall I be afraid ? " 

After the Psalm, the prayer, " Our Fa- 
ther which art in heaven." 

How impressive ! The uncovered group 
standing around the open Bible, and the 
low voices of a hundred men in prayer. 
On the right hand, looking down the river, 
were the mortars in play, jarring the earth 
with their heavy thunders. The shells 
were sweeping in graceful curves through 
the air. Upon the left hand, the Benton 
and Carondelet were covering themselves 
with white clouds, which slowly floated 
away over the woodlands, fragrant with 
the early buds and blossoms of spring. 
The rebel batteries below were flaming 
and smoking. Solid shot screamed past — 
shells exploded above. Away beyond the 
island, beyond the dark green of the for- 
est, rose the cloud of another bombard- 
ment, where Commodore Hollins was 
vainly endeavoring to drive Colonel Plum- 
mer from his position. So the prayer was 
mingled with the deep, wild thunders of 
the cannonade. 



Sumter and the little Patil Jones. 
,The wooden gunboat Paul Jones, com- 
manded by Captain Rhind, was one of the 

vessels engaged in the attack on Charles- 
es o 

ton. Captain Rhind steamed right up to 
Sumter, utterly regardless of fear. He 
was implored to be careful, but as in the 
Keokuk, he was determined to get near- 
est " the crater." Having delivered two 
or three effective broadsides, a rebel ball 
flew over the quarter deck, almost grazing 
the shoulders of the gallant Captain, who 
once more let fly vigorously at the fort, 
and then triumphantly steamed back with 
flying colors. 

The brave old salt was never nearer 
being a martyr in his life. 



Had no White Flag on Board. 
The Federal steamer Star was on her 
way up the James River, from Fort Wool, 
with military and political prisoners, the 
former to be left at Aikin's Landing. The 
Captain, pilot, and all hands of the crew 
did not number fifteen, the prisoners one 
hundred. Though none of the foiSner 
were armed, there was no feeling of fear 
or thought of danger. Nothing what- 

O o o 

ever was apprehended of warlike peril. 

The matter of hoisting said ' snowy 
banner ' proved, however, of some inter- 
est. Tliere xoas no such white flag on 
hoard. It had not occurred to Quarter- 
master or Captain to procure one. In- 
deed, until they were half a dozen miles 
up river, nothing had been said or done 
on the subject. Approaching the Union 
fleet off Newport News, the Captain was 
inquired of why he did not run up the 
drapeau Mane, to avoid being hailed and 
stopped, and called on to announce his 
character and errand. " Besides," it was 
added, "Admiral Wilkes may wish to for- 
ward letters by us to ships farther up, and 
if he sees the white flag approaching he 
will send a barge to deliver them without 
delay," — and he did, as the event proved ; 
wished not only to forward such letters, 
but to deliver certain packages of gold 
and bills of exchange for several Union 
officers imprisoned in Richmond, — "and 
moreover, Captain, Ave may in less than 
an hour, be within range of secesh rifles ; 
and you had better get up your white 
pocket-handkerchief before giving those 
rascals a chance to mistake our character." 

" Gracious ! " was his first exclamation, 
" I have not got any flag. What shall I 
do?" 

" Have you any sheets ? " 

" Plenty ; but they are very small — 
single berth sheets." 

" Stitch four of them together ; make 
the flag too large not to be seen a mile 
off; it is sometimes well to have more 
than ' three sheets in the wind.' " 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC. 383 



It was done very promptly, and prob- 
ably no larger flag of truce, (" to use," as 
Mr. Everett said, in his magnificent Get- 
tysburg funeral oration, " the language of 
the Confederate Secretary of War,") ever 
" flaunted the breeze," than that flaunted 
on this memorable occasion, and which 
was kept displayed aloft, both day and 
night, until the steamer's return from 
Aikin's Landing to the cover of the Fed- 
eral gunboats in the lower and wider por- 
tion of James River. 



River Devils for Carrying on War. 
The principal diver employed at Port 
Royal for cleaning the bottoms of the mon- 
itors, was named — and quite appropriately 
— Waters. A man of herculean strength 
and proportions, he became, when clad in 
his submarine armor, positively monstrous 
in size and appearance. A more singular 
sight than to see him roll or tumble into 
the water and disappear from sight, or 
popping up, blowing, as the air escaped 
from his helmet, like a young whale, could 
scarcely be imagined. Remaining for five 




River Devils for carrying on War. 

or six hours at a time under water, he had 
become almost amphibious. 

Waters had his own ideas of a joke, 
and when he had a curious audience would 
wave his scraper about as he bobbed 



around on the water, with the air of a 
veritable river god. One summer day, 
while he was employed scraping the hull 
of a monitor, a negro from one of the up- 
river plantations came along-side with a 
boat-load of water melons. While busy 
selling his melons, the diver came up, and 
rested himself on the side of the boat. 
The negro stared at the extraordinary ap- 
pearance thus suddenly coming out of the 
water, with alarmed wonder, but when the 
diver, with gigantic motion, seized one of 
the plumpest melons in the boat and dis- 
appeared under the water, the gurgling 
of the air from the helmet mixing with 
his muffled laughter, the fright of the ne- 
gro reached a climax. Hastily seizing his 
oars, without a thought of being paid for 
his melons, he put off at his best speed, 
nor was he ever seen in the vicinity of 
Station Creek again. Believing that the 
Yankees had brought river devils to aid 
them in carrying on the Avar, no persua- 
sion could tempt him again beyond the 
bounds of the plantation. 



Coffee for Jack. 

Everybody admired Admiral Farragut's 
heroism in climbing the top-mast and fas- 
tening himself thereto, in order to direct 
the great battle before Mobile. But there 
was another little incident in that contest 
which no less forcibly illustrated his high, 
heroic character, as a man and officer, and 
exhibited the secret of his courage and 
self-command, no matter what the stress 
or pressure of circumstances around him. 

" Admiral," said one of his officers, the 
night before the battle, " won't you con- 
sent to give Jack a glass of grog in the 
morning — not enough to make him drunk, 
but just enough to make him fight cheer- 
fully ? " 

"Well," replied the Admiral, "I have 
been to sea considerable, and have seen a 
battle or two, but I have never found that 
I wanted rum to enable me to do my duty. 
I will order two cups of good coffee to 
each man, at two o'clock, and at eight 



384 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION - 



o'clock I will pipe all hands to breakfast 
in Mobile Bay." 

And he did give Jack the coffee, and 
then went up to the mast-head and did the 
rest. 



Expensive Joke on Commander Bankhead 
by a Southern Dame. 

While the gunboat Pembina was at 
Beaufort, as one of the naval force sta- 
tioned there, a negro came one day, as 
the bearer of a package from his owner, 
a Mrs. Chisholm, to commander Bankhead. 
Commander B. had been very active with 
his vessel, performing many important 
services in' the conduct of the war, where 
the naval arm of his country had been 
brought into requisition. Some of these 
services, indeed, had been more than usu- 
ally painful, as it had been necessary for 
him to take up arms against personal 
friends, and even relatives, living in that 
vicinity. But for all that, he did not flinch 
from the paramount duty he owed to his 
country, as one of its sworn officers, in- 
trusted with its honor and defence. Among 
his acquaintances in that region was a 
Mrs. Chisholm, wife of a planter, who 
now wished to express her appreciation 
of his patriotism by sending him — what ? 
— a set of expensive coffin-handles ! with 
the intimation that the box they were in- 
tended to adorn was ready for his recep- 
tion, as soon as he should come that way. 
In order to play this unique joke, the fair 
rebel actually sacrificed one of her trusty 
slaves as the messenger, and who, finding 
himself thus conveniently among the can- 
didates for funeral honors, was contented 
to remain with them. 



Place for the Watch in Battle. 
In the fight in Mobile Bay, under Far- 
ragut, a piece of a rebel shell struck the 
after 11-inch gun carriage of one of the 
Union vessels, embedding itself in it, and 
a solid shot struck a marine, taking off his 
head as clean as though with a large sabre, 



at the same time striking the gun itself, 
deeply indenting and cracking it. 

The Captain of this gun was badly 
wounded by the splinters and by pieces 
of the man's head striking him in various 
parts of the body, bespattering him with 
blood and brains. But he experienced a 
most remarkable escape, similar instances 
of which have been occasionally recorded 
in the annals of war. His name was 
James Sheridan — a quarter-master, and a 
man of far more intelligence than is usually 
found among foremast men, being pretty 
well versed in navigation, understanding 
the use of all the ordinary nautical instru- 
ments, and was frequently to be seen on 
the forecastle of the vessel with watch 
and sextant in hand, either practicing him- 
self, or imparting instruction to any one 
who was willing to receive it. 

The watch Sheridan always wore in 
the left breast pocket of his blue shirt, 
consequently directly over the region of the 
heart, and when the shot struck the ma- 
rine's head off, it carried with it one of the 
brass buttons of his cap. This button, 
striking Sheridan's watch, produced a deep 
indentation on the outer edge or rim of it ; 
imparting a brassy hue to the furrow it 
made in its passage ; and there were also 
two other marks of blows on the back 
of the watch, which reached to the inner 
case. 

Had it not been for the w r atch, there is 
no doubt but that button would have 
caused another deep and painful wound, 
if not his death. But although severely 
wounded and bleeding, he woidd not leave 
his gun, and even though the gun had been 
struck, and rendered unsafe, if not unfit 
for use, he fired two more rounds of solid 
shot from it, and then went up on the 
poop to assist at the signals. The escape 
of Sheridan, by his watch being worn in 
the left breast pocket, shows that to be 
the right place for that instrument, instead 
of lower down on the right side — at least 
in battle. 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC. 



385 



Fight with the Iron Monster Tennessee. 

When it was reported to Admiral Far- 
ragut that the monster iron ram Tennessee 
was bearing down upon him, he hastened 
on deck with the remark, 

" He is after me ; let him come on if it 
must be so ; admiral for admiral — -flagship 
for flagship — Til fight him ! " 

The enemy was close at hand, and com- 
ing with all speed directly at the Hartford, 
evidently with the intention of running 
her down. The Admiral mounted to the 
maintop and surveyed his ground, arrang- 
ing hastily his plan of battle. This set- 
tled quietly in his own mind, he awaited 
the approach of the monster. Buchanan 
must have fancied that he had caught his 
adversary napping, from the apparent 
quiet that prevailed on Farragut's flagship. 
Not a gun was fired ; no crew was to be 
seen ; her broadside lay plumply exposed 
to the tremendous blow he was hastening 
to give. But suddenly there was a change. 

When the rebel had approached near 
enough to make these observations and 
fully appreciate them, the helm of the 
Hartford was put hard a port, her ma- 
chinery started, she described a segment 
of a circle, and, just as Buchanan had 
thought to strike her squarely amidship 
and cut her in two, as he was capable of 
doing, the towering brow of the noble old 
ship struck him a tremendous blow on his 
port quarter forward, that knocked every 
man aboard his craft off his feet. The 
force of the collision checked the headway 
of both vessels. The blow given by the 
Hartford was a glancing one, and the two 
vessels came up broadside to broadside. 
At this moment a full broadside from the 
Hartford was let go at her antagonist, but 
it was like throwing rubber balls against 
a brick wall, — nine-inch solid shot, though 
they were, and fired from the muzzles of 
her guns scarcely ten feet distant. Simul- 
taneously, Buchanan also discharged his 
broadside of four Brookes' rifles, which 
passed completely through the Hartford, 



and expended their force in the water be- 
yond. 

The Tennessee immediately put on 
steam again, and started to try her 
strength with some other of the wooden 
vessels. The Brooklyn lay nearest, and 
for that ship she headed. Here she was 
met with almost precisely the same recep- 
tion as with the Hartford. Instead of 
butting, she received a butt — both vessels 
came together, broadside to broadside : 
both broadsides were discharged, and the 
ram went on her way to try another, and 
another, and all of them, but with no bet- 
ter success. 

She now started to run back through 
the fleet, but here a new combination 
awaited her. The Monitors had come up, 
the appearance of which seemed for a 
moment to disconcert the rebel. From 
the first he had shown a wholesome dread 
of them, and by skillful manoeuvring and 
his greater speed had managed to avoid 
them. Now they hammered him to the 
utmost of their ability. The three had 
managed each to get a position in a differ- 
ent direction from each other, and which- 
ever way the ram turned he met these 
ugly and yet invincible foes. At first he 
was shy, and seemed irresolute as to what 
course to pursue, but finally seemed deter- 
mined to get out of the bad scrape by 
running through the fleet back to the 
friendly protection of Fort Morgan. 

Now, then, Admiral Farragut's admira- 
ble tactics developed themselves, and 
which he signaled to the whole fleet. The 
little Monitor Manhattan appeared directly 
in front of the ram to head him off. The 
rest of the fleet formed a circle about the 
rebel craft, and all commenced paying 
him their heaviest compliments. It was 
a terrible fire — every rebel ball that struck 
the Union vessels did execution, making 
great holes in their sides and reddening 
their decks with blood ; but every shot 
that struck the monster ram, glanced away 
like a rubber ball. To meet the exigency 



886 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



at this critical state of affairs, Farragut's 
vessels were put in motion, describing a 
circle about the rebel, the sloops and moni- 
tors being directed to ram her every time 
they came around, which was done with 
deadly effect. Each vessel chased its 
leader about, throwing a broadside into 
the enemy at every opportunity, and at 
every chance getting a ball at her. In 
this way the plucky fellow was terribly 
used. Every time one of the sloops came 
on to him the concussion was such as to 
throw the crew of the monster off their 
feet. The frequency with which she was 
thus rammed, and the continuous artillery 
fire that was rained upon her, so demoral- 
ized her men, that they are said to have 
begged to surrender, fearing, at every 
new shock, that they would be sent to the 
bottom. The course pursued by the ves- 
sels was such that the ram was unable to 
get range upon any of them so as to run 
them down, thus compelling the ram to 
remain passive. Or, if she attempted to 
escape the tormentors, an unlooked for 
enemy would come and strike her on 
the quarter, and throw her out of her 
course. During this melee, the Manhat- 
tan got one good shot in directly at the 
ram's broadside. The huge ball of iron 
struck fairly at the lower angle of the 
heavy casemates and penetrated into the 
inside, spending its force in the effort. 
This was the only shot that ever passed 
through her iron. 

Against such odds in number, -such can- 
nonading and punching and entanglement, 
the ram could not continue, and the for- 
midable craft finally succumbed, after a 
fight of something more than an hour. 
Buchanan directed his flag to be struck, 
the Chickasaw having the honor of receiv- 
ing the surrender of the ship. 



[Irishman called Jerry, who would eat 
I more souse, chew more tobacco, and do 
1 more growling than any two men in the 
ship. Jerry had had no previous expe- 
rience in his duties, having been rated to 
the position a day or two after he came 
aboard ; and great was the merriment, fore 
and aft, at the dismal squeaks he elicited 
from his boatswain's-whistle, when ordered 
to call away a boat or pipe " all hands up 
anchor ; " or, in the richest brogue, bawl 
out, " D'ye hear, there, forre an' aft, the 
meal-bag will lave to-morrow mornin', an' 
thar'll be an- opportunity to sind away 
letthers ! " Jerry, however, was good-na- 
tured, and generally bore all the fun at Ids 
expense without remonstrance ; but on 
one occasion the laugh was so uproarious 
against him, that, if possible, he would 
never permit any allusion to it. Some 
men of his watch were at work down in 
the fore-hold breaking out provisions, when 
duty on deck required a few more hands. 
Jerry went to the fore-hatch and sung 
out : 

" Forre-hould, there ! " 

" Hallo ! " came up from the depths. 

" How many of yez is there down 
there!" 

" Three of us." 

" Come up the half o' yez ! " 



Good Natured Jerry. 
One of the gunboats which was em- 
ployed in blockading the port of Wilming- 
ton, North Carolina, had for second boat- 
ewain's-mate a comical little carroty-haired 



Eig-ging up a " Long 1 Tom" out of Billy Luly. 
A vessel which went from New York 
bound for St. Thomas, one morning found 
herself being pursued by a Confederate 
privateer off King's Channels. The vil- 
lain was close in under land, in a small 
sloop, with about twenty-five men, and 
when he discovered his prey, the latter 
was nearly becalmed. He gave chase, 
and bore down very fast upon his supposed 
prize. There appeared to be no chance 
lor the vessel to effect her escape, under 
these circumstances, except by stratagem ; 
and there happening to be on board a man 
who could he metamorphosed into almost 
anything, some one proposed to the Cap- 
tain of the seemingly fated craft that he 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



387 



had better make a gun of Billy Lilly, and 
give chase in turn. They accordingly went 
to work, put a black cap on Billy's head, 
stretched him fore and aft on the keel of 
the boat, with a rope made fast to his heels, 
so that they could slide him on the centre 
of gravity freely, and pointed his head to 
the enemy. Having thus rigged up a 
' Long Tom,' the next thing was to fire it ; 
and this was done by discharging a pistol 
into a barrel, and raising a smoke by throw- 
ing ashes into the air. The trick succeed- 
ed — the sloop tacked and made off; the 
vessel hauled on the wind and pursued her 
close in under land, then tacked ship and 
stood into St. Thomas. Thus were twenty- 
five men driven off by four. 



Heroism of a Naval Engineer. 
During the engagement between the rebel 
ram Albemarle, and the Sassacus, a wooden 
gunboat, the latter received a shot through 
her boiler, which caused a large quantity 
of steam to escape directly into the ship. 
The situation was appalling. The shrieks 
of the scalded and dying, as they franti- 
cally rushed up from below, with their 
shrivelled flesh hanging in shreds upon 
their tortured limbs, the engine beyond con- 
trol, surging and revolving without guide 
or check, abandoned by all save one, who, 
scalded, blackened, sightless, still stood 
like a hero to his post. Alone, amidst that 
mass of unloosed steam and uncontrollable 
machinery, the chief engineer of the Sas- 
sacus, James M. Hobby, remained, calling 
to his men to return with him into the fire- 
room, to drag the fires from beneath the 
uninjured boiler, which was now in immi- 
nent danger of explosion. Let his name be 
long remembered by the two hundred be- 
ings whose lives were saved in that fear- 
ful moment by his more than heroic forti- 
tude and exertion. There were no means 
ot instantly cutting off communication be- 
tween the two boilers, and all the steam 
contained in both rushed out like a flash, 
exposing the ship to a most fearful catas- 
trophe, had the brave engineers been too 



late in drawing the heavy fires which 
threatened such destruction. Even after 
Mr. Hobby had been severely scalded by 
steam escaping from a shot-hole in the 
boiler, he stood by and worked the ship 
out of the reach of the enemy. 



Two Thing-s that Sounded Alike. 
There was a laughable story frequently 
repeated at Fortress Monroe, concerning a 
certain high Commander, who was pious 
enough in creed, but on certain occasions, 
when his dander was up, could do full jus- 




The Merrimac. 

tice to his feeling by giving them mouth. 
When, therefore, the Merrimac came 
down, the high official in question, was all 
motion ; he was highly excited, and now 
and then he eased his feelings by certain 
forcible ejaculations in the. shape of solid 
balls of nouns substantive. A contraband, 
who heard him, gave a very good descrip- 
tion of how the white-haired old man 
moved about in the storm of shells. " By 
golly, Boss," said he, " but de way dat old 
mass' off 'cer moved about day war a cau- 
tion. He went dis way and dat way ; he 
went hea' ar 1 he went dar ; but to hab 
hearn de old mass' swar! — Boss, its de 
solemn truf, dat de way de old un swar 
war plumb nigh like preaching." 



Sailors and Sweethearts on the Ohio. 

A sailor belonging to one of the United 

States gunboats doing Government service 

on the Ohio river, became enamored of a 

fair young damsel who superintended a 



388 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



sewing machine in a certain dressmaking 
establishment in Cincinnati. A description 
of the youthful pair, will he first in place. 
The sailor was tall, and exposure to the 
Southern Confederacy and plug tobacco 
had given an Olivia tinge to his cuticle. 
He donned his suit of Federal blue with 
becoming grace, and wore his cowhide 
boots thick upon him. The third day 
comes a frost — but this need not be antic- 
ipated. 

As the young lady was not wrapped 
up in the sailor to any alarming extent, 
in short, had not the tender passion 
within her excited toward him, a descrip- 
tion of her is scarcely necessary to the 
point of the story. It may just be said, 
however, that she was exceedingly intel- 
lectual with that sewing machine, and had 
an engaging way in doing general house- 
work and fulfilling the multifarious little 
duties peculiar to her sex. 

The sailor, however, loved her, and 
what's more he didn't know it. She never 
told her love — nor anybody else — what her 
feelings were toward the sailor, till one 
autumnal afternoon, during the fore part 
of October, when — but this is anticipa- 
ting. 

One day, while her maiden meditations 
were fancy-freeing to the hum of her ma- 
chine, (she was wont to hum there) a 
billet-doux, enclosed in a Government en- 
velope, was placed before her. It came 
from her would-be love — the gallant sail- 
or-boy — and notified her to be in readiness, 
for on the coming afternoon she might ex- 
pect him to " call for her." Anticipating 
a visit to the matinee at Pike's, or a street 
railroad excursion at least, she paid a lit- 
tle more attention to her personal appear- 
ance than usual, on the afternoon named, 
and Avhen the tall, tanned, timid, trembling 
tar appeared, fresh and trim in Uncle 
Sam's naval insignia, she was resplendent 
in new harness, with all her perfections on 
her head. ' The loyal tar, so true to the 
' Union ' sentiment, had a shipmate with 
him — had she caught a tar-tar? — and was 



accompanied by a third person, who proved 
to be a justice of the peace. 

Explanations set in. Her sailor boy, 
clad in loyal garb, had come to marry her ; 
that's what he meant by calling for her. 
He wanted her to be the sharer of his 
shares, and the jawer of his joys. She 
shrieked, tore the basting out of a dress- 
waist that had been cut bias, laughed hys- 
terically, and said she "couldn't see it." 
Alas for the cause of the Union ! The 
sailor implored. Her attention was per- 
suasively solicited to several packages of 
postal currency, two dollars and a half in 
each package, the savings of six months 
gunboating in behalf of the Stars and 
Stripes. She gazed upon said packages 
with undazzled eye. He assumed a de- 
spairing look, and darkly hinted at the 
aqueous facilities always in the reach of 
gunboaters, for washing off this mortal evil ! 
She was inexorable still. The sailor, find- 
ing his matrimonial scheme a dead failure, 
fled from the destroyer of his peace, and 
was last seen burying his woes (also his 
nose) in a tumbler. The maiden, happy 
and free, still continued to paddle her own 
— sewing machine. 



Chase of the Sovereign. 

Commodore Davis's fleet of Federal ves- 
sels left Fort Pillow for Memphis, on the 
5th of June. I was sitting at dinner, (says 
' Carleton,' a spirited and agreeable writer, 
and author of one of the best books on the 
war,) with the Commodore and Captain 
Phelps, on board the Benton, when an 
orderly thrust his head into the cabin, and 
said : 

" Sir, there is a fine steamer ahead of us." 

We are on deck in an instant. The 
boatswain is piping all hands to quarters. 

" Out with that gun ! Quick ! " shouts 
Lieutenant Bishop. The brave tars seize 
the ropes, the trucks creak, and the great 
eleven-inch gun, already loaded, is out in 
a twinkling. Men are bringing up shot 
and shell. The deck is cleared of all su- 
perfluous furniture. 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



389 



There she is, a mile distant, a beautiful 
steamer, head up-stream. She sees us, and 
turns her bow. Her broadside comes 
round, and we read " Sovereign " upon 
her wheelhouse. We are on the upper 
deck, and the muzzle of the eleven-inch 
gun is immediately beneath us. A great 
flash comes in our faces. We are in a 
cloud, stifled, stunned, gasping for breath, 
our ears ringing ; but the cloud is blown 



go, the tug puffing and wheezing as if it 
hud the asthma. 

" Through the chute ! " ^houts Captain 
Phelps. Chute is a French word, mean- 
ing a narrow passage, not the main chan- 
nel of the river. The Sovereign is in the 
main channel, but the Spitfire has the 
shortest distance. The tug cuts the water 
like a knife. She comes out just astern 
of the steamer. 




Gunboat Fixht at Fort Pillow. 



away, and we see the shot throw up 
the water a mile beyond the Sovereign. 
Glorious ! We will have her. Another, 
not so good. Another, still worse. 

The Louisville, Carondelet, and Cairo 
opened fire. But the Sovereign is a fast 
sailer, and is increasing the distance. 

" The Spitfire will catch her ! " says the 
Pilot. A wave of the hand, and the Spit- 
fire is alongside, running up like a dog to 
its master. Lieutenant Bishop, Pilot Bix- 
by, and a gun crew jump on board the tug, 
which carries a boat howitzer. Away they 



" Bang ! " goes the howitzer. The shot 
falls short. "Bang!" again in a twinkling. 
Better. " Bang ! " It goes over the Sov- 
ereign. 

" Hurrah ! Bishop will get her ! " The 
crews of the gunboats dance with delight, 
and swing their caps. " Bang ! " Right 
through her cabin. The Sovereign turns 
towards the shore, and runs plump against 
the bank. The crew, all but the cook, 
take to the woods, and the steamer is 
ours. 

The crew on board the Sovereign had 



390 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



been stopping at the farm-houses along the 
river, setting lire to the cotton on the plan- 
tations. They did it in the name of the 
Confederate government, that it might not 
fall into the hands of the Yankees. 



Eagle at the Mast-Head. 

As the fleet of Federal transports was 

passing down the Chesapeake Bay to 

Hampton Roads, on that beautiful day in 

October when the vessels first got under 




Fleet of Gunboats in the James Kivcr. 

weigh at Annapolis, a large bald eagle 
came sweeping out from the shore of Ma- 
ryland, and, soaring grandly high in the 
air above the fleet, finally alighted on the 
mast-head of the Atlantic, the head-quar- 
ters of the army. In an instant, all eyes 
were upon the great and graceful visitor, 
and conjectures were busy as to whether 
he were a loyal bird, come to give his 
blessing at parting, or some cunning seces- 
sion rooster, intent on spying out the 
Federal strength. The brave men gave 
the bird the benefit of the doubt ; an offi- 
cer peremptorily staying the hand of a 
soldier who would have shot him, and the 
omen of his appearance at such a time 
and in such a manner was accepted as 
au<nirino- the full success of the enterprise. 



she won't, by the courageous conduct of 
the wife of Captain McGilvery, master 
of the ship Mary Goodell, which was cap- 
tured by a rebel privateer and subse- 
quently released, and arrived at Portland 
Mrs. McGilvery was on the voyage with 
her husband, and when the ship was 
boarded by the privateers, she was asked 
by them for a supply of small stores for 
their use, as they were rather short. She 
immediately replied that she had nothing 
but arsenic, and 
would gladly give 
\ them a supply, but 
that they could have 
nothing else from 
ler. Seeing the 
mtional flag near at 
land, they started 
o secure it, when 
she sprung forward, 
and grasping the 
flag, threw it into a 
chest, and placing 
herself over it, de- 
clared they should 
not have it unless 
they took her with it. Finding the lady 
rather too spunky for them, the despera- 
does were content to retire without fur- 
ther molesting her. 



Rather too Spunky for Them. 
Something may be learned of the spirit 
which is in woman, when she will or when 



Tete-a-Tete with the Old Admiral. 
At the gathering in the Brooklyn Acad- 
emy of Music, in honor of Admiral Farra- 
gut, in December, 1864, on his return 
after his brilliant naval achievements in 
the South, a most enthusiastic ovation was 
given him. While the main portion of 
the company were enjoying themselves up 
stairs, a pleasant scene was enacting for 
a short period, in one of the private 
apartments below — the Admiral and a few 
ladies and gentlemen partaking of a colla- 
tion prepared for the distinguished guest. 
In a tete-a-tete with a lady, an explanation 
was elicited from the Admiral of his being 
lashed at the mast-head of the Hartford. 
" Admiral," said the lady, " do tell me 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC 



391 



if it was true, as they said, that you were 
lashed to the mast down at Mobile Bay ? " 
" Well," said the Admiral, with the art- 
lessness of a child, " I'll tell you all about 
it. You know in a fight the smoke of the 
guns lies on the water, and, naturally, I 
would want to see over it to know what 
was going on. Well, I would jump upon 
a box — so high," (indicating with his 
hand) ; " then I would get up a little 




Farragut Lashed to the Mast. 



higher ; and by and by I got up to where 
they said. I suppose I was two hours 
getting as high as that. I had a little 
rope that I had lashed around me, just to 
keep me from falling, in case I should get 
hurt. Every one, you know, is liable to 
get hurt in a fight." 

" When have you heard from your 
friend Admiral Buchanan ? " asked a gen- 
tleman 

" Oh, I saw a letter from him yesterday. 
He complains bitterly of his hard treat- 
ment, as he calls it, in Fort Lafayette, and 
wants me to use my influence to get him 
in the Naval Hospital. They (the rebels) 
all seem to think a good deal of me," 
continued the Admiral, with charming 
naivete, "• although I have done so much to 
hurt them." 

" Buchanan didn't lose his leg," he re- 



marked, in correction of an observation of 
one of the company ; " the surgeon saved 
that for him, although we tried our best to 
knock it off. Tell you what," he went 
on, " I was glad enough to see that flag 
come down on the ram." 

" Which do you like best, Admiral — 
being afloat or ashore ? " inquired another 
lady. 

" Well," he replied, " I enjoylife every- 
where. I take the world as I find it." 

" Well, Admiral, what do you think of 
the war ? " was another question — there 
not being often a chance to " pump " at 
such an illustrious handle. 

" It's all right. We've got 'em. They'll 
begin to show it soon." He expressed 
great hopes of the success of the expedi- 
tion that had recently sailed. "' Porter," 
said he, " is a noble fellow. I know him 
well, and he will not disappoint the 
country." 

He was congratulated on his probable 
elevation to the rank of Vice Admiral, in 
pursuance of the resolution before Con- 
ress. He replied : " Yes, I'm much oblig- 
ed to them. I'm thankful to everybody." 

About twelve o'clock the old hero rose 
to go, and upon being offered an escort to 
New York he said playfully, 

" When I am poking around down 
South, then I often want a pilot; but 
around here I am at home, and can paddle 
' my own canoe." 

He at length consented to accept a 
" convoy," as he called it, but insisted that 
it should be a " single " man. Said he, 
jocosely, " I know Avhat good wives say 
sometimes when their husbands are out 
too late." 



Astonishing- Ignorance on board a Gun- 
boat. 

The humors of the Federal Navy were 
neither few nor inferior during the period 
of its splendid service in behalf of the old 
flag. But not all of these humors were 
strictly in the belligerent line, as the fol- 
lowing will show. The excellent gunboat 



392 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



' We-no-shepokes-slow ' had been out of 
port quite a considerable length of time. 
One of the messes was the owner of some 
butter, which, following rules and regula- 
tions naval, outranked by seniority all 
other butter that came upon the ship. 
While admitting its abstract right to do so, 
they nevertheless voted that it had clearly 
no right to outrank them to the extent it 
did ; and consequently various curious 
chemical processes were detailed, each of 
which was equal to the task of deceiving 
them into the belief that the new product 
would " taste like butter just from the 
churn." The caterer, being a man of ex- 
tensive family experience, had the ear of 
the mess, and boldly asserted that first 
washing in diluted chlorid of lime, fol- 
lowed by a cleansing bath of pure water, 
was an Infallible cure. But where should 
they get the chlorid aforesaid? The 
doctor was appealed to, who had no chlorid 
of lime, but had what was just as good — 
chlorid potassium. Caterer was not posted 
on chlorid potassium, but, considering the 
authority good, gave the steward instruc- 
tions how to manipulate the strong. At 
dinner time he brought upon the table two 
plates in appearance of yellow butter, in 
reality of beautiful soap. The impertur- 
bable Ensign H — got the first mouthful, 
but with a slight grimace swallowed his 
disgust and the soap together. With an 
anathema on that hollow tooth, he passed 
the dish to the fastidious paymaster with 
eloquent laudations. Paymaster took the 
bait unsuspiciously, but without making a 
sign was taken sea-sick, and rushed fran- 
tically to the side. When all that could 
be were sold and marked, the joke was 
saddled upon the doctor and caterer, each 
of whom accuse the other of immense 
chemical ignorance to this day. 

Signaling for Sherman— Meeting of the 
Warriors. 

The United States revenue cutter, Ne- 
maha, Lieutenant Commanding Samuel 
S. Warner, General Foster's flag-boat, 



left Hilton Head on the morning of De- 
cember 12th, 1864, to go down the coast 
with General Foster and staff, to endeav- 
or to open communication with General 
Sherman, (who was expected to have 
arrived at the head of his great army 
just marched through Georgia,) going 
through to Fort Pulaski and thence 
through the marsh to Warsaw Sound, 
looking toward the main canal to discover 
some traces of Sherman's advance. None 
were observed, so the General proceeded 
outside and entered Ossabaw Sound, where 
the gunboat Flag, on blockading duty, Avas 
communicated with. Lieutenant George 
A Fisher, of the Signal Corps, United 
States Army, was here left on board the 
Flag to proceed with his party up the 
Ogeechee, and endeavor to communicate 
with Sherman, if he should approach the 
coast at that point. 

The Nemaha returned to Warsaw and 
moved up the Wilmington river, anchoring 
just out of range of a Confederate bat- 
tery. During the night, rockets were 
thrown up by Captain Jesse Merrill, Chief 
of the Signal Corps, to announce his pres- 
ence to General Sherman's signal officers, 
but elicited no response. 

Lieutenant Fisher was more successful. 
The Flag fired six guns in rapid succes- 
sion, from a heavy gun, as a signal, and 
then Lieutenant Fisher threw up several 
rockets and closely examined the horizon 
over the mainland for the response. At 
about three o'clock on the morning of the 
13th, after a rocket had been discharged 
from the Flag, a little stream of light was 
observed to shoot up in the direction of 
the Ogeechee, and quickly die away. 
Another rocket was immediately sent up 
from the flag-ship, and a second stream 
of light was seen in the same position as 
the first. It then became a question 
whether or not they were rebel signals 
to delude the Federal officers. 

At about seven o'clock, the navy tug 
Dandelion, Acting Master Williams, took 
Lieutenant Fisher and his party, and Cap- 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



393 



tain Williamson, of the flag-ship, and 
proceeded up the Ogeech?e to a point 
within sight of Fort McAllister and the 
batteries on the Little Ogeeehee. Here 
Lieutenant Fisher took a small boat and 
proceeded up as far as possible without 
drawing the enemy's fire. A careful re- 
connoisance was made of the fort and the 
surrounding woods, from which proceeded 
the reports of musketry, and the attention 
of the garrison seemed to be directed in- 
land entirely. A flag, which seemed like 
that of the Union, Avas seen flying from a 
house four miles off, and on more careful 
examination the stars were plainly visible? 
and all doubt of the character of the flag 
was at once removed. It was the flag that 
had floated over General Howard's head- 
quarters at Atlanta, and now flamed out on 
the sea coast, within eight miles of the city 
of Savannah. Lieutenant Fisher at once 
returned to the tug, and moved up to 
an opening out of range of Fort Mc- 
Allister, when, from the top of the 
pilot-house of the Dandelion, the Ameri- 
can flag could be distinctly seen. A white 
signal flag was as once raised by Lieuten- 
ant Fisher, and at once a signal flag of 
like nature was waved, and communica- 
tion opened. 

Lieutenant Fisher signalled — 

" Who are you ? " 

" McClintock, chief signal officer of 
General Howard," was signalled back. 

A message was at once sent to General 
Sherman, tendering all aid from General 
Foster and Admiral Dahlgren. 

General Sherman then signalled that he 
was investing Fort McAllister, and want- 
ed to know if the boat could help with 
her heavy guns. Before any reply could 
be given, General Sherman had signalled 
to General Hazen, of the Fifteenth Corps, 
to take the fort immediately. 

In five minutes the rally had "been 
sounded by the bugles. One volley of 
musketry was heard, and the next moment 
the three brigade flags of Hazen's Divis- 
ion were placed almost simultaneously on 



the parapets of Fort McAllister. The 
fort was captured in twenty minutes 
after General Sherman's order to take it 
was given. General Sherman then sent 
word that he would be down that night 
and to look out for his boat. The tu<* 
immediately steamed down to Ossabaw 
Sound, to find General Foster or Admiral 
Dahlgren ; but they not being there, des- 
patches were sent to them at Warsaw, an- 
nouncing General Sherman's intended 
visit, and the tug returned to its old posi- 
tion. While approaching the fort again a 
small boat was seen coming down. It 
was hailed with — 

" What boat is that ? " and the welcome 
response came back — 

" Sherman." 

It soon came alongside, and out uf the 
little dugout, paddled by two men, stepped 
General Sherman and General Howard, 
and stood on the deck of the Dandelion. 
The great leader was received with cheer 
after cheer. 

The correspondents for the press who 
accompanied General Sherman, have pub- 
lished, in vol. form, their admirable reports. 



Bibles on Shipboard,— Touching- Scene. 

What may well be called a pleasing 
scene occurred on board the steamer Can- 
ada during her passage from Dubuque 
toward St. Louis, in the fall of 18G1. 
One Saturday evening, while many of the 
passengers were engaged in conversation, 
others whiling away their time at ' euchre,' 
while some, more rude, perliaps, with the 
ribald jest and ungentlemanly oath, were 
using up the evening, a young man seated 
himself at one of the tables, and engaged 
in reading his Bible. Another, and still 
another, took his place around this tempo- 
rary altar, untill nearly all of that little 
band of soldiers, numbering about twenty, 
were reading the Scriptures. An aged 
man took his station in their midst. He 
had a benign and venerable air, his hoary 
locks proclaiming that many a winter had 
passed over his head. There, those boys, 



891 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



with that old man, formed a group, the 
sight of which was indeed adapted to en- 
chain the eye and to win the heart. The 
creaking machinery of the boat, the dirge- 
like music of the wind, were loud ; but, 
above the clatter and confusion, the 
prayers of those boys assuredly were 
heard by the Highest. 



The Day and the Event. 
"Day 19. — Morning prayer: Psalm 
XCV. — Venite, exultemus — ' come, let 
us sing unto the Lord ; let us heartily re- 
joice in the strength of our salvation. 
Let us come before his presence with 
thanksgiving, and show ourselves glad in 
him with psalms.'" This was the opening 
psalm for the day, said or sung in many 
Christian churches, by minister and people 
responsively, at the hour when the Kear- 
sarge, just out of French waters, was 
rounding-to to meet the Alabama. When 
the morning service was closing, the Ala- 
bama lay a harmless mass of wood and 
iron at the bottom 
of the ocean, and her 
commander, saved 
from drowning by 
the clemency of his 
conqueror, was, with 
his treacherous ally, 
approaching the 
British shore, where 
he might, had he 
been piously inclin- 
ed, have listened to 
the evening service 
for that day, closing 
with the last re- 
sponse of the Miseri- 
cordium et judicium 

— " I shall soon destroy all the ungodly 
that are in the land ; that I may root out 
all the wicked doers from the city of the 
Lord." It is well known that the fact of 
the fight between the Kearsarge and the 
Alabama, on the Sabbath day, was not 
sought or arranged for by Captain Win- 
slow to take place then. Having received 



notice that Captain Semmes, of the Ala- 
bama, encouraged by Mason, Slidell, and 
other Confederate minions abroad, intend- 
ed to come out, at some time, and fight, 
Captain Winslow held himself in readi- 
ness to meet his antagonist at any day or 
horn*. Perhaps the holy day dould in no oth- 
er way have been so peculiarly hallowed as 
by the summary and complete destruction 
of such a craft as the Alabama. Query : 
Did that very devout man, John Slidell, 
who was so busy with his secession 
schemes in that part of Europe, join in 
the ' Venite exultemus,' as his morning de- 
votional exercise for the day in question ? 
It would be interesting, too, to know the 
hoary intriguer's religious meditations 
when night closed in upon him ! 



Up the Cumberland— Grit of the Old Major. 
The opening of the Cumberland river, 
free from secession enemies, was a joyous 
event to the Tennessee Unionists, and the 
demonstrations were enthusiastic beyond 




Gunboat Kansas. 

all description. Here and there, however? 
a contrary spirit was manifested. As one 
of the Federal gunboats passed up the 
river, there was at one of the large houses 
a group of ladies observed, who stood 
looking at the boat. " Hurrah for the 
Union ! " yelled old Major — , from the roof 
of the pilot-house. No response from the 



NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



395 



ladies. "Hurrah for the Stars and 
Stripes ! " yelled the Major again. Still 
no response. " Why don't you wave your 
handkerchiefs ? " angrily roared the Ma- 
jor, while the decks and guards now ex- 
ploded with uncontrollable roars of laugh- 
ter. " Haven't you got any feelings ? 
Secesh ! Secesh ! (pointing the finger, 
after the manner of little boys, crying 
shame,) Secesh ! Secesh ! O you villains ! 
Hurrah for the Union ! Death to rebels ! 
Hail Columbia ! " &c, &c. 



Reinforcement of Fort Pickens— How it was 
Done. 

Why and how Fort Pickens was so 
skillfully reinforced is thus made to ap- 
pear : The gallant Slemmer, with a hand- 
ful of men to garrison an extensive fortifi- 
cation, having for some time suspected that 
the secessionists were tampering with his 
nien, intercepted a couple of letters which 
had been smuggled into Pickens and ad- 
dressed to a sergeant. The writer offered 
this man the sum of two thousand dollars, 
and a commission, which would make him 
the companion of the gentleman of the 
South in arms ; and, as an inducement to 
the faithful fellows who so long had held 
those stone walls against thousands, five 
hundred dollars were promised to every 
private who at that price would become a 
traitor to the United States. The men, 
true soldiers as they were, remained stead- 
fast to their colors. The sergeant was 
forthwith sent a prisoner to the command- 
er of the naval force lying off the harbor. 
That very day, a messenger arrived from 
Washington, bringing a verbal order to re- 
inforce ; this messenger had been captured, 
but had destroyed his dispatches, the con- 
tents of which luckily he knew. The or- 
der was now passed to throw into Pickens 
all the artillery, soldiers, and marines in 
the squadron. How the work was done, 
the surgeon's story which here follows will 
tell :— 

We had shoved off, and were struggling 
hard against the tide to reach the steam 
25 



frigate that was to tow us in. At length 
we reached her, and I seized the man- 
ropes to climb her steep sides. " Sure, 
and that's a cruel limb, Docther, an' you 
wid yere sthiff ould legs." " Watch till 
she rises," said the coxswain, " now's your 
time, Sir." I hauled my rheumatic limbs 
painfully up, trusting to my hand, and 
reached the deck. Here artillery-men 
and marines were assembled ; and on deck 
I left them to go below, where cigars, cof- 
fee, and chat awaited me, and in which I 
indulged until the steamer came to anchor, 
and I was summoned to repair to another 
and smaller steam vessel which was to tow 
us in further. It was two o'clock in the 
morning when we got aboard the small 
steamer, and ran in toward the shore of 
Santa Rosa. The first detachment of 
boats must have landed its party under 
cover of the obscurity; for the young 
moon had long since gone down, leaving 
the sentinel stars to give us a faint light. 
On we steamed, and by-and-by came to 
and dropped anchor at least two miles from 
Fort Pickens. " Come, men, bear a hand 
— no time to lose ! " said the Captain ; and 
down the steamer's sides tumbled the men 
into the boats. A senior surgeon and I 
jumped into the Captain's gig, into which 
be followed, and away we went — two long 
miles to pull against a tideway. " Lively 
stroke, lads, give way ! " The oars bent, 
and every blade shone as it flashed through 
the phosphorescent water. On, on, on! 
How long those miles seemed ! We con- 
versed gravely, occasionally looking aft to 
see whether the boats were keeping way 
with us. We conveused gravely, for I 
suppose we were all speculating on what 
might be the manner of our return. I 
take no shame to myself in confessing that 
I did not hold a very cheerful view of the 
expedition. The first detachment of boats 
was returning as we started. Night had 
favored them, while we — ! "Rather 
bright to the eastward," said I. " Yes," 
said the Captain, " we'll have morning on 
us directly ; strike out, men ! " Morning, 



396 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



thought I, find we were not more than half 
way. The men pulled like good fellows, 
we keeping near the shore to avoid the 
strength of the current. Near, yet just 
without easy rifle range ; for the chaparral 
afforded excellent cover for riflemen. It 
was so light now that I could see my 
hands, and morning was coming on more 
rapidly than I ever knew it to break be- 
fore. 

" Give way, lads ! — whose oar is that 
out of water ? " 

"Smith's, Sir; he's a haulin' off his pea- 
jacket, Sir." 

" Give way ! " 

The Captain had been searching with 
his glass for the fort. At length he said : 
" Ah, there it is ! " An opaline light by 
this time pervaded the eastern sky, reveal- 
ing our boats to any watchful eye. I was 
gazing into the distance to catch a glimpse 
of the fort. I soon made out its dark out- 
line, and almost at the same moment I, 
Bob Harding, saw another sight, which to 
me was of particular interest. It was the 
white mass of the hostile Fort McRae, on 
the side of the harbor opposite to Pickens, 
and, like Pickens, commanding the en- 
trance. The white mass of masonry, 
dotted regularly with dark embrasures, 
occupied my attention exceedingly as our 
boats pulled right for it ; for our Captain 
had, it seems, determined to land in front 
of Pickens, on a beach that McRae might 
have swept with a storm of shot and shell. 
It was quite light enough by this time for 
the enemy to distinguish every boat, nay, 
every man. " Give way !" As Ave round- 
ed a sandy point right under the hostile 
guns, I kept my eyes fixed on four embras- 
ures in McRae. By Jove ! how big and 
black they seemed ! I watched them ; for 
I felt assured that before Ave should have 
pulled much farther one or more sheets of 
red flame would burst forth, and then -those 
Avho lived Avould be swimming for it. No 
one spoke. Bright, brighter, greAV the 
east. The oars buckled and the waters 
hissed as Ave dashed toAvard the beach. 



Soon the boats found bottom. Out jumped 
the men and marines ; and Ave officers, 
mounted on the shoulders of some of the 
boat's crew, landed, the surf overtaking 
and Avetting us all. The men dreAv up on 
the beach. Surely, thought I, iioav McRae 
will open upon us. Now's their chance. 
We started to lead the men across the sand 
to the sally-port of the fortress. Bang ! 

"Who fired that musket?" said the 
Captain, at Avhose side I stood. 

" It's the ould Docther, Sir," said Pri- 
vate Brennan ; " he's filled my muskit wid 
tebacky cuds, an' I'm afther emptyin' it, 
Sir. Och ! but he's a powerful man wid 
the tebacky, ony Avay." 

" Keep silence there," said the Captain 
— "come on, men ! Here you are ! Tum- 
ble in ! Sailor men, back to the boats ? " 

Into the fort went the marines, led by my 
friend, the surgeon, Avhile the Captain and 
I made for the boats, and started to return 
to our ships, with the Lieutenant, who had 
staid on the beach to guard our flotilla. 
As Ave passed McRae I said to myself, 
" Now it's coming, Bob ! " I Avatched the 
embrasures. They looked twice as ugly as 
a ship's port-holes, and every gun seemed 
pointed to my devoted head. I knew that 
I Avould be the only one hit, for at me they 
aimed. The men pulled cheerily, and 
after a Avhile I made up my mind that Ave 
Avere to get back to our floating homes with 
unbroken limbs. The east Avas glowing 
with a warm, rosy light ; the morning Avas 
lovely. 

" Are you one of those avIio admire sun- 
rise ? " said the Captain. 

" No, Sir, I am not ; and I must say 
that this morning it Avas especially unwel- 
come. A few minutes since I Avould have 
been glad of an hour more of darkness." 

The Captain laughed. 

" Did not you expect McRae to open on 
us ? " asked I. 

" Most certainly," replied he. 

TItat is the Avay that Fort Pickens Avas 
reinforced from the Federal squadron on 
the morning of the thirteenth of April, 






NAVAL EXPLOITS, CHASES, ESCAPES, PRIZES, ETC, 



397 



1861, by daylight, in face of a fully armed 
fort and other batteries — reinforced while 
a large body of men held the opposite 
shore. 



"Willing- to part with his other Leg-. 
The river at Port Hudson makes a ma- 
jestic curve. At the memorable siege, re- 
sulting in the capture of that sti-onghold, 
rebel cannon were planted along the con- 
cave brow of the crescent-shaped bluffs of 
the eastern shore, while beneath the bluff, 
near the water's edge, there was another 
scries of what were called water-batteries 




-f- • \-V- ■ 

Willing to part with his other leg. 

lining the bank. As the Federal ships en- 
tered this curve, following the channel 
which swept close to the eastern shore, 
they were, one after the other, exposed to 
the most terrible enfilading fire from all 
the batteries following the line of the 
curve. This was the most desperate point 
of the conflict ; for here it was almost lit- 
erally fighting muzzle to muzzle. The 
rebels discharged an incessant cross-fire of 
grape and canister, to which the heroic 
squadron replied with double-shotted guns. 
Never did ships pass a more fiery ordeal. 

Lieutenant-Commander Cummings, the 
executive officer of the ship Richmond, 



1 was standing with his speaking-trumpet in 
his hand cheering the men, with Alden by 
his side, when there was a .simultaneous 
flash and roar, and a storm of shot came 
crashing through the bulwarks from a rebel 
battery, which they could almost touch 
with their ramrods. Both of the officers 
fell as if struck by lightning. The Cap- 
tain was simply struck down by the wind- \ 
age, and escaped unharmed. The speak- 
ing-trumpet in Commander Cummings' 
hand Avas battered flat, and his left leg 
was torn off just below the knee. As he 
fell heavily upon the dack, in his gushino- 
blood, he exclaimed — 

" Put a tourniquet on my leg, boys. 
Send my letters to ray wife. Tell her 
that I fell in doing my duty ! " 

As they took him below, and into the 
surgeon's room, already filled with the 
wounded, he looked around upon the un- 
fortunate group, and said — 

" If there are any here hurt worse than 
I am, let them be attended to first ! " 

His shattered limb was immediately am- 
putated. Soon after, as he lay upon Lis 
couch, exhausted by the operation and 
faint from the loss of blood, he heard the 
noise of the escape of steam as a rebel 
shot penetrated the boiler. Inquiring the 
cause, and learning that the ship had 
become disabled, he exclaimed, with fer- 
vor — 

" I would willingly give my other leg, if 
we could but pass those batteries ! " 

The hero died of his wound a few days 
after. 



Daring- Attack upon a Paymaster's Boat. 

The following record is only one among 
very many which illustrate the skill and 
valor exhibited by our officers, whether 
duty called them to the performance of 
gallant deeds on the land or on the sea. 

Captain Spencer, aid to General Wool, 
received information one day, from two 
ladies who went from Norfolk to Fortress 
Monroe with a flag of truce, that near 
midnight a six-oared boat was to leave 



898 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



Norfolk for Richmond with money for the 
payment of the rebel soldiers. He re- 
quested permission of General "Wool to at- 
tempt their capture, but was told not to 
place too much confidence in the informa- 
tion thus received. Nevertheless, permis- 
sion was given, and selecting two good 
oarsmen on whom he could rely, he started 
at dark, with oars muffled, and awaited the 
coming of the enemy's boat. He had pre- 
viously given direction to his men to pull 
directly for the boat, and, on the moment 
of striking, to ' back water ' instantly. 

About midnight the boat was heard, and 
taking his station in the bows, with a 9-inch 
shell in his hands, he gave the order to 
6 give way.' The moment his bows struck 
the rebel boat, he threw the shell into the 
middle of it, and was himself drawn back, 
luckily receiving no injury from the explo- 
sion. Not so the boat and occupants, how- 
ever, the former of which was broken hi 



two, and the latter were scattered in all 
directions in the water, though not before 
discharging their pistols at him, two balls 
going through his cap, and three perforat- 
ing his coat. The men were then told that 
if they submitted quietly, they would be 
saved, otherwise he would leave them to 
their fate. 

They preferred to submit, and, arming 
himself with his pistol in one hand and a 
dirk (taken by him at the battle of Bull 
Run from a secesh) in the other, he took 
them into his boat, one by one, handcuffing 
them as they were pulled in. In addition 
to which, from the stern of the enemy's 
boat, which floated, he took eleven hun- 
dred dollars in gold, and five thousand dol- 
lars in their worthless paper money. It 
was with difficulty that he reached the 
fort, the gunwale of the boat being almost 
level with the water, on account of its in- 
creased freight. 




PAET V.— VARIETIES OE THE WAR. 



PART FIFTH. 

ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION— MILITARY ORGANIZATION 
AND EQUIPMENT, DISCIPLINE, DRILL AND PARADE, RE- 
VEILLE, REVIEWS, ORDNANCE, PASSES, PAROLES, 
FURLOUGHS, COUNTERSIGNS, ETC. 



Mustering in ; Splendid Specimens of Soldierly Movement ; Dexterous Handling 
of Arms; Evolutions, Comical and Piquant; Queer Dilemmas; Uncouth Sub- 
jects and Verdant Victims ; Grotesque Performances ; Novel Terms and Phra- 
seology; Bivouac Sights; Tasks and Pleasantries, Mistakes, Jocularities. 
Facetiae, &c., &c. 



" Twenty millions held at Bay ! 

Why, Northmen, why ? 
Less than half maintain the flag ! 
Why, Northmen, why ? " 
Haman's gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious men who would involve their country in civil war, and 
all the evils in its train, that they might reign and ride on its whirlwinds and direct the storm. — Andrew Jackson. 
That's right, boys ! make your coffee, break the orders, and — catch the shells. — General Rosecrans. 
I feel that I was born for something better than mending old clothes. — Burnside, token a tailor's apprentice. 
You can't go in and keep your cigar. — Soldier on guard duty, to Lieutenant-General Grant. 

I don't care a ; if McClellan himself was here without the countersign, he should mark time till the corpo- 
ral comes. Quick time ; march '. — Soldier on guard at Camp Joe Holt, to Gen. Nelson. 



Challenging: the Sentinel. 

was the custom of 
the Colonel of the 
Eighty-fifth Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers, to 
make the rounds eve- 
ry night in person, 
and satisfy himself 
that every sentinel 
was at his post and 
doing his duty. On 
one occasion, while 
in the discharge of that self-imposed duty, 
he approached a post, and received the 
challenge as usual, " Who comes there ? " 
" Friend with the countersign," was the 
Colonel's reply. 

Here the poof sentinel was at a loss. 
The rest of his instructions had been for- 
gotten. The Colonel was a very particu- 




lar man, and insisted that every thing 
should be done exactly right. So, after 
spending considerable time in the endeavor 
to impress the ' role ' upon the mind of the 
sentinel, suggested that he would act as 
sentinel while the other should personate 
the Colonel. ' Blinky ' — for such was this 
soldier's surname in the regiment — moved 
back a few paces and then turned to ap- 
proach the Colonel. " "Who comes there ? " 
challenged the Colonel. 

" Why, Blinky; don't you know me,. 
Colonel?" 

This was too much for even so patient 
and forbearing a man as Colonel Howell.. 
"As green as verdigris," thought he. The- 
gun was handed over, and the Colonel 
passed on to the next post, meditating 
upon the vanity of all earthly things in 
general, and of things military, in particular. 



402 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



"Mark Time! "—General Nelson in a Fix. 

The following story is told of the late 
General Nelson, of Kentucky. Occasion- 
ally some of the shrewd privates would 
get and use an opportunity to cut the 
feathers of pompous officers, which always 
afforded merriment to the whole camp. In 




fact, officers who clothe themselves with 
unapproachable dignity, and say, either by 

word or action, I am General , or I 

am Colonel , or, when slightly ' riled,' 

by (oath,) I'll let you know I am Captain 
of Company A, or B, or C, naturally be- 
come targets for rear rank victims. This 
was well illustrated at Camp Joe Holt. 
The camp guards after night were instruct- 
ed to allow no one to pass in or out with- 
out giving a countersign, and to retain as 
prisoners those who came from outside to 
the lines without it. General Nelson 
came to one such guard, on a certain eve- 
ning, just after the countersign had been 
given out, and held something like the 
following conversation : 

" Halt ! who comes there ? " says the 
guard. 

"I am General Nelson, commanding 
this army." 

" I don't care a — ; mark time, march. 



Corporal of the Guard No. 1," cocking his 
piece. 

" You fool, I'll have you pun- 
ished like — ," replied the General, com- 
mencing to mark time slowly. (He was 
a bad swearer.) 

" I don't care a ; if McClellan was 

here without the countersign, he should 
mark time till the Corporal comes. Quick 
time, march." 

" Let me rest," said Nelson, swearing 
and sweating. 

" No Siree ; mark time," was the inex- 
orable reply. 

By this time the news had spread like 
wildfire through the camp, that one of the 
guards had Nelson out .at Post No. 1, 
marking time, and half of the regiment 
was collected on that side, enjoying the 
joke hugely. The Corporal was very 
slow in coming, and every time Nelson 
would slacken speed, the guard would 
cock his gun and command, " Mark time/' 
There was a dreadful crash of oaths just 
around there, — the atmosphere was black 
and blue with them. The above are but 
faint samples. 

By the arrival of the Corporal, the 
General's rage had so far subsided, that 
he, too, began to enjoy the humorous side 
of the joke. 



Sentry Encounter with a Reg-ular. 
When Sherman's famous Battery passed 




Genural Sherman. 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC, 



403 



through Perryville, one of the soldiers, 
while the horses Avere feeding, went into a 
tavern outside the camp limits, and tilled 
his canteen with the villainous mixture of 
camphene and strychnine, which is called 
"whiskey." In coming back within the 
limits, the sentry challenged him, and put 
a firmly held musket across his path, to bar 
his progress. With a quick motion the artil- 
leryman grasped the musket barrel, closed 
with the astonished sentry, and be- 
fore he could recover from his stupe- 
faction, grasped him tightly by the 
throat. His useless musket dropped 
from his nerveless hand. The artil- 
leryman, still holding him by the 
throat with his left hand, drew from 
his girdle a long and sharp knife, 
which glittered in the light of the 
distant watchfire before the eyes of 
the terrified sentry. The latter sank 
upon his knees in a paroxysm of 
terror. He would have begged for 
mercy but he could not speak. Sud- ^ 
denly the artilleryman hurled him 
from him, caught up his gun, and 
brought it to a charge. 

" Now, you rascal," said he to the trem- I 
bling sentry, " listen to me. I am a regu- 
lar — mind, a regular. Now, don't you go 
for to stop a regular agin. Regulars never 
stop. In the bright lexicon of a regular's 
vocabulary, there's no such word as stop. 
Regulars is on the go all the time. They 
go with the password, and they goes with- 
out the password ; passwords is nothin' to 
them, and they is nothin' to passwords. 
My friend, (in a softer tone,) take yer gun. 
The night is dark, the air is chill. Take 
some," (pouring from his canteen into a 
tin cup.) 

" What is it ? " faltered the sentry. 

" Water, you lobster, you ; or more 
properly, whiskey and water." 

The sentry took a long and deep draught, 
and the regular passed on. Soon after, 
when the relief guard came around, they 



found the sentry in a condition not easily 
described. He was taken to the guard- 
house, and thence to the hospital. The 
poisonous liquor made him nearly mad. 
On getting Avell, he swore, first that he 
would never again try to stop a " regular ; " 
and, second, that he would never touch 
Perryville whiskey again ; third, that he 
would give Sherman's artillerymen a spe- 
cially wide berth. 




Sentry"s Encounter with a Regular. 

Putting Tiim through the Discipline. 
One summer's day, about one o'clock, a 
long, gaunt, bony man, with a queer ad- 
mixture of the comical and doleful in his 
countenance, that fairly reminded one of a 
professional undertaker cracking a dry 
joke, undertook to reach General Grant's 
tent, by scrambling promiscuously through 
a hedgerow and coming in the back Avay 
alone. He was stopped in his venture- 
some career, hoAvever, by one of the host- 
lers, Avho cried out to some purpose, " Keep 
out o' here ! " The individual in black 
replied that he thought General Grant 
Avould alloAV him inside, and strode ahead. 
' You'll — soon find out," Avas yelled in 
reply. On reaching the guard, avIio very 
naturally took him to be one of the Sani- 
tary or Christian Commission folks, he Avas 
stopped instanter with — 



404 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



" No sanitary folks allowed inside." 

After some parleying, of the usual char- 
acter, the intruder was compelled, hit or 
miss, to give his name, and at last did so, 
announcing himself as — 

"Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, desiring an interview with 
General Grant." 

The guard saluted the Commander-in- 
Chief, and allowed him to pass. 

General Grant recognized him as he 
stepped under the large " fly " in front of 
his tent, rose and shook hands with him 
cordially, and then introduced him to such 
members of his staff as were present and 
unacquainted. The President had just ar- 
rived on the City of Baltimore, and was 
accompanied by his son ' Tad,' Assistant 
Secretary of the Navy — Fox, Mr. Chad- 
wick, proprietor of Willard's Hotel, and a 
marine guard. No one relished the little 
affair with the guard more keenly than the 
amiable President. 



Sold! 
Soldiers are, it is well known, averse to 
the drill, and yet dislike to work still more. 
During the siege of Corinth it beeame 
necessary to go some ten miles over the 
worst of roads to Pittsburg Landing, to 
draw forage and provisions, and many 
were the expedients resorted to by the 
boys to escape the hard task. One morn- 
ing at roll-call the Lieutenant said, " Any 
of the boys who would like a drill, step to 
the front." Not many came forward. 
" Now, you rear rank men, each take a 
horse, go to the Landing, and bring back a 
sack of oats. The boys acknowledged that 
they were flatly ' sold,' but ever afterwards 
volunteers for drill were more numerous 
than scarce. 



Paying his Penalty, Cash Down. 

" Slick " was known as a case in Com- 
pany I, and was familiarly called by the 
sobriquet in question, when the army was 
at Murfreesboro'. 

Slick was passing General Johnson's 



head-quarters one day, and without any 
ceremony fired his gun almost in the face 
of the General himself. 

" What ? " says the General ; " Do you 
not know the penalty of firing your gun 
without orders to do so ? " 

" AVhy, no, sir ! " says Slick, very inno- 
cently. 

" Well," replied the General, " I will 
tell you. It is the loss of a month's 
pay:" 

" You don't say so ! " says Slick, and 
very coolly puts his hand hi his pocket and 
draws therefrom an old greasy wallet, 
opens it, and offers the General thirteen 
dollars in greenbacks, saying, " Well, Gen- 
eral, I guess I am able to stand the pres- 
sure ! " 

It is needless to say that the General 
discontinued the conversation immediately. 
Slick was not fined. 



Halting- Effect of "the Ardent." 
During the winter campaign in Tennes- 
see, as C. S. Beath, quartermaster-ser- 
geant of the One Hundred and Seventeenth 
Illinois, Avas passing along one of the prin- 
cipal streets in Memphis, he saw a soldier 
coming toward him struggling with the 




Halting effect of the Ardent. 



spirit within him. Just in advance of Ser- 
geant B. was a " freeman of African de< 
scent." The soldier saw him coming, and 
with some difficulty managed to ejaculate 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC, 



405 



" Halt ! " Darkey didn't heed his author- 
ity, and marched ahead. The soldier 
squared himself, and as the darkey was 
passing made a dive at him ; but the 
darkey, aided by the soldier's inward foe, 
easily dodged the blow, and the soldier 
plunged over the curbing into the gutter, 
his head striking first. . As soon as he 
could recover his speech he said, " There, 
now; lie there. I g-g-guess y-y-you'U 
h-h-halt the next time I tell you to ! " 



Stuttering- when on Guard-Duty. 
When Colonel Daniel M' Cook's regiment 
was lying at Camp Dennison, a brawny re- 
cruit from one of the Eastern counties, who 
stuttered badly, was put on guard-duty for 
the first time. A citizen attempted to pass 
the line. Recruit yelled out, " H-h-h-alt ! " 
The citizen, who either did not understand 
him or paid no attention, when the sentinel 
carefully laid his bright " Springfield " upon 
the ground, and knocked the intruderdown, 
saying, in his stuttering way, " There, now, 
mind the next time. If I ain't much with 
the frog-sticker, yet I'm heavy with the 
fist." 



Mr. Beecher's Case of Muskets for the South. 
Among the passengers by the steamship 
Asia from England, was the Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher, just returned from his so- 
journ in the land of " Neutrality." The 
steamer stopped at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
and there landed a portion of her cargo. 
Mr. Beecher, who had just come on shore, 
and was stretching his legs by a walk on 
the pier, seeing that the first case of goods 
came hard, with characteristic impulse 
volunteered a helping hand. The force 
of his additional muscle — which is 'some' 
— quickly brought the case bang upon the 
wharf. He stood aghast, however, to find, 
as he and his friends gathered around to 
examine it, that he had lent a hand to land 
a case of muskets intended for the South- 
ern Confederacy. A Boston paper is re- 
sponsible for this story — which, at all 
events, is too good not to be true, though 



no one will ever suspect Henry (as he 
speaks of himself hi his pulpit) of thwart- 
ing Secretary Chase in his laudable efforts 




Secretary Chase. 



to prevent arms from passing through any 
custom-house, en route to Davisdom. 



Governor Yates giving- Grant a Desk in his 
Office. 

Soon after Grant's first application to 
Governor Yates for a commission in the 
army, which was declined on account of 
there being no vacancy at that time, the 
Governor was very much distressed in 
regard to the raising of the quota of 
the State. He had plenty of offers 
for officers' positions, but he personally 
did not know the minutiae of regimental 
organization, — how many men composed a 
company, or how many subordinate officers 
there should be in a regiment. In his 
distress, he asked the Representative of the 
plain little man to whom he had been in- 
troduced, if he knew any of these matters. 
The Representative replied by bringing 
Grant into the presence of the Governor. 

" Do you understand the organization 
of troops ? " inquired the Governor of 
Grant. 

" I do, Sir." 

" Will you accept a desk in my office for 
that purpose ? " 

"Anything to serve my country," was 
Grant's reply. 



403 



THE BOOK OP ANEC DOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



And to work he at once went ; and but 
for this, Grant might still have been un- 
known to the world as a military chieftain. 
By his energy, Illinois became noted for 
the alacrity with which she filled her quota. 
Some of the best things of this kind con- 
cerning Grant, together with the other 
great heroes of the war, are contained in 
the series of volumes, written with such 
fine taste, by Rev. W. M. Thayer, and 
issued in such attractive style for young 
readers, as to take the highest place in the 
popular estimation. 



Ruse to Obtain a Furlough. 
Joe Robinson enlisted in the 109th Reg- 
iment of New York Volunteers. The men 
were in camp on the island, and their 
friends were often visiting them. Joe's 
brother, John, came to see him, and found 
Joe very homesick. lie begged so hard 
for John to get him a furlough that his 
brother went to the Colonel and told him 
his sister was dead, and he wished leave 
fin- Lis brother to go home for a few days. 
Consent was given; and as they Avere 
leaving the ground, one of the men who 
heard of Joe's affliction, and wished to say 
something, asked him how long his sister 
had been dead ? " Joe said, " About ten 
years ! " and went on his way rejoicing. 



Couldn't Pass with his Cigar. 
A little incident, as related by Lieuten- 
ant James Hutchinson, of the veteran re- 
served corps, and formerly of the Thir- 
teenth New York Volunteers, exhibits 
General Grant in one of his characteristic 
qualities as a man and soldier. Lieuten- 
ant II. was stationed for a time at Wash- 
ington, and on the occasion in question 
was on duty as officer of the day at the 
War Department. An order was in force 
which forbade smoking in the building, 
and the sentries were instructed to enforce 
it. It so happened that among those who 
called to see General Halleck was Lieu- 
tenant- General Grant, who approached 
the door confidently, cigar in mouth, ex- 



pecting, doubtless, to pass without ques- 
tion ; but the veteran soldier on guard 
knew his duty better. Bringing his piece 
down to a charge, he barred the General 
out, and said to him, respectfully, " You 
cunt go in and keep your cigar ! " The 
Lieutenant- General of the United States 
Armies was too good a disciplinarian to 
dispute such a point, so he yielded with 
true soldierly grace, threw the obnoxious 
weed away, and went in. After his de- 
parture, an order came from General Hal- 
leck — but which those who know General 
Grant will be slow to believe came through 
his instigation — rescinding the rule about 
smoking, so far as it affected army officers. 



Snake-ECunters' Style of Brill. 

Among the rebel guerrilla organizations, 
the most noted band was that known by 
the name of " Moccasin Rangers." They 
had a good time, too, until Captain Baggs 
got up his ' counter irritant ' in the shape 
of a company of " Snake-Hunters," a del- 
icate allusion to said venomous reptile — 
the moccasin. As to their arms, these 
were of every variety ; and as to toggery, 
no two were dressed alike. As to parades, 
their extraordinary system of tactics in- 
cluded no such dandyism. 

But most peculiar of all was their drill. 
Every movement was accomplished on the 
double-quick, or in a run. They acknowl- 
edged no " common time," and if reduced 
to a dead march they would surely have 
mutinied. This, for instance, w r as Captain 
Baggs' very original style of dismissing 
his company : 

" Put down them thar blasted old guns, 
and be — to you ! " 

(Which being interpreted, is " Stack 
arms ! ") 

" Now to your holes, you ugly rats, and 
don't let me see you again till I warit 
you!" 

(Which, being reduced to the Har- 
dee vernacular, means, " Break ranks — 
march ! ") 

Exeunt Snake-Hunters on the run, with 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC. 



407 



grand divertissement of whoops, yells and 
squeals, interspersed with life-like imita- 
tions of birds and beasts. 

Once, when the Snake-Hunters were 
detailed to guard some stores between 
Fairmount and Beverly, two elaborate 
gentlemen from Philadelphia, who were 
making a tour of that country, had the 
good fortune to witness their very original 
style of drill, and at the close of the per- 
lomiance invited Captain Baggs to take a 
drink in a neighboring rummery. As the 
tin cups were laid out, one of the afore- 
said gents expressed his astonishment, not 
to say admiration, of this peculiar style of 
dismissing, " which looked to him very 
much like a stampede," and was curious to 
know where in the world they were all 
gone to, and how the Captain expected to 
get them back if he wanted them in a 
hurry. Baggs replied that the process 
was father difficult to explain verbally, 
but " if they'd jest let that 'ere rum wait 
a minute, he'd show 'em ; " whereupon go- 
ing to the door, he fired three barrels of 
his revolver. The echo of the third report 
was still lingering among the cliffs when 
every blessed Snake-Hunter burst into 
the bar-room with a whole menagerie of 
roars and screeches and hee-haws, and 
without question or apology called for tin 
cups. This demonstration of Captain 
Baggs' style of " falling in," cost the elab- 
orate gentlemen from the Quaker City $5, 
the very thought of which almost turns 
their brains to this day. 



Giving: 'em Fits. 
Fresh recruits are a little behindhand 
in their drill, as may naturally be sup- 
posed. At one of these morning exer- 
cises, Captain M'D. was inarching his 
squad past the Colonel's tent. The Colo- 
nel says, '• Captain, I wish you to put those 
boys through. Give 'em fits." In a short 
time the Colonel went out to supervise 
the drilling on the beach (Folly Island) of 
the different squads. He at once observed 



one squad huddled together in a formation 
that his practiced eye told him was not to 
be found in tactics. He hurried up but to 
see a man writhing in convulsions. 

" What's the matter ? What have you 
been doing ? " queried the Colonel. 

" I obeyed your orders," said the Cap- 
tain. 

« What orders ? " 

" I've given 'em fits." 



Colonel Owen's Squad Drill. 
Great difficulty was experienced in fur- 
nishing the Pennsylvania troops with shoes 
at the commencement of the three months 
service. Those that were furnished were 
generally much too large for the wearers 
— a fault which occasioned much merri- 
ment and some inconvenience. A raw re- 




Colonel Owen's Squad Drill. 

cruit in Colonel Owen's regiment was be-? 
ing put through the squad drill, when the 
following colloquy took place 

Sergeant. " Why don't ye mind the 
orthers there, Patrick Kelly ? There ye've 
bin standin' like a spalpeen iver since ye 
come out, and niver a once faced to the 
right or left ! Shure an' I'll ai-rist ye ! 
D'ye mind that ? " 

Private. " Ye're mistaken altogether, 
sargeant. Shure an' ye've been lookin' at 
me shoes. Divil a bit can I turn tJdm 
around! " 



408 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Raw Captains. 
A raw captain of one of the rural com- 
panies of Ohio volunteers marched his men 
into the long narrow mess-booth for the 
first time, under somewhat peculiar cir- 
cumstances. After dinner, feeling anxious 
to bring them out in military order, and 
thinking it wrong to have the left in front 
under any ch'cumstances, he ordered the 
separated ranks to countermarch where 
there was not room to execute the move- 
ment. The result, of course, was great 
confusion. The captain raved, swore, and 
commanded impossible things. Result, 
still greater confusion. At last the men 
poured out of the doors pell-mell like 
sheep. The disgusted captain, placing his 
back against a tree, shouted the only com- 
mand they could obey, thus : " Any ivay 
you please, hang you — march ! " About 
as laughable an incident occurred in the 
case of another captain (formerly a rail- 
road conductor,) who was drilling a squad, 
and while marching them by flank turned 
to speak to a friend for a moment. On 
looking again toward his squad he saw 
they were in the act of 'butting up' 
against a fence. In his hurry to halt them 
he cried out — true to his former calling — 
' Down brakes ! down brakes ! ' 



New-comer into Camp. 

One day, the Federal pickets near 
Charlestown, Va., descried a solitary 
horseman, with a bucket on his arm, jog- 
ging soberly towards them. He proved 
to be a dark mulatto, of about thirty-five ; 
as he approached they ordered a halt. 

" Where are you from ? " 

" Southern army, Cap'n," giving the 
military salute. 

" Where are you going ? " 

" Coming to yours all." 

" What do you want ? " 

" Protection, boss. You won't send me 
back, will you ? " 

" No ; come in. Whose servant are 



you 



" Cap'n Rhett' s of South Cariliny- 



you's heerd of Mr. Barnwell Rhett, editor 
of the Charleston Mercury. His brother 
commands a battery." 

" How did you get away ? " 

"Cap'n gave me fifteen dollars this 
morning, and said, ' John, go out and for- 
age for butter and eggs.' So you see. 
boss (with a broad grin,) I'se out forag- 
ing ! I pulled my hat over my eyes and 
jogged along on the Cap'ns horse (see the 
brand S. C. on him) with this basket on 
my arm, right by our guard and pickets. 
They never challenged me once. If they 
had, though, I brought the Capn's pass," 
— and the new-comer produced the follow- 
ing document from his pocket-book, writ- 
ten in pencil, and carefully folded : — 

"Pass my servant, John, on horseback, 
anywhere between Winchester and Mar- 
tinsburg, in search of butter, &c, &c. 
A. Burnett Rhett, 

Capt. Light Artillery, Lee's Battalion" 

" Are there many negroes in the rebel 
corps ? " 

" Heaps, boss." 

" Would the most of them come to us 
if they could?" 

"All of them, Cap'n. There is'nt a 
little pickaniny so high" — waving his hand 
two feet from the ground, " that would'n." 

" Why did you expect protection ? " 

" Heerd so in Maryland, before the 
Proclamation." 

" Where did you hear about the Procla- 
mation." 

" Read it, Sir, in a Richmond paper." 

" What is it ? " 

" That every slave is to be emancipated 
on and after the 13th day of January. I 
can't state it, boss ! " 

" Something like it. When did you 
learn to read ? " 

" In '49, Sir. I was head waiter at 
Mrs. Nevitt's boarding-house in Savannah : 
and Miss Walcott, a New York lady who 
was stopping there, taught me." 

" Does your master know it ? " 

" Cap'n Rhett dosn't know it, Sir ; but 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC, 



409 



he isn't my master. He thinks I'm free, 
and lured me at twenty-five dollars a 
month, but he never payed me a cent of 
it. I belong to Mrs. John Spring, of 

■ , Connecticut. She used to hire 

me out summers, and had me wait on her 
winters, when she came South. After the 
war, she could'nt come, and they were go- 
ing to sell me for Government because I 
belonged to a northerner. I slipped away 
to the army. Have tried to come to you 
twice before in Maryland, but could'nt 
pass our pickets." 

" Were you at Antietam ? " 

" Yes, boss. Mighty hard battle." 

" Who whipped ? " 

u Yours all, Massa. They say you 
didn't ; but I saw it, and know. If you 
had fought us that next day — Thurs- 
day — you would have captured our whole 
army. They say so themselves." 

" Who ? " 

" Our officers, Sir." 

" What do the slaves think about the 
war ? " 

" Well, boss, they all wish the Yankee 
army would come. The white folks tell 
them all sorts of bad stories about you all ; 
but they dont believe them. They know 
that Mr. Fremont, and Mr. McClellan, and 
Mr. Bumside won't hurt them." 



Brave and Good, but Must be Shot. 

A lady of high social standing in New 
Orleans had two sons in the Confederate 
army in Mississippi. A lady, Avhen she is 
determined, can accomplish almost any- 
thing, and will surmount difficulties before 
which many a brave man would stand ap- 
palled and turn back from his purpose. 

This lady determined to visit her two 
sons, as they could not visit their parent, 
and by some means or other, having ob- 
tained a passport, she crossed the lines, 
and made her way to the camp of the 
Confederate General under whose banner 
her sons were serving. She was enter- 
tained at head- quarters, and found that 
the General and his staff officers fared 



sumptuously, living on the very fat of the 
land. But the common soldiers had only 
bread and molasses for their fare. 

It so happened that while this lady was 
with the Confederates, the time for which a 
certain Tennessee regiment had enlisted 
expired, and the soldiers, anxious to see 
wives and little ones once more, began to 
make preparations to start home. Who 
so well as the soldier, can tell the emotions 
which must throb at a soldier's heart, who 
has been in front of the thickest battles, 
who has heard the roar and rattle of the 
cannon and musketry, and seen his com- 
rades fall all around him, but who has 
himself been miraculously preserved on 
the field of carnage ! Who, but a soldier, 
can tell the emotions which must swell 
his heart at the near prospect of being 
welcomed to his home once more, and 
clasping to his arms the dear ones 
who have occupied his thoughts day and 
night. But it was not so to be. 

The brave men of this Tennessee regi- 
ment, who had been a whole year in the 
service, during which time one half the 
number which had started Avith them, 
flushed with health and the hope of victo- 
ry, had either fallen on the bloody field, 
or sadder still, been pierced by the arrows 
of slow and lingering disease, caused by 
exposure and hardship, were not to be al- 
lowed the pleasure of visiting their loved 
homes. 

The General, in making his daily 
rounds, and seeing the men of this regi- 
ment busily engaged in making prepara- 
tions for their intended departure, inquired 
what it meant : and on being acquainted 
with their determination, he immediately 
gave orders that not a single man of them 
should leave his encampment. The whole 
brigade or division of the army was at 
once ordered under arms ; cannon and 
musket were brought menacingly against 
this devoted regiment, and they were told 
by the General, that unless they took up 
their arms, which they had thrown down, 
within three minutes, they should be fired 



410 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



on. With death thus staring them in the 
face, they obeyed the order to take up 
their arms — all but eight. It was decreed 
that these eight should be court-martialed 
and shot ! 

Before the time came that the military 
court was to be held, seven of the eight 
followed the example of their comrades, 
and agreed to resume their arms. One 
soldier alone remained firm in his purpose ; 
one soldier alone was willing to brave 
death rather than yield to the despotic de- 
mands of a tyrant. He pleaded his own 
cause with all the fervor of which a soldier 
is capable. With struggling but manly 
utterance he said to his General : 

" I have served out the time for which 
I enlisted, faithfully ; I have been in every 
battle ; I have been at all times at the po:~t 
of duty assigned me, in rain and sunshine, 
in summer and winter. I have served and 
am willing to serve my country. But, Gen- 
eral, I have a wife and four small children 
at home, who depend on me alone for sup- 
port and protection, and who have no one 
besides me to look to their interests. Al- 
low me thirty days, the law allows a fur- 
lough of sixty days, but allow me half 
that time to visit my family, whom I have 
not seen for a year, and make some neces- 
sary arrangements for their welfare, and I 
promise to return within that time and to 
take my former position in my regiment. 
I make but a just and reasonable request. 
It is essential to the welfare of my family 
that you grant it. I cannot enter the ser- 
vice again till I have visited my family." 

He was sentenced to be sbot. The de- 
cree was pronounced on Saturday, and 
was to have been executed the next day. 
The soldier and hero — for he was a hero 
— the bravest man in his regiment, — ask- 
ed for a little longer tim« to make the pre- 
paration necessary for a change of worlds ; 
and the time was graciously extended one 
brief day, the sentence to be executed on 
Monday, instead of Sunday. 

When the fatal hour arrived, following 
his coffin which was in full view, he was 



marched to the place of execution, and 
arrived there, the General pointed him to 
the new-made grave, and commanded him 
to kneel down upon its margin. The 
soldier and martyr simply replied that he 
had never kneeled to any but his Maker, 
and that he could not consent to kneel now 
to a man. As he said this the order was 
given to fire, and, in the act of making 
the sign of the cross — the Christian's em- 
blem — on his breast, the martyr and soldier 
was in eternity. Ah, how many there 
were there, who, though unaccustomed to 
weep, shed bitter tears at the enactment 
of this tragedy ! 



McClellan Dismounting to the Guard. 
As General McClellan was riding along 
the lines of his army one day, examining 
the condition of the men, a little incident 
in the way of " military rule " occurred, — 
the same, it may be remarked, which 
has been related of Napoleon, Wellington, 
and Washington, — and of course very 




General McClellan. 

likely to take place. In this case, a young 
Pennsylvanian was on guard when Mc- 
Clellan rode up. The guard demanded 
the countersign. " I am the commander- 
in-chief, George B. McClellan," was the 
answer. " Well, then, commander-in- 
chief George B. McClellan, get down from 
your horse and give the countersign, or I 
will see what kind of a hole the musket 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC. 



411 



which J. K. Morehead prepared for us 
will make in the body of the commander- 
in-chief George B. McClellan." The 
General, like a good soldier, calmly dis- 
mounted, and proved his identity, gave the 

word, and praised the young man for his I had defended their country 
conduct, telling him whenever he wanted 
a favor, just to let him know. 



General Kosecrans and Pat's Farlo'. 

General Rosecrans was reviewing the 

lamented Brigadier- General Nelson's old 

division. He took unusual interest in that 

band of veterans, who so long and so nobly 

He rode 



"Worse to lose Five than One. 

In the first action in which Grant com- 
manded, his troops at first gained a slight 
advantage over the Confederates. They 
began to plunder the Confederate camp, 
in spite of all that Grant could do to stop 
them. At last Grant, who knew that 
Confederate reinforcements were coming 
up, got some of his friends to set fire to 
the camp so as to stop the plundering. 
Then he got his troops together as well as 
he could, and retreated ; but, in the mean 
time, the Confederate reinforcements came 
up, attacked Grant, and defeated him. 
There were five Colonels under Grant 
who had not by any means supported him 
efficiently in his attempts to stop the plun- 
dering and collect his troops. Mr. Osborn 
saw Grant a clay or two afterwards, when 
he expected to be deprived of his com- 
mand on account of the defeat. He said : 

" Why do you not report these Colon- 
els ? They are the men to blame for not 
carrying out your orders." 

" Why," said Grant, " these, officers had 
never before been under fire ; they did 
not know how serious an affair it was ; 
they have had a lesson which they will 
not forget. I will answer for it they will 
never make the same mistake again. I 
can see by the way they behaved in the 
subsequent action that they are of the 
right stuff, and it is better that I should 
lose my command, if that must be, than 
the country should lose the services of 
five such officers when good men are 
scarce." 

Grant did not lose his command, and 
thi-ee out of the five officers subsequently 
greatly distinguished themselves. 




! along alone between the ranks, talking to 
the men, and inquiring into their individ- 
ual wants. Some wanted shoes, some 
blankets, some an increase of rations, etc. 
Finally the General stopped in front of 
an Irishman, apparently well pleased with 
his soldierly appearance. 

"Well, Pat," says the General, "and 
what do you want ? " 

'•Afurlo' plase your honor!" answered 
Pat. 

" You'll do, Pat ! " said the General, as 
he rode, away, laughing. 

A fund of exceedingly readable incidents 
concerning 'Old Rosy' and his soldier boys, 
may be found in the very racy volume by 
'W. D. B.,' entitled Rosecrans 1 Campaigns. 

e 

Mother-Corporal on a Ten Days' Furlong-h. 
The lady friends of a certain Corporal 
sent him a box ; and among the many 
good things packed by fair but rogueish 
hands was a life-size doll, dressed in full 
Zouave uniform, which the fun-loving dam- 
sels won at a soldiers' fair. The Corporal, 
after getting the box, was taken sick. The 
boys now started the rumor that the Cor- 



412 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



poral was a woman and had given birth 
to a boy. The rumor spread like wild- 
fire ; hundreds flocked to said quarters 
to see the wonderful phenomenon — a new 
horn babe — but the insiders guarded the 
tent with zealous care, only allowing pry- 
ers to catch a passing glimpse of the sup- 
posed mother and babe. A number of 
men were to be found who would swear 
they had seen both. But the cream of the 
joke was yet to come off; the Corporal 
received a ten days' furlough — all thought 
now, for certain, it was the mother going 
home with her babe ; some had it that she 
was a rich heiress escaping from a tyrant 
father; but hundreds believed in the 
mother-corporal and young recruit of Com- 
pany I, of the Zouaves d'Afrique. 



Obeying Orders in his Own "Way. 
Just before the charge made by Fre- 
mont's Body Guard at Springfield, Mo., 
Major Zagonyi directed one of his buglers, 
a Frenchman, to sound a signal. The 
bugler did not seem to pay any attention 
whatsoever to the order, but darted off with 
Lieutenant Maythenyi. A few moments 
afterwards he was observed in another 
part of the field vigorously pursuing the 
flying infantry. His active form Avas 
always seen in the thickest of the fight. 
When the line was formed in the Plaza, 
Zagonyi noticed the bugler, and approach- 
ing him, said : " In the midst of battle you 
disobeyed my order. You are unworthy 
to be a member of the Guard. I dismiss 
you." The bugler showed his bugle to 
his indignant commander — the mouth- 
piece of the instrument was shot away. 
He said : " The mouth was shoot off. I 
could not bugle viz raon bugle, and so I 
bugle viz raon pistol and sabre." It is 
unnecessary to add, the brave Frenchman 
was not dismissed. 



Shaken Down among the Pickets. 
A Confederate officer who had been de- 
tached from the ranks on some special ser- 
vice, at the battle of Manassas, having 



discharged his duty, received orders to 
return to the army. He started towards 
Manassas at a rattling pace, but had not 
proceeded many miles along his circuitous 
route, ere he fell in with the Confederate 
cavalry patrols and pickets, who were ex- 
tremely vigilant ; and although custom 
had made the officer sharp-sighted at night, 
they frequently halted him before he had 
the slightest notion of being within many 
miles of their vicinity. To add to his 
misery and delay, he had not the counter- 
sign, and therefore was marched off to the 
nearest guard-post to account for himself. 

ik Can't help it, comrade," said the cav- 
alry-man, " I believe your words, and think 
I have frequently seen you before ; but 
orders are orders, you know, and we must 
obey." 

He was handed over to the next picket, 
and so on, until, reaching the central picket 
station, the Captain commanding examined 
him rigorously, and upon the officer pre- 
senting papers of identity, the Captain 
politely gave him the countersign, saying: 

" It was well, perhaps, you fell in with 
our men, for the road you were taking 
must have led you nearer the present lines 
of the enemy than you care about finding 
yourself, I know : the countersign I have 
given you is good among the outer pickets ; 
when you reach the infantry, be careful 
how you act, for they have another one, 
and are particularly wakeful to-night, and 
thick as flies ! " 

Acting upon this advice, he plunged 
forward boldly, and was in high spirits, 
singing right heartily, for the numerous 
Confederate encampments were visible for 
many miles around. But — " Halt ! halt ! " 
was the challenge suddenly given by half- 
a-dozen ; and from their guns leveled at 
him, he saw there was no fun about them. 
" Who goes there ! " " Officer without . 
the countersign ! " "Advance officer !" — 
which he did, very meekly, for could they 
have seen him even wink improperly, he 
would have been instantly riddled with 
half-a-dozen shots. Here he went through 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC 



413 



the operation of being handed over from 
one to another, until fairly out of patience. 
The corporal of the guard would do no 
more than hand him to the sergeant, 
the latter to the lieutenant of the guard ; 
the last to the officer of the night, and he 
to the officer of the day — so that, from 
being handed from one to another, it got 
rumored about among some of the soldiers 
that he was a spy and soon there was a 
large crowd at his heels, bestowing all 
manner of uncomplimentary epithets. The 
rumor spread among the regiments through 
which he was then passing ; and while in 
the tent of the officer of the day making 
explanations, one loquacious gentleman, 
who stood peeping through a rent in the 
tent, was heard to exclaim — 

" The Captain's got him, he's a spy, 
and they've got the papers on him ! I 
hope they'll detail me as one of the firing 
party ; won't I let him have it good ! " 

After a few moments of explanation, he 
remounted again ; and his sudden trans- 
formation into a good and true Southerner 
seemed to cause infinite disgust to many, 
but particularly to the ragged gentleman 
who was so anxious to make one of the 
" firing party." 



Tragical Encounter between Generals Nel- 
son and Davis. 

When the alarm was raised in Louis- 
ville, Ky., in the autumn of 1862, that the 
Confederates were marching on that city, 
General Davis, who could not reach his 
command under General Buell, then at 
Bowling Green, went to General Nelson 
and tendered his services. General Nel- 
son gave him the command of the city 
militia so soon as they were organized. 
General Davis opened an office and went 
to work in assisting the organization. On 
Wednesday, General Davis called upon 
General Nelson in his room at the Gait 
House, when the following conversation 
took place, as reported in the newspapers : 

Gen. Davis. I have the brigade, Gen- 
eral, you assigned me, ready for service, , 
26 



and have called to inquire if I can obtain 
arms for them. 

Gen. Nelson. How many men have 
you? 

Davis. About twenty-five hundred, 
General. 

Nelson (roughly and angrily). About 
twenty-five hundred! About twenty-five 
hundred! By G — ! you are a regular 




Gen. J. C. Davis. 

officer, and come here to me and report 
about the number of men in your com- 
mand! — you, don't you know, 

sir, you should furnish me the exact num- 
ber? 

Davis. General, I didn't expect to get 
the guns now, and only wanted to learn 
if I could get them, and where ; and, hav- 
ing learned the exact number needed, 
would then draw them. 

Nelson (pacing the room in a rage). 
About twenty-five hundred ? By — , I 
suspend you from your command, and or- 
der you to report to General Wright ; and 

I've a good mind to put you under 

arrest. Leave my room, sir ! 

Davis. I will not leave, General, until 
you give me an order. 

Nelson. The — you won't ! By 

— I'll put you under arrest, and send 
you out of the city under a provost guard ! 
Leave my room, sir ! 

General Davis left the room, and, in 
order to avoid an arrest, crossed over the 



414 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



river to Jeffersonville, where he remained 
until the next day, when he was joined 
by General Burbridge, Avho had also been 
relieved by Nelson from his command. 
General Davis went to Cincinnati with 
General Burbridge, and reported to Gen- 
eral Wright, who ordered General Davis 
to return to Louisville and report to Gen- 
eral Buell, and General Burbridge to 
remain at Cincinnati. So General Davis 
returned and reported to General Buell. 
Nothing further occurred until the morning 




Encounter between Gens Nelson and Davis. 

when General Davis, seeing General Nel- 
son in the main hall of the Gait House, 
fronting the office, went up to Governor 
Morton and requested him to step up with 
him to General Nelson and witness the 
conversation that might pass between Nel- 
son and him. The Governor consented, 
and the two walked up to General Nelson, 
when the following took place : — 

Gen. Davis. Sir, you seemed to take 
advantage of your authority the other day. 

Gen. Nelson (sneeringly, and placing 
his hand to his ear). Speak louder, I don't 
hear very well. 

Davis (in a louder tone). You seemed 
to take advantage of your authority the 
other day. 

Nelson (indignantly). I don't know 
that I did, sir. 

Davis. You threatened to arrest and 



send me out of the State under a provost 
guard. 

Nelson (striking Davis -with the back 
of his hand twice in the face). There, 
d you, take that. 

Davis (retreating). This is not the 
last of it ; you will hear from me again. 

Nebon then turned to Governor Mor- 
ton, and said : By G — d, did you come 
here also to insult me ? 

Gov. Morton. No, sir; but I was 
requested to be present and listen to the 
conversation between you and General 
Davis. 

Gen. Nelson (violently to the by-stand- 
ers). Did you hear the d rascal in- 
sult me ? He then walked into the ladies' 
parlor. 

In three minutes General Davis return- 
ed, with a pistol he had borrowed of Cap- 
tain Gibson, of Louisville, and walking 
toward the door that Nelson had passed 
through, he saw Nelson walking out of the 
parlor into the hall separating the main 
hall from the parlor. The two were face 
to face, and about ten yards apart, when 
General Davis drew his pistol and fired, 
the ball entering Nelson's heart, or in the 
immediate vicinity. 




General Nelson then threw up both 
hands and caught a gentleman near by 
around the neck, and exclaimed, " I am 
shot ! " He then walked up the flight of 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC, 



415 



stairs toward General Buell's room, but 
sank at the top of the stairs, and was una- 
ble to proceed further. He was then con- 
veyed to his room, and when laid on his 
bed requested that the Rev. Mr. Talbott, 
an Episcopal clergyman stopping in the 
house, might be sent to him at once. The 
reverend gentleman arrived in about five 
minutes, and found the General extremely 
anxious as to his future welfare. He 
knew that he must die immediately, and 
requested that the ordinance of baptism 
might be administered, which was done. 
The General then whispered, " It's all 
over," and his spirit at once returned unto 
its Maker. 



When General Buckner Hungr his Head. 

Some of the Confederate officers at 
Fort Donelson took their surrender very 
much to heart. They were proud, inso- 
lent, and defiant. Their surrender was 
unconditional, but they thought it very 
hard to give up their swords and pistols. 
One of them fired a pistol at Major Mudd, 
of the Second Illinois regiment, wounding 
him in the back. The Major belonged in 
St. Louis, and had been, from the begin- 
ning, an ardent friend of the Union. He 
had hunted the guerrillas in Missouri, and 
had fought bravely at Wilson's Creek. 
He was probably shot by an old enemy. 
General Grant at once issued orders that 
all the rebel officers should be disarmed. 
General Buckner, in insolent tones, said 
to General Grant, that it was barbarous, 
inhuman, brutal, unehivalrous, and at vari- 
ance with the rules of civilized warfare. 
General Grant replied — 

" You have dared to com 3 here to com- 
plain of my acts, without the right to 
make an objection. You do not appear to 
remember that your surrender was uncon- 
ditional. Yet, if we compare the acts 
of the different armies in this war, how 
will yours bear inspection ? You have 
cowardly shot my officers in cold blood. 
As I rode over the field, I saw the dead 
of my army brutally insulted by jour 



men, their clothing stripped off of thern, 
and their bodies exposed without the 
slightest regard for common decency. 
Humanity has seldom marked your course 
whenever our men have been unfortunate 
enough to fall into your hands. At Bel- 
mont, your authorities disregarded all the 
usages of civilized warfare. My officers 
were crowded into cotton pens with my 
brave soldiers, and then thrust into prison, 
while your officers were permitted to en- 
joy their parole, and live at the. hotel in 
Cairo. Your men are given the same 
fare as my own, and your wounded receive 
our best attention. These are incontro- 
vertible facts. I have simply taken the 
precaution to disarm your officers and men, 
because necessity compelled me to protect 
my own from assassination." 

General Buckner had no reply to make. 
He hung his head in shame at the rebuke. 



Weitzel Satisfied with the Twelfth Connec- 
ticut. 

The Twelfth Connecticut had lain for 
ten days within hearing of the bombard- 
ment of Fort Jackson, within sight of the 
bursting shells and of the smoke of that 
great torment, but still they had not as a 
regiment been under fire. Though they 
were the first troops to reach the con- 
quered city of New Orleans, they had 
never yet heard the whistling of balls, ex- 
cepting in a trifling skirmish on Pearl 
River, where five of the companies re- 
ceived a harmless volley from forty or 
fifty invisible guerrillas. Almost all that 
they knew of war was the routine of drill 
and guard duty, and the false night alarms 
with which the brigadier used to try and 
season them ; though they wilted under a 
southern sun, and were daubed with Lou- 
isiana mud, and were sick by hundreds 
and died by scores. 

But they were at last to quit garrison 
duty behind the great earthworks of Camp 
Parapet, and go into active offensive ope- 
rations. Lieutenant Godfrey Weitzel of 
the Engineers, the chief military adviser 



416 THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 

of General Butler, had lately been ere- j that to that excellent chaplain and popul- 
ated Brigadier-General, and the extenu- ' lar writer, Mr. Trumbull, is due this first- 
ated forces of the department were ex- rate narrative ; or, at any rate, every Con- 
hausted to furnish him with a brigade necticut reader will find himself deficient 
suitable to the execution of the plans in some of the best written and always 
which he proposed. j truthful memorabilia of the war, who has 

Weitzel did not want the Twelfth Con- not Trumbull's racy sketches, as penned 
necticut. It was generally believed that by him in the camp and on the field of 
the regiments which garrisoned Camp battle. 

Parapet were not only sickly but broken ♦ ■ 

in spirit and undisciplined, which, in a qual- Tom. Taylor's Flagr of Truce, 

ified but not disparaging sense, had some [ On the 8th of July, 1861, a singular 
foundation. At any rate, the word had affair, in the way of a rebel flag of truce, 
gone abroad that the regiment was undisci- took place at "Washington. It appears 
plined, and so General Weitzel did not want that while Colonel Andrew Porter, of the 
the Twelfth Connecticut. | United States army, was scouting at the 

But shortly after the regiment had head of a party of eighteen in the imme- 
joined his brigade, he came upon it in one diate vicinity of the disunion lines on the 
of its battalion drills, and, taking com- other side of the river, a party of twenty- 
mand, hurried them on the double-quick two mounted disunion troops was observed 
through movement after movement, with approaching them. Colonel Porter im- 
the intention as it seemed, of puzzling mediately placed his men in position for a 
them, and so finding occasion to report brush, and awaited their nearer approach, 
their unfitness for immediate field service. Perceiving, when they got in hailing dis- 
It was, " Double column at half distance ; tance of him, that one of them had in his 
battalion, inward face ; double-quick? hand trailing, a white flag, he demanded 
march!" And then, — "Form square ; that they should halt where they were, 
right and left into line, wheel ; double- and explain their errand. They came to 
quick, march ! " And then, — " Reduce a halt, and declared that they bore an im- 
square ; double-quick, march ! " And portant communication from Davis to the 
then, — " Column forward, guide right ; President of the United States, 
double-quick, march ! " And then, — " De- I Colonel Porter requested them to dis- 
ploy column; right companies, right into mount, and approach with it on foot, a 
line, wheel; left companies, on the right into measure of precaution rendered necessary 
line ; battalion, guide right, double-quick, by the fact that the officer bearing the 



ma-r-c-h ! " And so on for half an hour, 
as fast as the men could trot, and the offi- 
cers drill, the ranks. But there was not 
an instant's tangle in reeling and unreel- 
ing the difficult skein. If there was any 
thing that the Lieutenant-Colonel com- 
manding loved, if there was any thing 
the old General excelled in, it was tacti- 
cal evolution. The regiment had been 
drilled in battalion and drilled in brigade, 
till it went like a watch. Weitzel rode 
off satisfied with the Twelfth Connecticut ; 
and the regiment was equally pleased with 
its smart young general. We believe 



flag, was accompanied by a larger escort 
than that (twelve men,) incident to the 
presence of a flag of truce. His request 
was complied with, and he found their re- 
presentation correct. The disunion offi- 
cer proved to be Captain Tom. Taylor, of 
Frankfort, Kentucky, a kinsman of Old 
Zack's, who bore a sealed letter from Jeff. 
Davis to President Lincoln, according to 
a representation upon its back, written 
and signed by Beauregard at Manassas, 
explaining the fact, and asking that Cap- 
tain Taylor might be facilitated in his 
mission. 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC 



417 



Accordingly, Colonel Porter sent Cap- 
tain Taylor and his missive forward with 
an officer and an orderly, and directed the 
disunion escort to return forthwith into 
their own lines — himself and the picket 
guard with him, following them for some 
distance, to see that that direction was 
properly carried out. 

Captain Taylor was carried immediately 
to General McDowell's head-quarters, 
where, by telegraph, directions were re- 
ceived to send him to General Scott's 
head-quarUrs at Washington. He arrived 
under a guard at seven p. M., and after a 
brief interview with General Scott, where- 
in Captain Tom. Taylor told his story as 
he had doubtless been instructed to tell 
it, he was sent to the President, bearing 
the sealed missive from Jeff. Davis to 
that functionary. 

His business was disposed of at the 
White House in a very few minutes ; for 
in that time he Avas sent back to General 
Scott with one letter less than he bore on 
his person on entering the Union lines, the 
President not deeming the communication 
he brought such as required him to enter 
into any correspondence with Davis. 

Captain Tom. Taylor, of Uncle Sambo's 
cavalry, was next immediately faced in 
the direction from which he came, and 
marched back to General McDowell's 
head-quarters, where, though courteously 
and kindly treated, he was kept under a 
strict guard until an early hour the next 
morning, when he was escorted back to 
Uncle Sambo's lines, and turned loose to 
find his way back to Beauregard, without 
having accomplished what was evidently 
a main point to fee attained by his mission 
— viz.: to communicate with traitors in 
Washington, who had doubtless prepared 
to send to Beauregard, through him, im- 
portant information concerning contempla- 
ted military movements. 



McCook's Pass for Old Buz. 
A man named Buz Rowe, well known 
in the neighborhood of Bacon Creek, was 



early afflicted with the secession fever, 
and when the Confederates occupied that 
portion of Kentucky, the sickness assumed 
a malignant form. It was his practice to 
lie around a tavern at Bacon Creek Sta- 
tion, drink whisky, swagger, blow about 
Southern rights, and insult Union men. 
When, however, the Union troops ad- 
vanced to Nevin, and the Confederates fell 
back to Green River, Buz changed his 
tune. He was not disposed to take up 
arms in behalf of the cause he represent- 
ed. In fact, to secure peace and safety at 
home, he expressed his willingness to 
" take the oath." 

On being lectured by Union men, he 
statea that he was only ' going through the 
form, to prevent being troubled at home, 
that when he could do good for the rebel 




Ccn. Alex McCook. 

cause he would not regard the obligation 
in the least.' It was some time before 
Buz could get a Union man to go to the 
camp with him, but finally, in company 
with such, he called on General McCook, 
and asked for the privilege of taking the 
oath and obtaining a pass. The General 
knew his man, and addressing the Union 
man who accompanied him, said : 

"Administer the oath to him — a ready 
traitor to his country ! What regard do 
you suppose he would have for the solemn 
obligations of the oath ? A man, sir, who 



418 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



would betray his country, has no respect 
for his oath." 

Buz turned pale. The truth cut him 
deep, and he began to see that his time 
had come. 

The General absolutely refused to have 
the oath administered, or to grant a pass. 
He could not get out of camp without 
some sort of a document, and he besought 
the interference of those whom he had so 
greatly cursed, pursued and abused, when 
they were without protection. At last 
General McCook agreed to pass him out 
of camp, and gave him a document which 
read something in this way : 

" To the guards and pickets. The 
bearer is a traitor to his country. I*ass 
him ; but, in doing so, mark him well, and 
if you see him hereafter prowling about 
our lines, shoot him at once." 

This pass the brawling disunionist had 
to show to the whole line of guards and 
pickets, who all marked him well before 
they let him pass. Though he had pre- 
viously been at Bacon Creek every day, 
he was not known to show his ' bacon ' 
there again. One interview with General 
McCook caused him to subside. ' Doctor' 
McCook's medicine was the only kind that 
proved a cure in such cases. 



Colonel Gazley Doing: a little Guard Duty. 

Lieutenant , of one of the Ohio 

regiments, was making a detail of men to 
guard a lot of army stores captured from 
the enemy. He approached a crowd of 
men all wearing overcoats, such as Uncle 
Sam gives his ' soger boys,' and selected 
four or five for special duty. It happened 
that Lieutenant-Colonel Gazley, of the 
thirty-seventh Indiana, was in the crowd, 
and was selected by the Lieutenant. This 
was fun for the Colonel, and without a 
word he shouldered his gun and went to 
his post of duty. Not long afterward, the 
Lieutenant, going his rounds, discovered 
by the firelight the bugle upon Gazley's 
cap. He rather authoritatively inquired 
where he got that bugle ? The Colonel 



drily replied that he " must have picked 
up an officer's cap somewhere," and with 
this very reasonable explanation the Lieu- 
tenant passed on. 

The Colonel stood his turn of 'special 
detail ' all night long and was found in the 
morning walking his post with true sol- 
dierly gait and pace. Having laid off 




Colonel Gazley doing a little Guard Duty. 

his overcoat, his shoulder-straps appeared 
very conspicuously in connection with the 
musket on his shoulder. As soon as the 
Lieutenant discovered a Colonel on guard, 
he approached him and courteously in- 
quired how he came to be there upon 
guard. " Well, sir, you placed me here." 
With no little agitation the Lieutenant 
inquired who he was ? " My name is 
Carter Gazley, and I am Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the Thirty-seventh Indiana 
regiment." The Colonel was speedily 
" released," but the Lieutenant was not so 
speedily relieved from his embarrassment. 
It is to be supposed that the Lieutenant 
" stood treat " in this case. 



" Hail Columbia " in a New Version. 
Colonel Granville Moody, a well known 
Methodist preacher, entered the Union 
army with a will. He did not ask or seek 
a chaplaincy — not he ; he commanded the 
Seventy-fourth Ohio regiment, and proved 
himself a tremendous fighter as well as a 
good preacher. Fifty years, or more, of 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC 



419 



age, he was of magnificent port, and six 
feet two or three inches of stature ; fine, 
genial face, fiery dark eyes, and a vocal 
range that would have excited the envy 
of Roaring Ralph Stackpole. He carried 
into battle a spirit of enthusiasm which 
inflamed his " boys " to the highest pitch 
of daring, and won for him the admiration 
of thousands. Thus, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Van Schrader, Inspector-General on the 
staff of General Thomas, had not been on 
friendly terms with Moody for some 
months, but admiring his splendid gallant- 
ry, he approached him in the heat of des- 
perate conflict, extended his hand, ex- 
pressed his earnest approbation of the 
Colonel's heroism, and begged that ever 
after peace might exist between them. A 
little later, Moody's " boys," as he paternally 
addressed them, were obliged to withstand 
a terrific fire without enjoying opportunity 
to return it. Moody galloped to General 
Negley and protested. " This fire, Gen- 
eral, is positively murderous; it will kill 
all my boys." But there was no help for 
it. His martial flock, imposing upon his 
benevolent nature, sometimes indulged a 
little sly humor at his expense. In the 
midst of battle, an Irishman in the regi- 
ment shouted, " His riverence, the Colo- 
nel, has been fightin' Satan all his life ; I 
reckon he thinks hell's broke loose now." 
Not long after the battle, General Negley 
merrily accused him of having indulged 
heterodox expletives in the ardor of en- 
gagement. 

" Is it a fact, Colonel," inquired the 
General, " that you told the boys to give 
them hell ? " 

" Now," replied the Colonel, reproach- 
fully, " there's some more of the boys' 
mischief. I told the boys to give the 
rebels Hail Columbia, and they have 
wickedly perverted my language." 

The fighting parson explained the mat- 
ter, however, with such a sly twinkle in 
the corner of his eye, that all he said only 
tended to cast a doubt upon the subject. 
But there was no doubt that one of his 



injunctions to his regiment sounded mar- 
vellously like a fervent ejaculation swell- 
ing up from the depths of the "Amen" cor- 
ner in an old fashioned Methodist church. 
This fact must be imagined, that the anec- 
dote may be appreciated. The Colonel's 
mind was saturated with piety and pug- 
nacity. He praised God and pitched into 
the rebels alternately. He had been struck 
by bullets four times already. He had 
given the enemy " H — ail Columbia " once, 
and they had reeled back to cover. Now 
they were swarming back to renew the 
contest. Moody's regiment were lying on 
their bellies waiting for them to come up. 
He had a moment to spare, and thought 
he would exhort them. The rebels were 
advancing swiftly, and probably cut him 
short. But as they approached he said 
quietly — " Now, boys, fight for your coun- 
try and your God " — ' and,' said one of his 
boys, ' we all surely thought he was going 
to say Amen, but at that instant the rebels 
let fly, and the old hero roared with the 
voice of a Stentor, "aim low!"' Weeks 
afterward, when the Colonel passed through 
his # camp, the mischievous rascals would 
shout behind him, " Fight for your coun- 
try and your God — aim low ! " 



Ingenuity of a Yankee "Wife in Getting 1 a 
Pass. 

An order was issued by the General of 
the Army of the Cumberland, that officers' 
and soldiers' wives should stay at home, — 
or, at least, advising them that they better 
not visit the army at Murfreesborough, 
there being no hotels, no nice eatables, 
none of the comforts of life, there ; on the 
contrary, many disagreeable things would 
have to be encountered. Hence, the dear 
ladies could get no passes to that army, — 
sad fact, but very necessary denial. 

But an officer's wife is shrewd. If she 
can circumvent the epaulet and shoulder- 
straps, 'tis done ; and she takes not a little 
delight in the operation. One of them, 
accordingly, telegraphed from Louisville 
to General Garfield, Chief of Staff, that 



420 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



her husband, an artillery officer, was very I way,— what Yankee wife will not ?— and 

sick, perhaps dying, — and that she must made her visit successfully. 

see him, and requested the General to au- 
thorize the issuing to her of a pass to 
Murfreesborough. The General's heart 
was touched ; but, knowing nothing of the 
matter, he referred it to Colonel Barnett, 
Chief of Artillery. The Colonel, too, 
sympathized with the distressed wife, and- 
kindly sent an orderly out to the husband's 
battery to inquire into his condition, that 
the devoted wife might be advised thereof. 
Speedily the husband himself came in, 
with astonishment depicted upon his face. 
Something's the matter, somehow or some- 
where, he does'nt exactly know what. 

" How do you do ? " asked the Artillery 
Chief. 

" First-rate, sir." 

" Where have you been of late ?" 
" At my battery, — on duty." 
" Have you not been sick lately ? " 
" No, indeed ! Never had better health 
in my life." 

" Quite sure of it, are you ? " 
" Of course I am." 

" You have been on duty all the time ? 
Have'nt you been absent from your com- 
mand at all?" 
" Not a day." 

" Perfectly well now, — no consumption, 
liver complaint, fever, spleen, or Tennes- 
see quickstep ? eh ? " 

" Certainly not. Why do you ask ? " 
In reply to this query, the telegram of 
his anxious wife was handed to him. He 
read it, looked down and pondered for a 
moment in silent wonder at the ingenuity 
of the woman, then called for a bottle of 
wine, and a general " smile " circulated 
among the by-standers. The loving wife 
was informed by telegraph that her hus- 
band was in no danger, — in fact, was do- 
ing remarkably Avell. Thus she was cir- 
cumvented for a time. Yet, to " vindicate 
the truth of history," it needs to be added 
that she gained her point in some other 



Matronly Opinion of "Corduroy." 
Mrs. W., an old lady residing in the 

town of O , was, just after one of the 

battles in the Southwest, listening to an 
account of General Grant's operations, in 
which, among other things, it was stated 
that he had caused several miles of new 
road to be constructed, and had covered it 
here and there with corduroy. " Why, 
bless me ! " she exclaimed, " what a waste ! 
Did a body ever hear the like ! There's 
our boys, poor creatures ! some of 'em 
most naked, and the pesky officers using 
up on them secessioners' roads all that 
stuff that was sent to make breeches ! I 
kin tell you," she concluded, with an in- 
dignant nourish worthy of the best days 
of Mrs. Partington, "we havnH got the 
right kind of Ginerals /" The honest 
matron was not aware that the " cordu- 
roy" referred to was not exactly the stuff 
for the boys' " breeches," but that stout 
timber construction employed to cover 
otherwise impassable highways. 



Halleck and the Teamster. 
That General Halleck, like General 
Sherman, is, in military as well as per- 
sonal affairs, a man of some odd ways, is 
saying nothing to his damage as a soldier. 
When in camp, he Avas accustomed to put 
on citizen's dress and privately take a look 
at men and things. During one of these 
tours — not unknowing but unknown — he 
helped a teamster out of the mud, then 
gave him a severe lecture for not driving 
carefully. He laughed heartily to hear 
the witticisms of a teamster upon himself. 
The high water in the river made a slough 
all but impassable. The teamster had 
floundered through it, and, having reached 
the top of the bluff, and being in sight of 
head-quarters, relieved himself of volley 
after volley of oaths upon the creek, his 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC, 



421 



horses, the roads, and lastly upon General 
Halleek for not having the creek bridged. 
The criticism was just ; but the General 
had already ordered the construction of a 
bridge, and, being incog., could enjoy the 
verbal castigation. 

Down upon the Table-Waiters. 

The illustration afforded of General 
Butler's pluck, in what follows, could 
hardly be exceeded by the most graphic 
sketches of that always graphic and bril- 
liant writer, Mr. Parton, to Avhom we are 
indebted for one of the very best military 
biographies in the whole range of war 
literature, possessing, as it does, almost 
the fascination of romance. It appears 
that a respectable colored woman, named 
Clara Duncan, left New York city, in 
company with a Mr. Walker and a Miss 
Bassett (white), for Norfolk, being sent 
by the American Missionary Association 
as teachers to the freed people. It was 
the desire of the Secretary, Rev. Mr. Whip- 
ple, that the two female passengers, white 
and black, on arriving at Baltimore, should 
occupy the same state room on board of 
the boat. 

All passed pleasantly; they were seated 
in the upper saloon when the gong sound- 
ed for tea. The clerk invited all down, 
Miss Duncan with the others. After tea, 
the clerk called Mr. Walker aside and in- 
quired whether he knew the regulations 
of the boat. Mr. Walker replied that he 
did not. The clerk then said, " We don't 
allow niggers to eat at the first table. 
And you go and tell her to come out of 
that saloon to a place prepared for her, or 
I shall take her down publicly." During 
the conversation, the mail agent, by the 
name of Rollins, stepped up and said that 
Mr. Walker " was no gentleman for trav- 
eling with a nigger wench," neither was 
Miss Bassett a lady for occupying the 
same state room. Arrangements were 
made for Miss Duncan to remain in her 
state room until the boat arrived at For- 



tress Monroe. All parties were indignant. 
On arriving at Norfolk the case was sub- 
mitted to General Wild, who told Mr. 
Walker to write out a statement and sub- 
mit it to Prof. Woodbury, Superintendent 
of Schools. Prof. Woodbury submitted 
it to General Butler, and the parties were 
duly summoned before that official. 

The officiating clerk of the boat, Mr. 
Wilson, was asked by General Butler 
what he had to say for himself. 

Wilson — I remember seeing those per- 
sons on the boat, and remember some com- 
plaint being made about a mulatto eating 
at the first table. 

General — Who made those complaints? 

Wilson — I do not know, General, all 
that were on board. I can not remember 
all the names and faces. 

General — You must remember some of 
them. 

Wilson — Gov. Pierpont was on board 
and he — 

Gen. — Then you say Gov. Pierpont 
complained ? If Governor Pierpont had 
anything to do with it he shall not remain 
in my lines. Did Gov. Pierpont com- 
plain ? 

Wilson — No, sir. 

Gen. — Who did complain, then ? 

Wilson — I do not know that any one 
complained. 

Gen. — They either complained or did 
not complain — which was it ? 

Wilson — They did not complain ; but, 
General, it has always been the rule — 

Gen. — Has been, is not now ; there's 
where the trouble lies — has been. 

The General then, turning to the mail 
agent, remarked, " Mr. Rollins, you run 
on the steamer Louisiana?" 

Rollins — I do. 

Gen. — Your employment is to tend to 
the mail and express, I believe. You, sir, 
are charged with calling that young lady 
(pointing to Miss Duncan,) improper 
names. Miss Duncan has not the power 
to change her color ; that she can not con- 



422 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION 



trol, but her character ; and to call her a 
nigger-wench implies that she is of disre- 
putable character. 

Rollins — I never said so. 

Gen. — You say your business is to tend 
to the mail and express. 

Rollins — Yes, and to wait on table. 

Gen. — It does not seem probable that 
you should say anything of the kind. 
The waiters are generally colored persons. 
You are a waiter, you say ; therefore it is 
not natural that you should say anything 
against your associates. May I ask, Mr. 
Rollins, what business you had to say any- 
thing ? The clerk had spoken ; that was 
sufficient. 

Mr. Rollins said nothing. 

The General, then turning to Mr. Wil- 
son : " When John or Susan traveled with 
master or mistress, they could stay in the 
saloons or sleep in the same state-room, 
could they not ? " 

Wilson — Yes. 

Gen. — Well, now I would like to ask 
one more question : Which do you con- 
sider in the highest state of civilization, 
the slave in his chains or the free person 
of color ? 

Wilson — I do not know — I guess — I 
think — well, I suppose, the free person. 

Gen. — You admit, then, the free man. 
Well, all I want is that the free man shall 
have the same rights the slave once en- 
joyed ; they shall sit in saloons, sleep in 
state-rooms, and go to the first table, if 
they desire. 

AYilson — I suppose I may tell them 
they may be insulted ? 

Gen. — Oh, yes ! and I shall excuse you, 
Mr. Wilson, if I never hear the same 
thing again. You were trying to promote 
your employers' interest. Remember 
what I have said. Now, Mr. Rollins, am 
I to believe your assertions ? How much 
do you receive per month ? 

Rollins — Twenty-five dollars. 

Gen. — How much do you receive from 
Government ? 

Rollins — Not anything, Sir. 



Gen. — Where were you born ? 

Rollins — In Baltimore. 

General — And brought up in Balti- 
more, too, I suppose. 

Rollins — Yes. 

Gen. — Well, now, Mr. Rollins, your 
employment on the Baltimore boats is at 
an end. Clerk, write an order to that 
effect, write one also to the Captain. 
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. 



"Abe" and "Andy." 

The drift of the communication given 
below will be found explained in the uni- 
versal domestic dictionary. 

The applicant, Normain Doane, an In- 
diana volunteer, asked for a furlough of 
twenty or thirty days in order to visit his 
wife and twins, boys, recently born, which 
he designed having christened " Abe " and 
" Andy." The document had passed 
through the War Department, from which 
place it was referred to the Adjutant Gen- 
eral's office, then to the Medical Director's 
Department, where it was reported that 
he had been transferred to Philadelphia. 
The document was then sent back to the 
Military Commander at Washington, from 
thence to the Adjutant General's office, 
and then to General Couch's Department. 
The Medical Director of the latter finally 
referred the matter to the surgeon in 
charge of the hospital in which the patient 
was confined, who immediately granted 
the applicant the furlough : 

Judiciary Square Hospital, Ward 15. 1 
Washington City, D C , June 23, 1864. ] 

Dear Sir : The Union is saved. Hur- 
rah ! 

Make room in Abraham's bosom ! 

My wife has twins. Both boys ! 

Do please grant me a furlough for 
twenty or thirty days to go to Fort Wayne, 
Ind., to christen 'em Abe and Andy ; and 
besides, I would like to know if they look 
like me. 

I am not so sick now. A few days at 
home will do me more good than six 
months in the hospital. Should any ref- 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC. 



423 



erence be required on patriotism and pub 
lie service, Schuyler Colfax ; on domestic 
relations, Mrs. Doane. 

Very respectfully, 

Normain Doane, 

Private, signed Corporal U. S. A. 

P. S. — The little presents necessary 

upon such occasions need not be sent till 

after the 4th of March next, when Andy 

will be present also. N. D. 



Impromptu Enforcement of Discipline. 

General Grant was one day busy with 
his military plans in the inner part of his 
tent. His maps, rules, and compasses, 
were all in use. His mind ranged over 
the vast extent of country under his con- 
trol. Mountains were scaled, rivers ford- 
ed, swamps bridged, deserts traversed, 
forests threaded, storms and sunshine were 
overcome, and he was master of the situa- 
tion. He was just laying out his plan of 
a projected battle, intensely occupied with 
the marshalling of his troops in their best 
positions for victory, when his ear caught 
the inquiry, put to his orderly, in a strong 
foreign accent, — 

" Is de Generawl in ? " 

Then came the reply, in a firm, decided 
tone, which General Grant understood 
instantly — 

" Yes, Sir, the Commanding General is 
in ; but he is very busy, Sir." 

" Could I zee him a vew momenz ? " 

" He ordered me to say, Sir, that he 
would be very much occupied for some 
time " — 

" On de advance, eh ? " interrupted the 
intruder ; " Den he is going down furder 
to de coddon regione ? " 

" I can't say where he is going, Sir : I 
don't know. You must leave." 

Stranger became more excited, and his 
accent more peculiar. 

" Mine young vrend, I have one impor- 
tant proposals to make de Generawl, — a 
proposals, mine young vrend " — 

"I can't hear your 'proposal.' Step 
out, Sir ! " 



" Sdop, mine young vrend, — sdop one 
letle momend. You zay to de Generawl 
dat I will make it one gran' objecs for 'im, — 
one rich speculadion ! You understan', eh ? " 

The orderly was about to force the base 
interloper out, with an added word of 
military admonition, when General Grant 
came quickly forward. He had heard the 
whole conversation, and comprehended 
the entire case in a moment. It was a 
covert assault on his nice sense of honor, 
and he was determined to punish it on the 
spot. Stepping to the open front of his 
tent, the General seized the rascally oper- 
ator by the collar, and, lifting him several 
inches from the ground, applied the toe of 
his boot to him in such a manner that he 
was pitched out headlong, falling on the 
muddy ground at a distance of nearly ten 
feet. Before the orderly could recover 
from his surprise, the General had quietly 
retired to his inner apartment, and the 
next moment was as busily engaged with 
his maps, and plan of campaign, as if 
nothing had happened. 



Password as Understood by the German 
Guard. 

In the Union army of the West, one of 
the officers, — a wag, too, in his way, — 
whose duty it was to furnish the guards 
with a password for the night, gave the 
word " Potomac." A German on guard, 
not understanding distinctly the difference 
between the B's and P's, understood it to 
be ' Bottomic,' and this, on being transfer- 
red to another, was corrupted to ' Butter- 
milk.' Soon afterward the officer who had 
given the word wished to return through 
the lines, and approaching the sentinel, 
was ordered to halt, and the word de- 
manded. He gave " Potomac." 

"Nicht right: you don't pass mit me 
dis way." 

" But this is the word, and I will pass." 

" No, you stan' "; at the same time 
placing a bayonet at his breast in a man- 
ner that told Mr. Officer that " Potomac " 
didn't pass in Missouri. 



424 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



" What is the word then ? " 
" Buttermilk." 
« Well, then, ' Buttermilk.' " 
" Dat is right ; now you pass mit your- 
self all about your pizness." 



Congressman Ely at the Confederate Pass- 
port Office. 

When Congressman Ely, of New York, 
but for a time a prisoner in Richmond, 
was finally released, in exchange for 
Hon. Mr. Faulkner, of Virginia, on call- 
ing at the office for his passport, a hearty 
laugh occurred over the brown paper on 
which it was printed, and which had been 
contracted for by the superintendent of 
public printing. He asked if it was South- 
ern manufacture. The passport officer re- 
plied in the affirmative, and suggested that 
he should exhibit it, the specimen, in the 
North, and say that although crude in its 
origin, they — the South — would refine up- 
on it, and never cease striving for inde- 
pendence until they could make as good 



his head, he examined carefully, and to his 
astonishment found himself euchered of 
his milk ; but he made the discovery that 
as he advanced the cow-bell retreated. 
The sergeant smelt a moderate sized mice, 
and made a double-quick retrograde move- 
ment. He immediately reported the af- 
fair to Colonel Hays. The Colonel se- 
creted a squad of men in the woods, and 





Congressman Ely. 



paper as the Yankees. Congressman Ely 
naively replied that he had no doubt they 
would arrive at the dignity of white paper. 



Caught in his own Trap. 
The sergeant of one of the Union pick- 
et guards suddenly had his attention drawn 
Jo the tinkling of a cow -bell in the bushes. 
With visions of new milk running through 



Caught in his own Trap. 



the sergeant again made himself conspicu- 
ous. He brushed about among the bush- 
es, and the cow-bell approached. The 
squad soon had the satisfaction of seeing 
— not the cow-bell, but a secesher, with a 
cow-bell hung to his neck and a six-shoot- 
er in his belt. When he got within easy 
range, and in sight of the squad, the ser- 
geant hailed him : " I say, old fellow, 
would you rather go to — , or to Wash- 
ington ? " The squad at the same time 
stepped forward. " To Washington, I 
reckon," drawled the rebel — " I ain't 
clothed for a warm climate." And he ac- 
cordingly delivered himself up with the 
best possible grace. 



Marshall's " Demijohn Drill." 
Colonel Marshall, when stationed at 
Baltimore, proved himself a prompt and 
efficient officer, according to the testimony 
of his men, over whom he exercised not 
only a military but moral oversight. On 
a certain occasion, at dress parade, he gave 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC 



425 



them what he called the " demijohn drill." 
Some one had been permitted to set up a 
tent inside our lines, and sell eatables to 
the soldiers. This individual dared to sell 
rum, which made a few drunk and noisy. 
This drunkard-maker was arrested by the 
Colonel's orders, and taken into the guard- 
house. His liquor was also seized. He 
was then drummed out to the tune of the 
" Rogue's March," presenting a most 
laughable appearance, with a bottle slung 
over each shoulder, a toddy-stick in his 
rear, soldiers ahead of him and soldiers 
behind him with bayonets charged close 
to his person. After this the sound of 
shattered glass testified that the demijohn 
was drilled, and its contents spilled. 

No Passes to Official Speculators. 
A little affair transpired in General 
Banks's head-quarters one day, as related I 
by an eye witness, which furnishes a rather j 
sorry idea as to how much actual interest ' 
was felt in the war by gome of the " patri- 
otic " men who got up regiments and com- 
panies for the service. 

Enter an Ex-Colonel of a Massachusetts 
regiment, and after waiting an interview, 
a colloquy something like the following oc- 
curred : 

Ex-Col. — Good morning, General. 
Gen. B. — Good morning, Sir, I am very 
happy to see you. 

Ex-Col. — General, I called to ask you 
for a pass to go to New Iberia. 

Gen. B. — Your name is . 

Ex-Col.— Yes, Sir. 

Gen. B. — You were Colonel of the 
Massachusetts — regiment ? 

Ex- Col. — Yes, Sir, I did command that 
regiment. 

Gen. B. — And you resigned your com- 
mission to engage in speculation ? 

Ex-Col. — Why, General, you would not 

suppose I should continue in the service 

when I saw a chance to make twenty or 

thirty thousand dollars in a few months ? 

Gen. B. — Sir, I did not come here to 



make money by speculation, and it is be- 
cause men like yourself are willing to see 
my command broken up, if they can ac- 
complish their own purposes, that this de- 
partment is in no better condition to-day. 
I give no passes to New Iberia, Sir, and 
especially I shall not grant one to you. 
Good morning, Sir. 

Exit Ex-Colonel — violently considering 
how he shall get to New Iberia without 
General Banks's pass. 



Honorable Commendation instead of Igno- 
minious Death. 

It appears that information reached the 
President that a young man belonging to 
the Army of the Potomac had been sen- 
tenced by court-martial to be shot for de- 
sertion. The boy was doomed to die in a 
few hours when the dispatch was received. 
A telegram was sent to General Meade, 
suspending the execution of the sentence. 
An examination of the case was ordered 
by the President, when it was ascertained 
that the young man ought, in justice, to 
have been promoted long ago for gallant 
and meritorious service, instead of being 
shot ! It was proved that upon the march 
of the Army of the Potomac towards 
Maryland, on the occasion of General 
Lee's first raid northward, the young man 
in question became exhausted and fell out 
of the ranks, and, as soon as he recovered, 
he proceeded on after his regiment, but 
not finding it, and there being no time to 
lose, he fell into the ranks of another reg- 
iment and fought gallantly at South Moun- 
tain and Antietam; and was wounded in 
the last named battle. He was sent to the 
hospital, which fact, owing to the absence 
of a proper system in such cases, did not 
reach the officers of his regiment. At last 
he was arrested as a deserter, tried, con- 
demned, and was about to be shot, when 
by the interference of the Executive, his 
life was saved, and a young man, hastily 
doomed to an ignominious death, was sud- 
denly restored to honor. 



426 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



Peg-gie McCue who Whipped General Cheat- 
ham. 

A queer specimen of the genus homo 
was Peggie McCue — so they called him — 
who used to be employed on the river boats, 
and afterward was a soldier in the rebel 
army, seeking his fights. During the oc- 
cupancy of Missionary Ridge, by' the Con- 
federates, an incident occurred in which 
Peggie played a conspicuous and certainly 
a very characteristic part. Peggie was 
engaged one day as a teamster, and Gen- 
eral Frank Cheatham, riding along, caught 
him in the act of vigorously pummelling 
the mules with a billet of wood. Riding 
up in a terrible rage, Cheatham denounced 
him with great severity, and ordered him 
to cease his brutal treatment. Peggie's 
Irish riz suddenly. Turning about and 
confronting Frank, he remarked — 

" General, you are a — coward. You 
know your shoulder-straps protect you, or 
you would never apply that talk to me." 

" A coward, am I, you miserable devil ! " 
exclaimed the General, throwing off his 
coat ; look here, McCue ; there is General 
Cheatham and the shoulder-straps ; here 
is Frank Cheatham. Come and take sat- 
isfaction." 

Peggie was not slow to accept the invi- 
tation, made for Frank, and in two min- 
utes had whipped him soundly. 

The General, smarting under his defeat, 
started for his horse, which a sudden ap- 
plication of Peggie's foot assisted him to 
mount. Picking up the coat, McCue 
threw it to the General, remarking as he 
did so, (pointing first to the rider, and 
then to the coat,) — ' 

" There is the whipped Frank Cheat- 
ham, of the Cumberland Army — here is 
Major-General Cheatham, commander of a 
division. General, you can repeat that 
operation as often as you desire ; you will 
always find Peggie ready for you." 



Sticking to the Original Order. 
Peter Apple, of Oakland, Marion coun- 
ty, was a recruit for the Eleventh Indiana 



regiment, and took part in the attempt to 

storm one of the Vicksburg batteries. The 

enemy's fire was so destructive, however, 

that the Union army recoiled. Apple, the 

raw recruit, having received orders to go 

" Onward," " didn't see " the backward 

movement, and, obedient to the original 

command issued, kept going ahead until he 

came right up to one of the enemy's guns, 

caught a gunner by the collar, and brought 

him within the Federal lines, saying, " By 

golly, boys, why didn't you come on ? 

Every feller might have got one." 

♦ ■ 

Toombs's Idea of Passports. 

Robert Toombs, formerly a United 
States Senator, subsequently Secretary of 
State under Davis, and then a Confeder- 
ate General, but finally a Colonel in the 
Georgia militia, at last seceded to his pri- 
vate domain, becoming a citizen without 
civic or military distinction. Rather dis- 
gusted than otherwise with the " powers 
that be," he returned to the advocacy of 
Georgia State Rights, in all the radical- 
ness of that ultra Southern school. This, 
with other acts and speeches, made him 
obnoxious to dislike, nor was his offence 
mitigated by the personal assumptions in 
which he sometimes indulged. 

One day, acting up to his original stand- 
ard of the dignity of a noble patrician, a 
citizen of the State of Georgia, and in de- 
fiance of the law military which he him- 
self helped to ordain, he undertook to 
travel on a Georgia railroad witliout a 
passport. In reply to the demand of a 
rebel soldier to show his passport, he said 
he had no such document — that he was a 
citizen of the State of Georgia, which 
State did not require her railroad passen- 
gers to show passports. 

The inference from this was that Robert 
denied his allegiance to the central agent, 
whose foundations were laid upon the 
mutual good-will and esteem of the com- 
ponent parts, and cemented with the doc- 
trine of secession. Such language was to 
the ears of Beauregard little short of trea- 
sonable ; and he had the Ex-Senator, Ex- 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC. 



427 



Secretary and the Ex-Brigadier arrested 
and sent to prison. An old Southern 
lady, who witnessed the arrest, summed up 
Robert in this style: 

" Well, well, well ! they have got Bob 
Toombs ! I heard him say he would swal- 
low the blood of all the Yankees that came 
South. Well, well, well ! he'll swallow all 
he sheds ! " 

At which remarks the unfeeling crowd, 
whose veneration for the illustrious 
Toombs must have undergone considerable 
modification since they allowed him to 
persuade them to secede, burst into loud 
laughter. 

Hardee's Tactics, -with a Point Left Out. 

While on a forced march in some of the 
army movements in Mississippi, General 
Hardee, of the rebel army, came up with 
a straggler who had fallen some distance 
in the rear of his command. The General 
ordered him forward, when the soldier re- 
plied that he was weak and broken down, 




General Hardee 

r.ot having had even half rations for several 
days. 

"That's hard," replied the General, 
"but you must push forward, my good 
fellow, and join your command, or the 
Provost Guard will take you in hand." 

The soldier halted, and, looking up at 
the General asked — 

" Are you General Hardee ? " 



" Yes," replied the General. 

" Didn't you write Hardee's Tacticks ? * 

" Yes." 

" Well, General, I have studied them 
tacticks, andknow'em by heart. You've 
got a order to double column at half dis- 
tance, ain't you ? " 

" Well," asked the General, " what has 
that to do with your case ? " 

" I'm a good soldier, General, and obev 
all that is possible to be obeyed; but it' 
your orders can show me a order in your 
tacticks to double distance on half rations 
then I'll give in." 

The General, with a hearty laugh, ad- 
mitted that there were no tactics to meet 
the case, and putting spurs to his horse, 
rode forward. 



Sickness after Furlough. 

It was a common trick in the army to 
try and get a medical certificate of illness 
or incapacity; but very many of tho.-e 
who went to the Medical Director, found 
they had got to the wrong man. Any one 
sitting in Dr. Cuyler's office, any five min- 
utes during the day, would been likely to 
hear an amusing dialogue somewhat after 
this fashion : 

Enter two sturdy soldiers, very stout, 
rosy and healthy in appearance, but trying 
to look very lackadaisical. 

Dr. Cuyler, (in a brusque but honest 
tone, to first,) — Well, Sir, what can I do 
for you to-day ? 

Soldier, (groaning slightly,) — I'm very 
sick, doctor ; I've chronic rheumatism. 

Dr. C. — Chronic rheumatism, eh? My 
dear Sir, that disease is quite played out 
here. Try a little exercise with your 
brave brothers on the James River. Where 
do you come from ? 

Soldier — New York, Sir, on return from 
furlough. 

Dr. C. — From furlough, eh ? How 
long? 

Soldier — A month, Sir. 

Dr. C. — So you go home and enjoy 
yourself a whole month, at your country's 



428 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



expense, return here to resume your du- 
ties, and just at the time your over-worked 
brothers are needing your assistance most, 
you come here to desert them. I put it 
to your conscience, Sir, as a man, is this 
right ? 

Dr. C, (sternly,) — No sick man needs 
explanation to me, Sir. I know them too 
well, and insist upon their being tended 
like children ; but that is not your case. 
(Turning to the other) — What is the mat- 
ter with you, Sir ? 

Second Soldier, (looking heartier than 
the first,) — I am very sick, Sir. 

Dr. C. — Have you been on furlough, 
too? 

Second Soldier — Yes, Sir, we came to- 
gether, from New York. 

Dr. C. — Strange, you weren't sick in 
New York, but get sick directly you come 
back ! Pray, how long have you been 
sick? 

Second Soldier — Two days, Sir. 

Dr. C. — Only two days, and you con- 
sider that enough to throw up your duties ? 
Why, my dear Sir, I don't feel very well 
to-day, but you see I must keep to my 
post. Pooh ! Pooh ! I'm tired of this 
nonsense. (To his clerk) — Here, Mr. 
Silva, write an order for these two men. 

Tell that they have just returned 

from a month's furlough, and wish to rejoin 
their regiments. 

The papers are speedily made out, and 
exit the two " patients," no doubt feeling 
that Dr. Cuyler is a rather " hard case." 



Tricks to Avoid Duty. 
One of the first things a soldier learns 
to do is to avoid duty. He tires of the 
daily drill, picket duty, etc., and seeks, 
through plea of sickness, to escape them. 
Thus it was in our Union armies ; thus it 
has been in all armies. It would have 
puzzled Dr. Lieber himself to make out 
some of the complaints which were " put 
in " at the morning call of the regimental 
surgeon, by the soldiers. Thus, knowing 
that the doctor relies mainly for his judg- 



ment of a case upon the condition of the 
pulse, the soldier would not unfrequently 
render it unsteady and violent by rapping 
the elbow severely just before entering his 
tent. The appearance of the tongue is, 
of course, another standard criterion of 
condition. A surgeon of a New York 
regiment in General Davidson's brigade 
was much puzzled during the winter of 
1861, to account for so many of the men 
having coated tongues. It was almost a 
distemper in the regiment. After much 
diligent inquiry he discovered that among 
the privates was a druggist who furnished, 
for a trifle, his comrades with a white mix- 
ture, which they applied to their tongues 
whenever desirous of getting off from duty. 
The discovery was not made, however, un- 
til after nearly the whole regiment had de- 
ceived him at one time and another. 



Easy "Way of Cutting Red Tape. 

The convenient manner in which Gen- 
eral Grant sometimes was accustomed to 
cut red tape was quite refreshing. On 
one occasion the Ninetieth New York reg- 
iment, then in a distant field of military 
operations, re-enlisted as veteran recruits, 
but were not able then to take their fur- 
lough, on account of a press of business. 
While, however, General Grant was on 
his visit to Maryland, the regiment de- 
parted for home on furlough. But there 
were twenty-two of the men, who, as pun- 
ishment for some trivial offence, were not 
allowed to go. They were put into other 
regiments, to serve until their regiment 
returned, and were still held as veteran 
recruits. These twenty -two men, being at 
Monocacy, where General Grant was vis- 
iting, concluded to try the heart of their 
chief, and one of them waited on him in 
behalf of the party. 

A private soldier, grim and travel- 
stained, bearing in every feature the trace 
of long service in the field, the Lieutenant- 
General listened attentively while he told 
his tale and plead for himself and his com- 
panions. A few questions put and an- 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC. 



429 



swered, and Grant was satisfied that injus- 
tice had been done the war-worn men, and 
on the spot he wrote a telegram to the 
proper officer, then at Harper's Ferry, in- 
structing him to furlough the men immedi- 
ately. They left for home at once, with 
a consciousness that the Commander-in- 
Chief was one who could mete out equal 
and exact justice to all. 



Ready Mode of Meeting Difficulties by Gen- 
eral Butler. 
Two noted characters, C. C. Pearson 
and James Leary, formerly billiard and 
liquor-saloon keepers and gamblers in Nor- 
folk, having inveigled themselves into Ber- 
muda Landing without passes, were brought 



" Very well," said the General, " serve 
with me now at the end of it." 

Pearson begged off, telling the General 
to remember his family in Norfolk. 

" Well, I am not doing anything to dis- 
grace your family." 

"But they won't know what has be- 
come of me." 

" True. Davenport, print this order in 
the Norfolk papers, and then his family 
can see where he is." 




Head-quarters of Gen. Butler, Baltimore 



before the Commanding General, Butler, 
who thereupon issued the following or- 
der : 

" C. C. Pearson having smuggled him- 
self within my lines, contrary to law and 
without a pass, on board the gunboat Pink, 
Ensign Kendrick, master, and being, by 
his own statement, able-bodied and with- 
out any business, is ordered to be set to 
work in the trenches, until further orders, 
to supply the place of a soldier who has 
other occupation. There being constant 
employment for him in Gen. Hinks's line, 
he will be forwarded there." 

The same order was issued in the case 
of Leary. One of them pleaded that he 
had served under the General at the be- 
ginning of the war. 

27 



Arrest of one of General Grant's Aids by a 
Colored Guard. 
While General Grant was on a visit to 
the front of his Potomac Army one day, 
one of his aids, who happened not to wear 
any distinguishing mark of 
office, was arrested by one 
of the colored soldiers as 
soon as his presence was 
L' discovered. In vain did he 
put in the plea of his official 
k relations to the Lieutenant- 
General — they would not 
telieve his story, but took 
lim forthwith to General 
Grant to corroborate his 
explanation. 

" Well, General," said the 
prisoner, "I have been arrested by this 
soldier, who won't believe my story." 

The Commander-in-Chief identified and 
released his aid, telling the soldier he had 
done his duty. He then remarked to his aid : 
" Served you right, Sir ; I am glad of 
it, as it shows the negroes are vigilant. 
The next time you had better wear some- 
thing to indicate your rank and profes- 
sion, or else keep out of their way." 

The author of that admirable work, 
' Grant and his Campaigns,' could scarcely 
tell a better thing than the above of his 
srreat chieftain. 



Wanted a Furlough. 
Colonel Parkhurst, the very efficient 
Provost Marshal General of the Army of 



430 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



the Cumberland, ' in the course of human 
events ' married an elegant lady of Mur- 
freesboro', Tennessee, and having been 
home twice within a short time to see her, 
was informed of a little joke on General 
Thomas — one, by the way, which the Gen- 
eral was only too happy to tell himself. 

Once on a time, a High Private, of ex- 
traordinary dimensions, lumbered into the 
presence of General Thomas and asked 
point blank for a furlough, adding : 

" General, I wish to go home and see 
my wife." 

" How long is it since you have seen 
your wife ? " inquired the General. 

" Why," he answered, " I have not seen 
my wife for over three months." 

" Three months," exclaimed General 
Thomas, " three months ! why, I haven't 
seen my wife for three years ! " 

" Well, that may be," rejoined the other, 
" but you see, General, me and my wife 
ain't o' that sort." 

Whether H> P. got that little furlough 
or not may easily be guessed. 

Irish Logic concerning - " Shmall Arms." 
During the siege of Vicksburg General 
Grant was in the habit of saying often 
that the rebels defending the city were his 
prisoners-of-war, who were temporarily 
subsisting themselves. 

One day the Lieutenant- Colonel com- 
manding the — th Wisconsin replied to 
some observation addressed to him by one 

Dennis , a perfect specimen of an 

Irishman, with the good-natured remark, 
" Oh ! never mind, Dennis ; General Grant 
says that they [pointing to the rebel lines] 
are only our prisoners." " Shure, then," 
said Dennis, " if they're our prisoners, why 
don't he be after taking away their shmall 



"Whar's dat Nig-g-erP" 
In July, 1863, when the Army of the 
Cumberland was at Winchester, Tennes- 
see, one of the foraging expeditions had 
for its guide, old Jim, one of the blackest 
of the black, — so black that he could be 



plainly seen in the darkest night, — and the 
first place he led to was the house of his 
former master. Riding up the lawn and 
dismounting, the first sound that was 
heard was : " Well, there's Jim ! Oh, 
Jim, how could you leave us, when we 
have always treated you so kindly ? Didn't 
you always say that you loved us dearly?" 
Jim straightens himself up, and goes up 
to the porch of the house, and replies, 
" Yes, Missus, I always lub you, and lub 
you now a heap ; but really, Missus, I lub 
myself a heap better." Even the good 
old lady could not help smiling ; and Jim 
conducted the party over the grounds 
where he had so many years been a slave 
with as much pride as if he was its real 
owner. 

But Jim showed his peculiar nature 
more, perhaps, in the following incident, 
than in any other. During the advance 
toward Bridgeport a heavy artillery skir- 
mish was had, and Jim was not seen for a 
whole day. At night, when he came up, 
he was asked Avhere he had been. He 
rolled his large eyes in his head, and 
said, " Oh ! massa, I heard something 
coming through the air, saying, ' Whar's 




" Whar's dat Nigger? 



dat nigger? whar's dat nigger? whar's 
dat nigger ? ' and putty soon dat ting bust- 
ed, and little debils went skirmishing all 
round right arter dis nigger, and I run 
away ! " 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC 



431 



Those persons who have heard shells 
oome whizzing through the air will readily 
see that old Jim's description of them is 
perfect. 



Judge Baldwin Soliciting" a Pass. 
Judge Baldwin, of California, an old 
and highly respectable and sedate gentle- 
man, called one day on General Halleck, 
and presuming upon a familiar acquaint- 
ance in California a few years ago, solicit- 
ed a pass outside our lines to see a brother 
in Virginia, not thinking that he would 
meet with a refusal, as both his brother 
and himself were good Union men. " "We 
have been deceived too often," said Gen- 
eral Halleck, " and I regret I can't grant 
it." Judge B. then went to Stanton, and 
was very briefly disposed of with the same 
result. Finally he obtained an interview 
with Mr. Lincoln, and stated the case. 
" Have you applied to General Halleck ? " 
inquired the President. " Yes, and met 
with a refusal," said Judge B. "Then 
you must see Stanton," continued the 
President. " I have, and with the same 
result," was the reply. " Well, then," said 
Old Abe, with a smile of good humor, " I 
can do nothing ; for you must know that I 
have very little influence with this Admin 
istration I " 



Serious Indisposition of Two Uncles. 
General Rosecrans was chary of giv- 
ing passes. A lady one day approached 
him, and began with a pitiful story in re- 
gard to her " poor, dear, sick uncle." " I 
condole with you, madam," said the Gen- 
eral, in his well known quiet way ; " it is 
unfortunate that uncles will sometimes get 
seriously indisposed. I, too, have a dear 
afflicted uncle." " Then you can sympa- 
thize with me," she said. " Yes, madam, I 
do, and when my Uncle Sam gets over his 
present serious indisposition, I will give 
you a pass." It would of course be an 
anti-climax, which would ruin the story, to 
tell what the lady did. 



Troubles of a Feminine "Secesh." 
Galena, Illinois, is justly celebrated for 
its lead mines and pretty ladies, — quoth 
an officer of the Sixteenth United States 
infantry, who also furnishes the very read- 
able ' local item ' which follows : In this 
town resides a very interesting family, the 
father a native of New England, the mother 
of Tennessee. The daughters, grown to 
womanhood, are accomplished and lovely. 
The eldest daughter, Bell, married last fall 
a chaplain in a rebel Tennessee regiment, 
who, when the rebels evacuated Murfrees- 
boro', went with his regiment, leaving his 
wife to return home. The father was a 
loyal man, but the rest of the family were 
badly "secesh." The married daughter, 
during the spring and summer, was contin- 
ually teasing her father to get her a " mil- 
itary pass," to go South to her husband, 
which, however, he was not inclined to do. 
She got the pass, nevertheless,, and com- 
menced packing her things, preparatory to 
leaving. About this time the news of the 
fall of Vicksburg came, and a horse, a very 
great favorite in the family, was taken 
violently sick, and his life despaired of. 
One afternoon,, while a social chat was go- 
ing on in the parlor, with the daughters, 
the mother came in looking extremely de- 
jected. 

" Ma," asked the youngest daughter, 
"what is the matter? " 

" Oh dear, my daughter," she replied, at 
the same time straightening herself up in 
her chair hi a peculiar manner, which 
would have done honor to Mrs. Parting- 
ton, " Vicksburg has fallen, Bell is going 
down South, the horse is going to die, and 
the dear Lord only knows what will come 
upon us next ! " 



Hard on Negley. 
Quite a joke was played off upon Gen- 
eral Negley by an audacious secession wag 
— a whiskey-drinking, facetious joker re- 
siding in the town of Goolettsville, a strong 
secesh hole, in which there never was but 



432 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



one Union man, and he died. Well, this 
wag wagered a gallon of whiskey that he 
could go into Nashville, and go all over the 
city, notwithstanding the strictness of Gen- 
eral Negley's orders ; further, that he 
would see Negley personally, and have a 
talk with him. The bet was taken, and 
this fellow, whose name was Paul, and 
well known in John Bell's State as a vio- 
lent secessionist, the next day took a flag of 
truce, rode into the city, saw crowds of his 
friends, rode up to the head-quarters of 
General Negley and demanded the sur- 
render of the city, stating that he was As- 
sistant Adjutant Paul, and that there was 
an immense quantity of troops ready to en- 
force the demand. General Negley re- 
fused to entertain the thought of a sur- 
render, and Paul returned to Goolettsville, 
having won his audacious bet. Negley 
was not 'cute, but a brave man and true 
patriot, who did great service for his coun- 
try in Tennessee, the State so wofully 
plunged into secession anarchy by her 
Bells, Polks, and kindred spirits. 

Impositions upon Furloughed Men. 

The impositions practiced upon soldiers 
by the cormorants that generally hang up- 
on the trail of an army are well known. 
When, therefore, General Grant issued 
his order, No. 45, granting furloughs to 
the soldiers, he also issued a special order 
forbidding steamboat men to charge more 
than five dollars to enlisted men, and seven 
dollars to officers, as fare between Vicks- 
burg and Cairo. 

Immediately after Vicksburg had fallen, 
a large number of steamboats cleared from 
Northern ports for that place, and were in 
the habit of charging soldiers going home 
on furlough from fifteen to thirty dollars' 
fare to Cairo. One of these steamers was 
compelled by general Grant to disgorge 
its ill-gotten gains under the following cir- 
cumstances : 

The boat had about one thousand enlist- 
ed soldiers and nearly two hundred and 
fifty officers on board, en route for home on 



short leave of absence, after the fatigues 
of their protracted but glorious campaign. 

The captain had charged these men 
and officers from ten to twenty-five dollars 
each as fare to Cairo. Just, however, as 
the boat was about to push off from the 
wharf at Vicksburg, an order came from 
General Grant, requiring the captain to 
pay back to his passengers all money re- 
ceived by him as fare in excess of five 
dollars to enlisted men, and seven dollars 
to officers, or submit to imprisonment for 
disobedience, and have his boat confiscat- 
ed. The order certainly caused an amount 
of disagreeable astonishment to the cap- 
tain ; but the presence of a guard rendered 
it useless to refuse, and so, amid the shouts 
of the soldiers over their General's care 
of their interests, he complied with as 
good grace as possible, and paid back the 
money. A gentleman who was a passen- 
ger on this occasion had been present 
when General Grant issued the order 
above referred to. The General, upon 
being informed of the impositions prac- 
ticed upon furloughed men and officers by 
steamboat men, was very indignant : 

" I will teach them, if they need the les- 
son," said the gallant General, " that the 
men who have periled their lives to open 
the Mississippi River for their benefit can- 
not be imposed upon with impunity." 

♦ 

Complimentary Responses of a Soldier to 
his General. 

General Warren had the reputation not 
only of commanding a gallant corps but 
of making first-rate soldiers of his men, 
and meeting all sorts of cases in a manner 
that showed that he was not only a com- 
mander of soldiers but a man among men. 
When falling back during the night after 
the fight at Bristow, he saw a conscript 
straggling along, apparently without any 
weapon. 

" To what command do you belong ? " 
asked General Warren. 

" Second corps," replied the man, with 
strong nasal twang denoting his recent de- 
parture from the Eastern States. 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC, 



433 



" What are you doing here without a 
gun ? " was the next question put by the 
General, but to which the man gave an 
evasive reply, indicating that that was his 
business. 

" What have you got under your coat 
there ? " demanded General Warren. 

" A gun, you fool," returned the 

conscript, partly revealing a gun beneath 
the folds of his ample coat. 

" There's no discount on that man," re- 
marked General Warren to an Aid, and 
passed on. 



rades, was instantly adopted. Every man 
loaded his piece, and pointed it over the 
parapet or through one of the many small 
portholes made by placing ammunition 
boxes in the wall. Then the author of the 
plan began to shout orders as though com- 
manding at least a brigade : 

" ' Colonel, connect your line with the 
Forty-seventh ! ' ' Give way to the right.' 
' Close ranks ! ' ' Right dress ! ' ' Fix 
bayonet ! ' 'Double-quick ! ' 'Ch-a-a-rge ! " ' 

Instantly five hundred men rise into 
plain sight behind the rebel works, expect- 




^^ 



Belligerent Work. 



Should this meet the brave fellow's eye, 
he will learn that he addressed his com- 
plimentary response to General Warren, 
and will wonder perhaps why he was not 

punished. 

* 

Tricks and Tactics in the Ranks. 
While the two armies — Grant's and 
Lee's — lay opposite each other, with their 
lines in close proximity, one Sunday, one 
of our men conceived a brilliant scheme, 
or ruse, which, when unfolded to his com- 



ing to see an advancing line. Not so, but 
five hundred men from safe cover fire up- 
on them on the instant. The volley, which 
must have inflicted considerable loss, 
is followed up with cheers and jeers, 
laughter, and much chaffing, as — ' What 
do y' think o' Yankee tricks ? ' ' That's 
the way John Brown's soul is marching 
on ! ' ' No use o' baitin' hooks when 
you're fishin' for gudgeons ! ' 

The trick was repeated several times 
during the day, with ingenious variations, 



434 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION, 



always to crowded houses, and always 
eliciting much applause from the perform- 
ers. Such pleasantries were a grateful 
offset to the belligerent work which the 
brave fellows of the national army were 
called to engage in, before and after, and 
of which they proved themselves masters 
worthy of the noble cause in which they 

fought. 

«. 

Widow Shultz's Appeal to the President. 
Benjamin Shultz, of Newark, and who 
was a member of the Eighth New Jersey 
regiment, had the misfortune to fall into 
the hands of the rebels on two different 
occasions, as a prisoner. On his return 
from his first imprisonment, on parole, 
young Shultz was sent to Camp Parole, 
at Alexandria. Having had no furlough 
since the war commenced, efforts were 
made, but without success, to obtain for 
him liberty to pay a brief visit to his 
friends. But, not disheartened, and hav- 
ing faith in the warm-heartedness of the 
President, the young soldier's widowed 
mother wrote to Mr. Lincoln, stating that 
he had been in nearly every battle fought 
by the Army of the Potomac ; had never 
asked a furlough ; was now a paroled pris- 
oner, and in consequence was unable to 
perform active duties ; that two of his 
brothers had also served in the army ; and 
asking that he be allowed to visit home, 
that she might see him once more. Her 
trust in the President was not unfounded. 
He immediately caused a furlough to be 
granted to her son. 



A Pass that "Would'nt Pass. 
" Traveling on a pass," among the ne- 
gro soldiers on the Mississippi, must have 
been rather a difficult business, if any 
judgment can be formed from the narra- 
tive of personal experience given by a so- 
journer in that region — which serves al- 
so to illustrate in an amusing manner the 
esteem cherished by them for letters and 
their unwillingness to reveal their own ig- 



norance : — I floated down to Port Hudson 
(wrote the traveler), where I amved at a 
late hour in the night. At the end of the 
plank where I disembarked I met an un- 
bleached American soldier, with a bayo- 
net, who expressed a desire to read my 
pass, and ordered the steamboat to " hoi 
on " till he did so. But the boat rounded 
out, and was well on her way toward 
New Orleans, before the member of the 
Corps oV Afrique came to the conclusion 
that he " didn't know whedder dat pass all 
right or no — may be good enough for 
soldiers, but may-be not for a citizen," he 
said. I asked him what he proposed to 
do about it ; whereupon he called for " de 
Sahgent ob de ga'ad " ; and the Sergeant 
appearing, I was graciously permitted to 
go aboard the steamer North America, 
lying at the landing, and stay till morning. 

Next morning, with my trunk in one 
hand and my pass in the other, I essayed 
to land, and found in my way the same 
bayonet. The Sergeant was again called, 
and he took a long look at the pass, hold- 
ing it wrong end up. Another Sergeant 
came, who mistaking it for Hebrew, read 
it from right to left. Both concurred in the 
opinion that it was " no account." I ask- 
ed for the officer of the guard, and was 
told he was in camp, about a mile off. I 
then asked the Sergeants if they had read 
the pass. This somewhat stunned the 
Hebrew scholar ; but the wrong-end-up 
gentleman, with a dignity intended to be 
overwhelming, remarked — "I glanced 
over it, sah ! " Now, respect for sentinels 
is my strong point ; so, without saying a 
crooked word, I laid down my plunder, 
and commenced to reason the case with 
my sable fellow citizens. I first asked 
them what were their instructions ? and 
was told — 

" Our instructions is to let nobody land 
without he's got the right kind of a pass." 
I then read them my pass, which conclud- 
ed, " By order of Major-General U. S. 
Grant." " Does General Banks sign his 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC, 



435 



name to dat ? " No, said I ; this was a 
pass from General Grant. " Don't know 
who dat is, sah ; don't know him." I then 
gave them a biographical sketch of Gen- 
eral Grant, and in order to impress them 
with some faint idea of his importance, I 
stated that he was a greater General than 
their commander, General ' Andrews.' 
But there's just when I overdid the thing 
and ruined my character for veracity. 
Their look of incredulity and astonish- 
ment was unmistakable ; and when the 
sentinel here chimed in, " I tole you not 
for to get off de boat not till I seed your 
pass," I think I did some " discoorsin '' 
that reminded them of old times. 



Lieutenant — The Regulations require 
us to return a salute. 

Staff Officer — Curse such Regulations ; 
I'll never salute a nigger ; and I don't 
think much of a man that will. 

Lieutenant (coolly reining in his horse) 
— You can get out and walk, Sir. 

The official was consigned to shoe leath- 
er and the sand, with the reflection that 
one who assumes to command and govern 
by law ought not to set the example him- 
self of disobedience. 



Military Etiquette. 
Lieutenant W., of the Third Rhode Is- 
land heavy artillery, at one of the out-posts 
in the Department of the South, while on 
duty in a carriage, had the kindness to fa- 



! 



&J2 - 



J 




Military Etiquette. 

vor a staff officer with a ride. On meet- 
ing a private of a colored regiment who 
paid the required salute, which was proper- 
ly returned by the Lieutenant, the follow- 
ing dialogue, in substance, ensued : 

Staff Officer — Do you salute niggers ? 

Lieutenant — He is a soldier ; and he 
saluted me. 

Staff' Officer — I swear I won't salute a 
nisrsrer. 



Appeal for a Furlough— -with an Appendage. 

Appended to an application for a fur- 
lough, forwarded to General Joe Johnston's 
head-quarters, was a letter, of which the 
following is a copy. The application for 
absence was made for the purpose of get- 
ting leave to go to Georgia, to carry out 
a matrimonial engagement, and was ap- 
proved by the Confederate general for 
fifteen days. The writer's authography is 
retained. 

" Mr Moast Esteemed Friend : I 
am awair that you will be surprised to 
that father and mother have consented for 
myself and you to get married, which 
affords me great pleasure ; for I don't feel 
as though I could every give my consent to 
marry any other gentleman, for you know 
yourself that I always esteemed you 
higher than any one else. 

Mr. , bear in mind — you know 

you once said that you never could live 
and see me in the arms of Another man. 
Know is the time to prove it. You will 
haf • to come home immediately. I am 
shure that the commanding officer will not 
object to your having a furlow to come 
home on such important business as that. 
Ma and pa has given their consent, think- 
ing that you would hardly get a furlow, 
and then they could say it was not their 
fault ; but I want you to take them on a 
surprise. I know if you love me as you 
say you do, you will not fail to come. 
Give my kindest regards to General John. 



436 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



ston, and tell him to be a friend to matri- 
mony this time for my sake. 

Nothing more until I hear from you ; 
an be asshured that I shall await your 
arrival with the greatest anxiety. 
Yours as ever, Ton Ami, 

H. T. W." 



Sweetmeats and Patriotism at the South. 
The committee appointed to collect 
metal for cannon for the rebel army — the 
scarcity of ordnance in the Confederacy 
having at that time become a serious mat- 
ter — applied to a planter in Adams county, 
Mississippi, for his bell. Not having such 
an article, he mentioned it to his wife, 
when she very patriotically offered her 
brass kettle. The little ones rather de- 
murred to the sacrifice, and one of them, 
with a sweet tooth, said, " 'Lor, pa, what 
will we do for preserves ? " " My daughter, 
said the wag of a father, our whole duty 
now is to preserve our country." 



Leave of Absence for a Novel Reason. 

The Confederate Generals, Bragg, Walk- 
er, Magruder, Hill, and some others, were 
not only fond of uncorking bottles, but ap- 
peared to be very well posted on the mili- 
tary and political bearings of physiological 
science ; that they made due use of this 
knowledge is evident from the case given 
below : 

An application was made for temporary 
leave of absence by a soldier serving in 
General Walker's division of General 
Hill's corps. On being presented to Gen- 
eral Walker, that officer simply endorsed 
the application with the words (they would 
have done honor to Bragg himself,) which 
follow : 

" Disapproved, but respectfully forward- 
ed to head-quarters of General D. H. 
Hill." On receiving the document, Gen- 
eral H. endorsed it in words which it is 
safe to assume are without a parallel in 
military language or reasoning : 

" Approved, upon the ground that brave 
men of the army should be permitted to 



go home whenever practicable ; otherwise 
the children to be born during the war 
and the usual period afterward will be the 
offspring of the cowards at home who 
have substitutes and otherwise exempt." 



Secretary Stanton and General Butler on an 
Official Point. 

General Butler dropped in at the War 
Department a few days after his return 
from New Orleans, and while there the 
following conversation took place between 
him and the Secretary. 

General Butler — I have called, Mr. 
Stanton, to learn why I was removed from 
the Department of the Gulf. 

Secretary Stanton — I assure you, Gen- 
eral, that it was from no lack of confidence 
in your patriotism, capacity or integrity. 

Gen. Butler — I did not ask you, Mr. 
Secretary, why I was not removed, but 
why I was. 

Sec. Stanton — You are a lawyer, Gen- 
eral, and so am I, and you are aware that 
it is not always polite to tell all we know. 

Gen. Butler — Well, what are you going 
to do with me now ? 

Sec. Stanton — How would you like to 
take the Army of the Potomac ? 

Gen. Butler — Did you ever know a mer- 
chant to invest largely in an old stock of 
goods ? 

This was the responsive and suggestive 
poser to the Secretary. Whereupon Gen- 
eral Butler made his exit from the De- 
partment, confident, doubtless, of his being 
' quits ' with the Pennsylvania pleader. 



Absence of Colonel M. from the Court-Martial 
—and Why. 

Colonel M. and Colonel J. were one 
night placed in adjoining rooms in one of 
the principal hotels in . On retir- 
ing for the night, their boots were placed 
on the outside of the door, in order that 
they might be blacked by the waiter. 
Now, Colonel J. had two pairs of boots, 
while Colonel M. had but a single pair, — 
a fact which showed its importance in due 
course of time. 



DISCIPLINE, DEILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC. 



437 



On rising in the morning, Colonel J., 
putting one pair of boots on, placed the 
other pair in his own room and went 
down town to his work. Colonel M., not 
quite so early a riser, on taking in his 
boots an hour or so later, found — oh, hor- 
ror ! — that they belonged to his neighbor. 
Here was a predicament, another man's 
boots — and his own missing — the only pair 
he had, too, and a Court-Martial, of which 
he was President, momentarily awaiting 
his attendance. Waiters were summoned. 
Colonel J. had his boots, and must be 
found. Messengers were dispatched to 
all the various haunts ; word sent to the 
Court-Martial explaining that he was un- 
avoidably detained ; and the Colonel seated 
himself, in no very happy frame of mind, 
to await patiently the appearance of — his 
boots. Three long hours spent in that 
solitary hotel chamber, sans boots — fret- 
ting, foaming and hungry (for a man can't 
go to breakfast, cum dignitas, without cov- 
ering for his feet, when), at last, the Colo- 
nel heard the joyful sound of his neigh- 
bor's approaching footsteps. Eagerly he 
hailed him ; the dilemma was explained, 
and Colonel J., looking into his room, 
found there Colonel M.'s boots, which had 
by some unaccountable mistake been sub- 
stituted for a pair of his in the morning. 
Morale — have an extra pair of boots. 



Doctor 's Dismissal for Drunkenness 

and Kissing:. 
An army surgeon was dismissed from 
the service by Court-Martial, on a charge 
of drunkenness and insulting a lady. It 
came out, in the evidence, that the doctor, 
in common with a great many others in 
the army, and out of it, imbibed a little 
too freely on New Year's day. Under 
this state of things, while riding in one of 
the street railroad cars, he attempted to 
kiss a lady passenger, and was only pre- 
vented therefrom by the timely interfer- 
ence of the conductor. The Court-Mar- 
tial found him guilty on both counts in the 
indictment — intoxication and attempt to 



kiss — and sentenced him to dismissal. 
The men and officers of the doctor's regi- 
ment, on hearing his fate, unanimously 
petitioned the President to re-instate him. 
The evidence was handed to Mr. Lincoln 
for his perusal, by the defendant's attorney. 
The President read on till he came to 
" drunkenness." " That's bad," said he 
— " very bad." A little further down he 
came to " insulting a lady." " That's bad, 
too. An officer shouldn't insult a lady, by 
any means. I'm afraid I can't re-instate 
this man," said Mr. Lincoln. " Read the 
specifications, if you please, Mr. Presi- 
dent," said the attorney. Mr. Lincoln 
proceeded with the papers. Pretty soon 
he came to a specification about the kiss- 
ing. He paused, scratched his head a 
little, and remarked, looking at the attor- 
ney, 

" Really, I don't know about this. There 
are exceptions to every rule, but as a gen- 
eral thing it is very hard to insult a lady 
by kissing her. But, it seems the doctor 
only attempted to kiss her — perhaps the 
insult consisted in his not fully succeeding. 
I don't know as I ought to interfere in 
behalf of a man who attempts to kiss a 
lady and doesn't do it," said the President, 
drily. 

"You see, Mr. President," said the 
attorney, " that the complaint is made by 
a third party. There's no evidence that 
the lady felt insulted." 

" That's a fact," said Mr. Lincoln, " we 
can easily dispose of the kissing part. 
But I must look into the drunkenness a 
little — I can't overlook that. I'll have to 
get good evidence that it was strictly a 
New Year's offence, and is not a common 
occurrence with the doctor." 

The case was taken under advisement. 



Mending- a Faulty Pass. 
One of the delegates of the Christian 

Commission, Rev. Dr. , on arriving 

at City Point, in the spring of 1865, found 
that it was considered best that no more 
of the delegates should, at that time, be 



438 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



sent " on to Richmond." His pass was, 
therefore, likely to be of but little service. 
This balk he was bound to have remedied, 
and it was. After spending a night at 
City Point, he was bright and early out 
of bed the next morning, to find a friend, 
who was a member of Mr. Lincoln's ex- 
cursion party, to get his influence in mend- 
ing up the faulty pass. The steamer 
River Queen, in which the President and 
his company were making their home, 
lay in the stream. But the staff boat 
was right at the wharf. Said the Rev. 
Dr. , 

" Say, my friend, is there any way of 
getting out to the President's boat ? Is 
Mr. H there?" 

" That" answered the colored friend, 
"is the President's boat. Don't know 

about Mr. II . But don't you see that 

little black tug, lying by the side of the 
Queen ? Her steam's on. She is coming 
now to this wharf, and you can learn all 
that you want to know." 

The brave little tug came proudly danc- 
ing over the water, seeming almost con- 
scious of the dignity of her freight. She 
touched the wharf, and out stepped the 
man himself — not Mr. H., but Mr. L., the 
commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
of the United States. 

" Good morning, Mr. President. My 
passes are in a bad way. I wanted to see 
Mx\ H, to get him to help me out of the 
scrape." 

" What is the matter Avith the passes?" 
asked the commander-in-chief, smiling. 

" Why — so and so ; perhaps you could 
help me." 

Suiting the action to the word, the Dr. 
handed him a scrap of paper torn from 
the flap of a large envelope. He fumbled 
for his pencil, but the delegate presented 
him with his. Putting the paper up 
against a rough plank, far out of ordinary 
reach, he wrote the following : 

" Let the Rev. Dr. pass as he 

desires. 

A. Lincoln." 



Doing this, the man of the nation strode 
off; and, with a smirk and a snap of his 
finger at the provost-marshal, so did the 
reverend doctor. 



Outflanked for Once. 

When General Sherman was in com- 
mand at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, he 
was in the habit of visiting every part of 
that institution, and making himself famil- 
iar with everything that was going on. He 
wore an old brown coat and a "stove-pipe 
hat," and was not generally recognized by 
the minor officials or the soldiers. One 
day, while walking through the grounds, he 
met with a soldier who was unmercifully 
beating a mule. 

" Stop pounding that mule ! " said the 
General. 

" Git eout ! " said the soldier, in blissful 
ignorance of the person to whom he was 
speaking. 

" I tell you to stop," reiterated the Gen- 
eral. 

"You mind your business and I will 
mind mine," replied the soldier, continuing 
his flank movement upon the mule. 

" I tell you again to stop ! " said General 
S. Do you know who I am ? I am Gen- 
eral Sherman." 

" That's played out ! " said the soldier. 
" Every man who comes along here with 
an old brown coat and a stove-pipe hat on 
claims to be General Sherman." 

It is presumed that for once General 
Sherman considered himself outflanked. 



Orders on the Battlefield. 
The idea generally prevails that com- 
manding generals are very oracular and 
didactic on the battle-field, and give their 
orders in precise language and stentorian 
voice. A little familiarity with actual war, 
in company with General Sherman on the 
field of conflict, must have served to dis- 
pel such an impression. Thus, at Chatta- 
nooga, he gave his orders for his advance 
to his brother-in-law, General Hugh Ew- 
ing, in the words, uttered between two 



DISCIPLINE, DRILL, PAROLES, FURLOUGHS, ETC 



439 



puffs at a bad cigar, " I guess, Ewing, if 
you are ready, you might as well go 
ahead." Ewing asked a few questions in 
regard to retaining the echelon formation 
of his command as then marshaled for the 
advance. Sherman replied : " I want you 
to keep the left well toward the creek 




Orders on the Battle-field. 

((he Chickamauga), and keep up the for- 
mation, four hundred yards distance until 
you get to the foot of the hill." " And 
shall we keep it after that," asked Ewing. 
" Oh ! you may go up the hill as you like 
— if you can ; " and then he added, hastily, 
as he pushed Ewing away, " I say, Ewing, 
don't call for help until you actually need 
it." Such was the unstrained language of 
one of the greatest of modern commanders, 
in the very crisis of unparalleled conflict. 



McClellan and Darkey John. 

John, a bright-spoken and honest-faced 
incomer from the Confederate ranks, made 
his appearance before General McClellan, 
and made some military reports on " the 
situation." At the close of the interview, 
he asked, anxiously : 

" General, you won't send me back ; will 
you?" 

" Yes," replied the General, with • a 
smile ; " I believe I will." 

" I hope you won't, General. If you 



say so, I know I will have to go ; but I 
come to you all for protection, and I hope 
you won't." 

" Well, then, I suppose we will not. No, 
John, you are at liberty to go where you 
please. Stay with the army if you like. 
No one can ever take you against your 
will." 

" May the Lord bless you, General ! I 
thought you wouldn't drive me out. You 
are the best friend I ever had; I shall 
never forget you till I die." 

And John made the salute, remounted 
his horse and ro'de back to the rear, Ms 
darkey face almost white with radiance. 
An hour later, he was on duty as the serv- 
ant of Captain Bachelor, Quartermaster of 
Couch's Second division; and it was feared 
that a long time would elapse before " Cap- 
tain Rhett " saw the butter and eggs for 
which his palate evidently yearned — to say 
nothing of the horse or of John himself — 
for John had been sent to forage for those 
articles by said Rhett, and had improved 
his opportunity to come into - the Federal 
lines. 



Advantage of Military Firmness. 
A little circumstance, of a ludicrous na- 
ture, is related by Mr. Parton, in his capi- 
tal biography of the conqueror of New 
Orleans, as serving to show something of 
the disposition of the people of that place. 
Among a batch of captured letters was 
found one from a certain Edward Wright, 
a resident of New Orleans, to a lady in 
Secessia, full of the most ridiculous lies. 
He told his correspondent that the Yankee 
officers were the most craven creatures on 
earth. One of them, he said, had insulted 
a lady on the streets, which Wright per- 
ceiving, he had slapped the officer's face 
and kicked him, and then offered to meet 
him in the field ; but the officer gave some 
"rigmarole excuse" and declined. For 
this, he continued, he was taken before 
Picayune Butler, and came near being 
sent to Fort Jackson. 

General Butler caused the writer of this 



440 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



epistle to be brought before him, when the 
following conversation occurred between 
them : 

" What is your name ? " 

" Edward Wright." 

" Have I ever had the pleasure of see- 
ing you before ? " 

" Not that I know of." 

" Have you ever been before an officer 
of the United States charged with any 
offence ? " 

"No, sir." 

" Have you ever had any difficulty or 
misunderstanding with an officer of the 
United States, in the streets or else- 
where ? " 

" Never, sir." 

" Have you any complaint to make of 
the conduct of any of my officers or 
men ? " 

" None, sir." 

" Have you ever observed any miscon- 
duct on their part, since we arrived in the 
city?" 

" Never, sir." 

The General now produced the letter, 
and handed it to the prisoner. 

" Did you write that letter ? " 

" It looks like my hand-writing." 

" Did you write the letter'} " 

ft Yes ; I wrote it." 

" Is not the story of your slapping and 
kicking the officer, an unmitigated and 
malicious lie, designed to bring the army 
of the United States into contempt ? " 

" Well, sir, it isn't true, I admit." 

The General then dictated a sentence 
like this, which was written at the bottom 
of the letter: "I, Edward Wright, ac- 
knowledge that this letter is basely and 
abominably false, and that I wrote it for 
the purpose of bringing the army of the 
United States into contempt." 



" Sign that, sir." 

" I won't. I am a British subject, and 
claim the protection of the British consul." 

" Sign it, sir." 

" General Butler, you may put every 
ball of that pistol through my brain, but 
I will never sign that paper." 

" Captain Davis, make out an order to 
the Provost Marshal, to hang this man at 
daybreak to-morrow. In the meantime, 
let him have any priest he chooses to send 
for. Gentlemen, I am going to dinner." 

Before the General had reached his 
quarters, an orderly came running up. 

" General, he has signed." 

"Well, keep him in the guard-house all 
night, and let him go in the morning." 

Mr. Parton might perhaps have added 
to his capital narration, that the Southern 
"patriots" of the Wright stamp were in- 
deed only too glad to have Butler dis- 




Gen. N. P. Banks. 

placed by General Banks, — a gentleman 
of the most bland courtliness, and whose 
civil and military administration was of 
just the right stamp, after the wild ele- 
ments had been so effectively subdued by 
his firm-minded predecessor. 



\\ \\b/l.' 




PART VI.— OUR COLORED SOLDIERS. 



PART SIXTH. 

ANECDOTES OF THE KEBELLION— COMMISSARY AND RATIONS, 
FINANCE AND CURRENCY, THE PRESS, THE TELE- 
GRAPH, POST-OFFICE, ETC. 



Uncle Sam's Supplies; Subsistence under Difficulties; "Hard Tack" and Mule- 
Beef Legends ; Foraging Raids ; Disloyal Fowls and Contraband Dainties ; Im- 
pro.mtu Confiscations in a Small Wat; Dialogues with the Quartermaster; 
Shameful Impositions; Scrip and Currency Varieties; Unique Banking Opera- 
tions, Collection Excursions at the South; Chivalric Repudiation \ Tricks, 
Artifices and Achievements of Editors, Reporters and Correspondents ; Tele- 
graphic Odds and Ends; Miscellanies of Post-Office Experience; &c., &c. 



" Weave no more silks, ye Lyons looms, 

To deck our girls for gay delights ! 
The crimson flower of battle blooms, 

And solemn marches fill the nights." 

I must decline furnishing both armies any more. Let me know which army is to be supplied, and the Department 
will be able to meet the requisition. — Ironical reply of General Ripley. 

It was a perfect reproduction of the scene and all its incidents ; and it is a marvel to me how you writers can per- 
form such tasks. — General Hooker on the reports of the Battle of Antietam. 

I would sooner face all the cannon of the enemy than taste that glass of wine. — One of the heroes of BalVs Bluff. 

Be gorra! I thought yez was gintlemin, and paid for what yez wanted. Divil a bit of money have I seen for a 
year, and " Confederate " scrip has brought me wife and childers to starvation almost. — Irish peddler at the South, to 
Union soldiers who jocosely offered him " Confederate " currency. 

I will teach them, if they need the lesson, that the men who have periled their lives to open the Mississippi River, 
for their benefit, cannot be imposed upon with impunity. — Gen. Grant on river captains' exactions. 



One cf the Best. 



-, was a sort of 

political prisoner, on 
his way to some 
point where, with 
others of his plum- 
age, he might be out 
of harm's-doing. As 
he was being thus 
taken, his imagina- 
tion wandered away 
among the horrors of ' Swamp Angels,' 
his limbs became tremulous, his voice 
husky, his eyes were fountains of involun- 
tary tears, and his hat-rim overhung them 
like a weeping-willow, whose broad shadow 




kept them in a cool, refreshing twilight. 
They called him " Doctor," and the Major 
with the flag of truce was directed to leave 
him at some " landing " above Jamestown 
Island. 

The " Doctor " had contrived to procure 
somehow, and had somehow brought on 
board the steamer, a quantity of sugar 
and coffee, contrary to regulation and with- 
out authority. The dinner-hour arrived 
and passed. Every hungry rebel had 
done ample justice to the occasion, and 
had eaten as an Esquimaux eats when he 
sees before his bodily eyes one huge meal 
of walrus or whale blubber, and before 
his mind's eye a week or month of proba- 
ble starvation or " short commons." The 



m 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



boat was nearing the " Doctor's " landing, 
and the Major was looking in vain for any 
appearance of village, or house even, 
which could give rise to the name of " Ma- 
cox's Landing" — his point of destination 
— or induce any boat to stop in such a 
wilderness, when the steward approached 
with a scared look, saying, — 

" I beg pardon, Major, but we're in a 
— of a scrape about that coffee and sugar." 

" Indeed," said the Major, " what is the 
matter ? Were they bad ? Wasn't there 
enough of them for all hands ? " 

" Oh, yes, Sir, there was enough ; but 
we've eaten them pretty nearly all up ; 
and, Major, they didn't belong to us at all, 




Swamp Angel. 

they wa'n't Government property, Sir; 
they all belonged to the "Doctor," and 
he's found it out, and is swearing like the 
— , like a pirate about it." 

" Is that all, Steward ? " said the Major, 
after a hearty laugh at such a panic. 

"All! Major; yes, Major, that's all. 
But what shall I do about it ? " He's aw- 
fully mad, and threatens all sorts of — " 

" Ask the ' Doctor ' to come up on the 
hurricane deck, and speak to me, Steward. 
I think I can pacify him." 

He went, and presently returned with 
the angry " Doctor," who did not, howev- 
er, exhibit any signs of passion in this 
stage of the adventure. 

" Ah, Doctor," said the Major, " I am 
sorry to learn that you have forgotten what 
is due to a flag of truce, and have exposed 
yourself to the risk of further imprison- 
ment, and us to the danger of being treat- 
ed as culprits, and possibly shot by the 



Confederates, for carrying on trade under 
pretext of being a flag-of- truce boat. It 
was very wrong, very ; and if I had 
known it before leaving the Rip-Raps, I 
should have seized your coffee and sugar, 
and left you in prison until further orders. 
But, in consideration of our mistake, and 
as most of the contraband articles have 
been consumed, and as we are within a 
quarter of a mile of your landing-place, 
I will not be too severe upon you. You 
can keep what remains, enough now to 
last your family some weeks, and I will let 
you take them ashore." 

He was extremely grateful, and the 
steward danced with delight. The " Doc- 
tor " shook the Major's hand very heartily 
as he left the boat, and the Steward came 
up with tfee broadest of grins, rubbing his 
hands, and saying, " By Jim ! Major, you 
got out of that snarl completely — slick ! " 

How are you, " Doctor ? " 



The Last Message to his Father* 
A soldier went into the rooms of the 
Sanitary Commission, to procure an envel- 
ope, saying that he had a letter to send 
home for one of his comrades. He drew 
from his blouse a small package, carefully 




Sanitary Commission. 



wrapped ; and opening it, held up a scrap 
of a leaf from a memorandum book. It 
had bloody finger-prints on it, and a few 
words hastily written with a pencil. The 



EATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



445 



writer was the soldier's partner, he said. 
In the charge on Kenesaw, he found him 
staggering back from the line, the blood 
streaming from his mouth, and covering 
his hands and clothes. A Minie ball had 
cut off his tongue at the root. He tried 
to speak, but could not. Finally, by mo- 
tions, he made his partner understand his 
want — paper and pencil. A scrap was 
torn from the diary, and on it the boy, 
held up by his comrade, with fingers drip- 
ping with blood, and trembling in death, 
wrote — 

" Father, meet me in heaven." 
He tried to write his name, but it was 
too late. Life had fled. 



Dxitch Landlord's Use of Greyback Twenties. 

During General Lee's summer invasion 
of Pennsylvania, a detachment of the rebel 
army had possession for a few days of the 
thriving town of Hanover, in the county 
of York, lying some twenty or more miles 
west of Gettysburg. Apprised of their 
coming, the merchants and business men 
of the town mostly placed their movable 
goods safely out of the reach of the pilfer- 
ers. They secured but little booty. "What 
they did lay their hands on, however, they 
did not fail to bag. 

Among the heaviest losers was one of 
the landlords of the town, the proprietor 
of a well-stocked and well-conducted coun- 
try tavern. At his house the hungry 
rebels made themselves well " at home." 
Without leave or license, they devoured 
his stock of bacon, beef and poultry ; con- 
sumed all his flour, which they forced the 
landlady to bake into bread and pies ; used 
his forage, occupied his beds, and, of course, 
used up every drop of his stock of liquors. 
Of this latter, before they came, he had 
ten or a dozen barrels — when they left, not 
so many pints ; for, what they could not 
guzzle on the spot, they contrived to take 
along. 

As they were about taking their depar- 
ture for Gettysburg, a Georgia Colonel, 
exhibiting a degree of conscientiousness 



not shared by any of his associates, re- 
marked to the landlord that it was " a pity " 
to consume so much of his property with- 
out any compensation, and that if no one 
else would extend justice to him, he would 
— at the same time throwing on the bar- 
counter a bill of the denomination of twen- 
ty dollars. 

"There," said the magnanimous rebel 
chieftain, " my good fellow, take that as 
my share of our indebtedness." 

" Vot kind of monish is dat ? " inquired 
the landlord, — one of the class of Pennsyl- 
vanian Germans so proverbial alike for 
sagacity and integrity. 

" That, Sir, is a greyback ; in other 
words, a note of the Confederate States of 
America." 

" 0, stranger," said the hotel keeper, 
" if you hash not got no petter monish dan 
dat, you'll better keeps it. I don't vont 
none of it ; it is good for nix ; no petter 
dan plank paper ! " 

" Sir!" rejoined the somewhat Indignant 
epauletted Georgian, " I advise you to 
take it and be glad for the opportunity. 
You will soon find that it is the best money 
in the world. Keep it, Sir, keep it, by all 
means." 

" Nein, nein," retorted mynheer of the 
swinging sign ; " dat monish will never be 
wort anything here nor anywhere. I would 
not give von silver thaler for a bread 
basket full. I von't be seen mit it in my 
hand ; and if you don't take it along, I 
rolls it up, holds it at the candle, un lites 
my pipe mit it." 

He was about suiting the action to the 
word, when the Georgian took the note up 
from the counter and returned it to his 
wallet. 



Uncle Sam's Mule Cleaners. 
One of General Nelson's teamsters — a 
green hand — gloried in the charge of six 
large, shaggy mules. John was also the 
proprietor of two bottles of 'Old Bourbon' 
— a contraband article in camp — which a 
wag discovered, and resolved to possess. 



446 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Being well aware that the driver's pres- 
ence was a very natural impediment to 
such a theft, he hit upon the following plan 
to get rid of him : Approaching the driver, 
who was just then busy currying his mules, 
he accosted him with — 

" I say, old fellow, what are you doing 
there ? " 

" Can't you see ? " replied John, gruffly. 

" Certainly," responded wag, " but that 
is not your business. It is after tattoo, and 
there is a fellow hired here, by the General 
who curries all the mules and horses brought 
in after tattoo." 

The mule-driver bit at once, and desired 
to know where the hair-dresser kept him- 
self. Whereupon he Avas directed to Gen- 
eral Nelson's tent, with the assurance that 
there was where the fellow " hung out." 

" You can't mistake the man," said wag, 
" he is a large fellow, and puts on a thun- 
dering sight of airs for a man in his busi- 
ness. He will probably refuse to do it, 
and tell you to go to the — ; but don't 
mind that, he has been drinking to-day. 
Make him come out, sure." 

John posted off, and entering the tent 
where our Napoleon of the Fourth Division 
sat in deep reverie, probably considering 
the most expeditious method of expelling 
the rebel Buckner from his native State, 
slapped him on the back with a force suffi- 
cient to annihilate a man of ordinary size. 
Springing to his feet, the General, power- 
ful and spirited, accosted his uninvited 
guest with — 

" Well, Sir, who are you, and what the 
— do you want ? " 

" Old hoss, I've got a job for you now — 
six mules to be curried, and right off, too," 
said the Captain of the mules, nothing 
daunted at the flashing eye of the General 
which was turned at him and pierced him 
through. 

" Do you know whom you are address- 
ing, Sir ? " asked the indignant command- 
er. 

" Yes," said John, elevating his voice to 
a pitch which rendered the words audible 



a square off; " you are the fellow hired by 
Uncle Sam to clean mules, and I won't 
have any foolishness. Clean them mules, 
and I'll give you a drink of busthead." 

" You infernal villain ! " exclaimed the 
General, now perfectly furious, "I am 
General Nelson, commander of this Divis- 
ion ! " 

John here placed the thumb of his right 
hand against his nose, and extending his 
four digits, waved and twirled them slow- 
ly, in a manner supposed by some to be 
equivalent to the expression, " How are 
you old fellow?" The General's sword 
leaped from its scabbard, and John sprang 
from the tent just in time to save his 
head. 

It would be needless to add that the 
boys drank the " big mule driver's health" 
in Old Bourbon, and quite as needless to 
state the source whence said Bourbon was 
derived. 



Wicked Joke upon a Regimental Postmaster. 
There was a joke — though possibly a 
wicked one — perpetrated on a certain 
Chaplain in the army, which ought not to 
be lost to the clerical portion of the world. 
It was the Chaplain's business to look after 




Joke on a Chaplain. 



the regimental mail. This Chaplain, how- 
ever, had been annoyed exceedingly by the 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



447 



great number of warriors who were con- 
stantly running to him and inquiring about 
the arrival and departure of mails. To 
save time and patience, the testy official 
at last posted a notice outside his tent, 
which read : " The Chaplain does not 
know when the mail 
will go," and with this 
he imagined his 
troubles at an end. 
The reverend post- 
master was absent 
from the camp that 
day, and on return- 
ing and glancing at 
his notice, was horri- 
fied to see there con- 
spicuously written 
upon his own door, 
read by multitudes 
during the day, in a 
hand exactly counter- 
feiting his, following 
the words "The 
Chaplain does not 

KNOW WHEN THE MAIL WILL GO," this 

addition by some honest wretch : " Neither 
does he care a damn." It was a case 
of depravity the obliging and godly man 
was unprepared for, — but perhaps he and 
his warriors were now " quits." 



how in the face of such stringent orders, 
he dare steal geese. 

" I didn't steal it," indignantly retorted 
the culprit. 

" Did you buy it ? " 

" No. I'll tell you how it was : I was 




Revenge upon a Goose for Hissing: at the 
National Air. 
The secesh farmers, in a well-known 
locality in Maryland, raised a great out- 
cry, while the Fifth Excelsior Regiment 
was camping near by, about a few chick- 
ens which had been missed from their 
poultry yards. Stringent orders were ac- 
cordingly issued against foraging. Still, 
now and then an unlucky fowl would find 
its way into the mess kitchen, but nobody 
could account for its presence there. At 
last an unlucky wight was caught in the 
very act of bearing a goose into camp. 
He was brought to the Captain of his com- 
pany, who in tones of severity demanded 
28 



Relay House. 

coming up from the village whistling Yan- 
kee Doodle, when out came one of old 
Farrell's geese, and hearing the tune I was 
whistling, commenced hissing. I couldn't 
stand that, and so I up and knocked it 
over. Well, as I found I had ' accident- 
ally, killed it, I thought that like as not a 
detail would be ordered out in the morn- 
ing to bury offal, and I thought I might as 
well, being right on the spot, bring the 
goose up to camp and have it handy." 

The Captain could hardly " see it ; " 
nevertheless, Farrell never got paid for 
that goose. 



Swearing-in a Cook for the First Iowa 
Cavalry. 

The master of a fugitive slave appeared 
at Camp Benton, St. Louis, to recover him, 
when he was ordered off by a corporal of 
the First Iowa Cavalry. So, soon as he 
was gone, the negro appeared from under 
a bundle of sacks in one corner of the 



448 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



corporal's quarters. Innumerable ques- 
tions were being propounded to him, when 
the corporal advanced, and the following 
colloquy ensued, as given by a writer 




Army Kitchen. 

whose name certainly deserves to be 
known. 

" See here, Dixie ! before you can enter 
the service of the United States, you must 
be sworn." 

" Yes, massa, I do dat," he replied ; 
when the corporal continued — 

" Well, then, take hold of the Bible," 
holding out a letter envelope upon which 
was delineated the Goddess of Liberty 
standing upon a Suffolk pig, wearing the 
emblem of our country. The negro grasped 
the envelope cautiously with his thumb 
and forefinger, when the corporal proceed- 
ed to administer the oath by saying : 

" You do solemnly swear that you will 
support the Constitution of the United 
States, and see that there are no grounds 
floating upon the coffee, at all times." 

" Yes, massa, I do dat," he replied, " I 
allers settles him in de coffee-pot." 

Here he let go the envelope to gesticu- 
late by a downward thrust of his forefinger 
the direction that would be given to the 
coffee-grounds for the future. 

" Never mind how you do it," shouted 
the corporal, " but hold on to the Bible ! " 

il Lordy, massa, I forgot," said the ne- 



gro, as he darted forward and grasped the 
envelope with a firmer clutch ; when cor- 
poral continued — 

" And you do solemnly swear that you 
will support the Constitution of all the 
loyal States, and not spit upon the plates 
when cleaning them, nor wipe them with 
your shirt sleeve." 

Here a frown lowered upon the brow 

j of the negro, his eyes expanded to their 

largest dimensions, while his lips protruded 

I with a rounded form, as he exclaimed : 

" Lordy, massa, I neber, neber do dat — 

I I allers washes him nice. Ole missus 
mighty 'tickler 'bout dat." 

"Never mind ole missus," shouted the 
corporal, as he resumed, — " and you do 
solemnly swear that you will put milk in 
the coffee every morning, and see that the 
ham and eggs are not cooked too much or 
too little." 

" Yes, I do dat ; I'se a good cook." 
" And lastly," continued the corporal, 
" you do solemnly swear that when this 




Swearing-in a Cook. 

war is over, you'll make tracks for Africa 
almighty fast." 

" Yes, massa, I do dat. I allers wanted 
to go to Chee-cargo." 

Here the regimental drums beat up for 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



449 



dress parade, when Tom Benton — that 
being his name — was declai'ed duly sworn 
in and commissioned as " Chief Cook in 
Company K, of the First Iowa Cavalry." 

The above will do to go along with the 
laughter-provoking effusions of Artemas 
Ward, Orpheus C. Kerr, Petroleum V. 
Nasby, Major Jack Downing, Philander 
Doesticks, and Shillaber, who are certain- 
ly not excelled in this line, even by the 
wits of London Punch, or Vanity Fair, 
and whose names are familiar household 
words throughout Britannia's isle. 

Old Mag-ruder Sharing his Liquor. 
Magruder, the secession General, and 
who for some time was in command at 
Yorktown, did not belong to the temper- 
ance society, and the boys, who were now 
and then very thirsty, did not fail to dis- 
cover the fact — and perhaps to speak 
pretty freely of it sometimes. Among 
these same was private Winship Stedman, 
of Fayetteville, N. C. On the day after 
Stedman had performed an act of great 
gallantry, in the scouting party from Bethel 
Church, he was commanded to appear be- 
fore the General, and the order was en- 
forced by a section of soldiers. He was 
unable to decide whether he was to be 
shot or reprimanded, until he reached the 
General's tent, and was sternly addressed 
thus : " Private Stedman, I understand 
that you have said that Old Magruder 
drinks all the liquor in Yorktown, and 
wont let you have a drop. You shall say 
so no longer, sir. Walk in and take a 
drink. I commend you for your bravery ! " 



What Mr. Lincoln said to a New Orleans 
Editor. 

The facetious editor of the New Orleans 
Delta was favored with a familiar tete-a-tete 
with President Lincoln, of which the fol- 
lowing is an acc.ount by said Delta wag : 

When we entered the White House the 
weather was fine. We sent our card up 
to Mr. Lincoln, who was sitting in his 
office, at the head of the stairs. We say 



our card ; we did, in words and figures as 
follows— "The Daily Delta, New Orleans." 

The President sent his compliments 
through his favorite butler — he calls all 
of his servants ' Butlers ' now — which, as 
Mrs. T. D. Delta, who accompanied us to 
the National Mansion, in her bright wo- 
man's way, remarked, was " significant " — 
and requested our wife and us to come up. 
We went up. There was the President 
at the head of the stairs waiting to receive 
us. He was dressed like a gentleman, and 
his head was uncovered. "I thank you 
for your visit," said Mr. Lincoln to us, and 
thereupon we introduced our wife. The 
President conducted Mrs. Delta into Mrs. 
Lincoln's apartments, where the two ladies 
talked together for an hour or two ; but 
the President himself returned instantly, 
and, with a countenance full of meaning, 
asked thoughtfully, "How do you do 
again ?" We replied, that Ave were " very 
well, we thank you. How are you, in 
these perilous times, yourself, Mr. Presi- 
dent?" said we to Mr. Lincoln. He an- 
swered, with a slight addition of language, 
" I am 'very well' too." Then, in almost 
the very words of Napoleon to the Irish- 
man, Mr. Lincoln spoke : " Tell me, Mr. 
Delta, tell me, how is Louisiana, and how 
does she stand?" We, 10 show our own 
knowledge of the royal language of the 
great Frenchman, answered in almost the 
words of Pat ; we answered — " She is as 
poor a distressed country as ever you have 
seen, for the rebels are hanging men and 
women wherever they are seen." 

The President laughed, but became 
grave in a moment. " I thank you," said 
he to us ; "I thank you for sending two 
able men to Congress. I thank you for 
defeating Mr. Jacob Barker. Who is 
Lee Percy? Is he not a Virginian?" 
We answered all these questions with 
our usual felicity, and then gave the 
President some very useful hints in regard 
to the culture of the turnip — a vegetable. 
He seemed greatly interested and instruct- 
ed. From turnips, we naturally fell upon 



450 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



the culture of cotton and sugar cane. We 
enlightened hiin upon these subjects, too; 
for he was as polite as to say to us, "I 
assure you, Mr. Delta, I am getting wiser 
every moment." 

The cotton question led us on to the 
war, and upon this we talked an hour, the 
President being silent nearly all the time. 
We gave ' the Executive of the United 
States ' to understand the status of Louis- 
iana. We told him what we thought of 
men and tilings in ,New Orleans, and we 
condemned the arrest and incarceration 
of Soule. The President, now, in his dry 
way, said : 

" Mr. Delta, there is danger, if you 
keep on in this mood, of your getting into 
Fort Lafayette." 

We laughed immoderately ; but the 
President was grave and seemed weary ; 
and rinding him in .right good humor, we 
asked him if he had heard our great con- 
undrum, which was known in New Orleans 
as the Delta conundrum. lie said he had 
not. Thereupon we told him. " Why," 
said we to the President, " Why are green- 
backs like the Jews ? " Mr. Lincoln 
smiled, crossed his legs, and smiled again. 
" I give it up," said he. We then roared, 
but having recovered our gravity, gave 
the answer. " Because," said Ave, laugh- 
ing again, for the joke was our best, " Be- 
cause they are the issues of Father Abra- 
ham, Avaiting for a redeemer." The Pres- 
ident shook his sides, and remarked, " I 
owe you one, and here it is. You remind 
me of a coav in Illinois : " and here Mr. 
Stanton entered. The President excused 
himself, and said he must withdraw. We 
called Mrs. Delta, and Ave took our depart- 
ure. Subsequently, the butler told us 
what transpired between the President 
and the Secretary of War : 

" Who is that lean cur at Butler's heels, 
he has been boreing me these three days 
back about the management of the army 
of the Gulf?" inquired Mr. Stanton. 

" He is not a cur," replied Mr. Lincoln ; 
"you are too seA r ere, Stanton ; he is only a 



bur. Some one flung him at Butler, in 
sport, and the fellow has the faculty of 
sticking." 

Our Avife, who was present during the 
relation of this, observed, in her woman's 
way, " The gentlemen were, darling Delta, 
sarcastic." We said " no, that they were 
simply indulging in a little humor, to re- 
lieve themselves, for a moment, from the 
austere thoughts of Avar." " If that was 
all," said she to us, " I'm glad they've hon- 
ored you by making you the but of their 
joke." 



"WTiat One Noble Woman Did. 
Mrs. Eliza Gray Fisher, a lady of Bos- 
ton, Mass., going on in years to the allot- 
ted period of life, deserves to have a 
record made of her patriotic enthusiasm 
and industry. Knowing from experience 
the necessities of the volunteer soldier, — 
having lost a grandfather in the Revolu- 
tionary Avar, and a father in the Avar of 
1812, — determined, immediately upon 
President Lincoln's call for volunteers, to 
provide a complete outfit of under-clothing 
for an entire company. This, notwith- 
standing the severe pressure of domestic 
duties, Avith the aid of seA r eral ladies in 
Rev. Dr. Dewey's society, she accom- 
plished seasonably and in the most satis- 
factory manner. The articles — all of the 
best materials and most thorough work- 
manship — were as follows : 130 shirts, 130 
pairs of drawers, 130 towels, 130 pocket 
handkerchiefs, 130 pairs of socks, 12 hos- 
pital gowns, 55 bags containing needles, 
pins, thread, &c, 65 Havelock caps, 500 
yards bandages. Such women are of the 
true Revolutionary stock, — all honor to 
them. 



Milk, •with Accompaniments. 
Hopeville Gap will long be remembered, 
particularly by those two clever corporals, 
Lutten and Hodges, who figured so neatly 
in the little affair Avhich appears in the 
following narration. The said corporals 
were on duty near a house in the vicinity 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



451 



of the said classic Gap. They were 
nearly out of provisions. Fortune, how- 
ever, threw in their way early one morn- 
ing, a cow, and the lacteal fluid had too 
many temptations for them to resist the 
desire to milk the animal. While Lutten 
held the cow by the horns, Hodges manip- 
ulated the udders in the usual rural style. 
He had filled one tin cup and was rapidly 
filling another, when a chamber window 




Milking the Cow. 

in the house was smartly raised, and a 
woman with a voice pitched at least one 
octave higher than they had been accus- 
tomed to hear from that sex, indulged in 
the following language. 

Q. — What on airth are ye doin thar! 

No answer from the men at the cow. 

Q. — Milking my cow, eh ? What ails 
you ? what in the world is the matter on 
ye — are ye starving ? Ain't ye ashamed 
of yourselves ? 

Receiving still no response from the 
men at the cow, who continued their labors 
with the sang froid that only troopers can 
assume, madame became considerably ' ex- 
asperated,' and continued her harrangue 
as follows : 

"There is four of you Yankees laying 
up there on the hill, with their souls in hell. 
Think of that ! " 

This eliciting no response, she con- 



" And you may be there too in less than 
an hour? Think of that!" 

No response — Hodges blandly continu- 
ing his operations at the udder — 

" And I hope you will, and when you 
are drinking that milk. Tliinh of that!" 

No response at all, and the woman ' let 
on:' 

" What are you Yankees all doing here, 
any way ? " 

The eorporals having filled their pint 
cups, Hodges deigned to answer the last 
question by saying : 

" To protect you and maintain the honor 
of the glorious old flag ! " 

The reply brought upon them a tirade 
of billingsgate that made the atmosphere 
almost blue, amid which the troopers re- 
treated to their camp. To " Dunn Browne," 
one of the most pleasing and accomplished, 
as well as widely read war correspondents, 
we find the above amusing morceau attri- 
buted, and would be glad to find more of 
the same side-shaking pencillings, which 
gave him so wide and enviable a repute 
previous to his lamentable decease. 

Brandy for a Sick Lieutenant. 

No pen could draw a more vivid and 
life-like picture of the. scenes of the war, 
than that of the Rev. A. H. Quint, one 
of the most efficient chaplains and military 
co-laborers in the army of the Union, hon- 
oring, in every sense of the word, as he 
did, the Old Bay State that sought his 
services and sent him forth. His deeply 
interesting work, recounting his army ex- 
periences, has passed through many edi- 
tions. He knew the coolness, bravery, 
and withal the ingenuity which character- 
ized the soldiers of the Union, and of which 
so many anecdotes are told, — like the fol- 
lowing : 

One night Lieutenant Clark, Lieuten- 
ant Soule, and Captain Wilson, of the 

First regiment, were very dry. 

A most stringent order against the intro- 
duction of any ardent into camp being 
then most rigorously executed, they had 



452 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



been discussing the ways and means of 
procuring something, " hot," when Soule 
cried out, " I've got it ! You, Clark, are 
very sick — you must go to bed — you have 
got cramps — you must be covered up — you 
must have some brandy immediately ! " 
In a moment Clark was very sick abed, 
covered with all the blankets at command, 
and Soule was off in breathless haste to 
the hospital steward for brandy. There he 
met the conscientious objections of the stew- 
ard, by the most earnest representations of 
the urgency of the case. He could wait for 
no surgeon's order — Lieut. Clark might die ! 
In a moment he was again with the " boys," 
flourishing a bottle of brandy in the air in 
triumph, and a right jolly time they had 
drinking it. But — shade of Bacchus ! — 
what was one bottle to them after a fort- 
night's total abstinence ? They were still 
dry — of course they were ! Before the 
bottle was quite empty, Soule snatched it 
out of tlie hands of Clark, held it up to 
the light, eyeing it critically, took one 
more swig, and then said, " Now, boys, for 
another bottle ! " Raising the window 
curtain, it was but the Avork of a moment 
to catch a hundred flies and put them in 
the bottle, to be drowned by the small 
amount of brandy remaining. Rushing 
back to the hospital steward in as breath- 
less haste as before — this time holding up 
the bottle containing a spoonful of brandy 
and an equal amount of flies — he cried out, 
" See there ! Is that the kind of brandy 
you dispense to a sick man here ? " With 
as many apologies as Soule would wait to 
listen to, the poor steward handed him an- 
other bottle of brandy, Avith which he 
returned to his comrades. The noise 
which soon issued from Lieutenant Clark's 
" sick " quarters attracted attention, and a 
good many other officers took a taste of 
the second bottle, with a hearty guffaAV. 



castic is as keen as a briar. Mr. Chap- 
man, one of the most gifted of the numer- 
ous army correspondents of the press, in 
1864, stated that he Avas riding from 
Brandy Station to Stevensburg, in com- 
pany with Colonel A., of the Michigan 
regiment, and had reached a point 



Tougrh Time with a Mule. 
In repartee and fun American soldiers 
are never behind any class of men, and 
their appreciation of the ludicrous and sar- 



opposite General P.'s head-quarters, Avhen 
they Avere overtaken by a couple of sol- 
diers mounted on two decidedly un-Rarey- 
fied mules. The boys had evidently been 
up to the sutler's, for they Avere a trifle 
top-heaA'y, and only kept their places by 
dint of the most persevering industry. At 
that point the road crosses a considerable 
creek, which the mules seemed to hold in 
strong aA'ersion. Nevertheless, through 
the persuasive eloquence of tAVO ragged 
sticks, they Avere urged on to the middle 
of the stream, and then they doggedly re- 
fused to advance. The boys plied all the 
expedients at hand, but it Avas " no go," 
and Avhen at length one of them caught 
the tail of the other's mule in his hand 
and attempted to twist a forward move- 
ment out of him, the refractory animal 
reared, Avhirled to one side, kicked and 
snorted, and, depositing his rider in the 
dirty creek, he started on a keen run 
back. Zouave gathered himself up, and 
seeing that he could not overtake his 
frightened steed, he only folloA\ 7 ed with sun- 
dry expletives and execrations, not found in 
the Westminster Catechism. Colonel A., 
by the way, being a very pious man, took 
it upon himself to chide the exasperated 
and unfortunate " vet " for using such un- 
christianlike language ; but the soldier 
Avould have his joke — so, shaking Avhat 
Avater he could out of his red pants, he 
waded to a dry spot on shore and mut- 
tered, gratingly, that it was " — hard if 
a feller couldn't cuss a mule." But soon 
appreciating the utter ludicrousness of his 
condition, he turned to the Colonel and 
offered to lay a bet that that Avas the first 
time he ever saAV a mule tear, (muleteer) 
shed. It was some time before either the 
Colonel or Chapman Avas able to see 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



453 



the jnmgency of the challenge, but it 
came to them after awhile, and it helped 
amazingly to dry up the mud between 
there and Strasburg. 



Sergeant Davis's Tender Beef. 
In March, 1862, General Banks ad- 
vanced upon Winchester in two columns 
— one by way of Martinsburg, and tli3 
other by way of Harper's Ferry and Ber- 
ryville. In the latter column, Brigadier- 
General Abercrombie commanded the 
first brigade, and Cothran's Battery was 
with him. Abercrombie was very strict, 
not allowing his men to forage, or to burn 
rails to cook with, but compelling them to 
burn green timber. The next morning, 
after camping near Berryville, he rode 




Tender Beef. 

around the different camps to ascertain 
who had burned the rails. When he rode 
through Cothran's Battery, the Captain 
was in his tent, Approaching it he dis- 
covered the quarters of a fine young beef 
that the men had " foraged " the night pre- 
vious, lying against a tree. The old Gen- 
eral's brow contracted as he demanded of 
Sergeant Leander E. Davis, 

" Where the — , did you get that beef? 
I gave the commissary no order to issue 
fresh beef here." 

Davis, who was a very polite soldier, 
removed his cap and saluted the General, 



and said, in a tone, evincing perfect cool- 
ness and sincerity : 

" General, I was sergeant of the guard 
last night, and about ten o'clock I heard a 
terrible commotion in the camp of the 
Twelfth Massachusetts, (Colonel Web- 
ster's regiment,) across the road. I 
rushed out to see what was going on, and 
just as I passed the Captain's tent I saw 
a fine steer coming through the camp of 
the Twelfth Massachusetts, with about a 
hundred men after it. The animal ap- 
peared very much frightened, General, 
and true as you live, it jumped clear 
across the road, [about two rorKI over 
both stone fences, and as it alighted in this 
lot it struck its head against this tree, and, 
being so terribly scared, its head, hide 
and legs, kept right on running, while 
the quarters dropped down here, where 
they have remained ever since. It is very 
fine, tender beef, General, and I had just 
come here for the purpose of cutting off 
and sending you a fine sirloin roast for 
dinner. Will you be so obliging as to ac- 
cept it ? " 

" How long have you been a soldier ■?• " 
demanded the old General. 

"About six months, General." 

" Well, Sir, I perceive that you thoi'- 
oughly appreciate the Art of War, and 
have become a veteran in half a year. 
Were you a green soldier I should order 
you under arrest and have you court-mar- 
tialed ; but on account of your veteran 
proclivities I shall recommend you for 
promotion ! " And putting spurs to his 
horse he rode away, shaking his sides with 
laughter. 



Cotton Burners in Louisiana. 

The cotton burners came, they saw, 
they departed, — at least in one instance. 

"I have come to burn your cotton, 
Sir." 

" By what authority ? " 

" By the authority of General Beaure- 
gard." 

" You will not burn my cotton." 



454 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



" We will burn your cotton." 

" Go about it, then. But it is my opin- 
ion, gentlemen, that you will not burn it." 

" What do you propose to do ? You 
don't mean to say that you will show any 
opposition to our authority ? " 

" I simply mean to say that you will 
not burn my cotton. Bob, bring a coal 
of fire." 

The fire is brought. 

" Gentlemen, there is the fire, and yon- 
der are one hundred bales of cotton. 
Proceed." 

" Your conduct is very extraordinary, 
Sir. I should like to know what you 
mean ? ' 

" Well, Sir, I mean that if you attempt 
to burn that cotton I will scatter your 
brains so far and wide that no power in 
heaven or earth can bring them together 
again. (Here, boys ! that cotton is yours ; 
defend it or starve.") 

" strange conduct," mutters Mr. 

Officer, sullenly; "We'll attend to your 
case, Sir. We are going down the river 
we will give you a visit on our return." 

" Do. Whenever you make up your 
mind to burn my cotton, by all means 
come and burn." 

The cowed officer and his posse " fell 
back in good order." The valiant Louis- 
ianian saved his cotton. He had no se- 
cond visit from Beauregard's cotton burn- 
ers. 



Running an Engine in the Confederate Ser- 
vice. 

The popular author of " Thirteen 
Months in the Rebel Army," one of the 
most readable of books, must be allo.ved 
to tell his own story about ' that engine,' 
and here it is : 

The engineer, Charles Little, refused 
to run the train on during the night, as he 
was not well acquainted with the road, 
and thought it dangerous. In addition, 
the head -light of the locomotive being out 
of order, and the oil frozen, he could not 
make it burn, and he could not possibly 



run without it. Colonel Williams grew 
angry, probably suspecting him of Union 
sentiments and of wishing to delay the 
train, cursed him rather roundly, and 
at length told him he should run it under 
guard, adding to the guard already on the 
engine : " If any accident occurs, shoot 
the cursed Yankee." Little was a North- 
ern man. Upon the threat thus enforced, 
the engineer seemed to yield, and pre- 
pared to start the tram. As if having 
forgotten an important matter, he said 
hastily, " Oh, I must have some oil," and 
stepping down off the locomotive, walked 
toward the engine-house. When he was 
about twenty yards from the cars, the 
guard thought of their duty, and one of 
them followed Little, and called upon him 
to halt ; but in a moment he was behind 
the machine shop, and off in the dense 
woods, in the deep darkness. The com- 
motion soon brought the Colonel and a 
crowd, and, while they were cursing each 
other all around, the fireman and most of 
the brakemen slipped off, and here we 
were with no means of getting ahead. 
All this time I had stood on the engine, 
rather enjoying the melee, but taking no 
part in it, when Colonel Williams, turning 
to me, said : 

" Can not you run the engine ? " 

" No, Sir," I replied. 

" You have been on it, as you came 
down." 

" Yes, Sir, as a matter of curiosity." 

" Don't you know how to start and stop 
her?" 

" Yes, that is easy enough ; but if any 
thing should be wrong I could not adjust 
it." 

"No difference, no difference, Sir; I 
must be at Bowling Green to-morrow, and 
you must put us through." 

" Colonel Williams" said I, calmly look- 
ing him in the eye, " I can not voluntarily 
take the responsibility of managing a 
train with a thousand men aboard, nor 
will I be forced to do it under a guard 
who know nothing about an engine, and 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



455 



who would be as likely to shoot me for 
doing my duty as failing to do it ; but if 
you will find among the men a fireman, 
and send away this guard, and come your- 
self on the locomotive, I Avill do the best 
I can." 

And now commenced my apprenticeship 
to running a secession railroad train, with 
rebel regiment on board. The engine be- 
haved admirably, and I began to feel 
quite safe, for she obeyed every command 
I gave her, as if she acknowledged me 
her rightful lord. 

I could not but be startled at the posi- 
tion in which I was placed, holding in my 
hand the lives of more than a thousand 
men, running a train of twenty-five cars 
over a road I had never seen, running 
without a headlight, and the road so dark 
that I could only see a rod or two ahead, 
and, to crown all, knowing almost nothing 
of the business. Of course I ran slowly, 
about ten miles an hour, and never took 
my hand off the throttle, or my eye from 
the road. The Colonel at length grew 
confident, and almost confidential, and did 
most of the talking, as I had no time for 
conversation. 

When we had run about thirty miles, 
and every thing was going well, Colonel 
Williams concluded to walk back, on the 
top of the box cars, to a passenger car which 
was attached to the rear of the train, and 
occupied by the officers. This somewhat 
hazardous move he commenced just as we 
struck a stretch of trestle-work which car- 
ried the road over a gorge of some fifty 
feet deep. As the locomotive reached the 
end of the trestle-work the grade rose a 
little, and I could see through or in a deep 
cut, which the road run into, an obstruc- 
tion. What it was, or how far ahead, I 
had almost no conception ; but, quick as 
thought, — and thought is as quick as light- 
ning in such circumstances — I whistled for 
the brakes, shut off the steam, and await- 
ed the collision. I would have reversed 
the engine, but a fear that a reversal of 
its action would crowd up the cars on the 



trestle work, and throw them into the 
gorge below, forbade, nor was there wis- 
dom in jumping off, as the steep embank- 
ment on either side would prevent escape 
from the wreck of the cars when the col- 
lision came. All this was decided in an 
instant of time, and I calmly awaited the 
shock which I saw was unavoidable. 
Though the speed, which was very moder- 
ate before, was considerably diminished, 
in the fifty yards between the obstacle and 
the head of the train, I saw that we 
would certainly run into the rear of an- 
other train, which was the obstruction I 
had seen. 

The first car struck was loaded with 
hay and grain. My engine literally split 
it in two, throwing the hay right and left, 
and scattering the grain like chaff. The 
next car, loaded with horses, was in like 
manner torn to pieces, and the horses 
piled upon the sides of the road. The 
third car, loaded with tents and camp 
equipage, seemed to present greater re- 
sistance, as the locomotive only reached it. 
and came to a stand still. 

My emotions during these moments 
were most peculiar. I watched the re- 
morseless pressure of the engine with al- 
most admiration. It appeared to be de- 
liberate, and resolute, and insatiable. The 
shock was not great, the advance seemed 
very slow ; but it plowed on through car 
after car with a steady and resistless 
course which suggested at that critical mo- 
ment a vast and determined living agent. 
When motion ceased, I knew my time of 
trial w r as near; for if Colonel Williams 
had not been thrown from the top of the 
cars into the gorge below, he would soon 
be forward to execute his threat, — to shoot 
me if any accident occurred. I stepped 
out of the cab on the railing running 
along to the smokestack, so as to be out 
of view to any one coining forward toward 
the engine, and yet to have him in the 
full light of the lantern which hung in the 
cab. Exactly as I had surmised — for I 
had seen a specimen of his temper and 



456 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



recklessness, — he came stamping and curs- 
in"- ; and jumping from the car to the 
tender, he drew a pistol, and cried out, 

"Where is that cursed engineer, that 
did this pretty job ? I'll shoot him the 
minute I lay my eyes upon him." 

I threw up my six shooter so that the 
light of the lantern shone upon it, where 
he could see but indistinctly, if at all, and 
said with deliberation, 

" Colonel AVilliams, if you raise your 
pistol, you are a dead man ; don't stir, but 
listen to me. I have done just what any 
man must have done under the circum- 
stances. I stopped the train as soon as 
possible, and I'll convince you of it, if you 
are a responsible man ; but not another 
word of shooting, or you go down." 

" Don't shoot, don't shoot ! " he cried. 

" Put up your pistol, and so will I," I 
replied. 

He did so, and came forward, and I ex- 
plained the impossibility of seeing the 
train sooner, as I had no head light ; and 
they had carelessly neglected to leave a 
light on the rear of the other train. I 
advised the choleric Colonel to go forward 
and expend his wrath and curses on the 
conductor of the forward train, that had 
stopped in such a place, and sent out no 
signal man in the rear, nor even left a red 
light. He acknowledged that I was right. 
I then informed him that I was an officer 
in the ordnance department, and was in 
charge of a shipment of ammunition for 
Bowling Green, and would have him court- 
martialed when he reached there, unless 
he apologized for the threats he had 
made. This information had a calming 
effect on the Colonel, who at heart was 
really a clever fellow. 



Paid his Assessment on the Spot. 
The summary method pursued by Col- 
onel Metcalfe, in Kentucky, is well illus- 
trated by the following incident which 
occurred in Paris, Kentucky. A custom- 
er was brought in and told that he was 
assessed a thousand dollars. " "Well, said 



the rich Secesh, " How long will you give 
me to raise it ? " " Tliree years or during 
the war" answered the Colonel. " Oh, 
well, well," said Secesh, "you are not so 
hard with us after all. I will have it for 
you in time," and started leisurely for the 
door. " But," said the Colonel, " you 
must accept of our hospitality during that 
time, at your own expense. Guard," con- 
tinued the Colonel, " take Mr. to that 

mansion that was made with hands, down 
on the classic bluffs of Stoner." " Stop, 
stop ! " said Secesh ; " now I think of it, 
I happen to have that amount in my pock- 
et, and have not the least objection to help- 
ing our country in her hour of need." He 
escaped a hard bed and bare walls that 
night. 



Terry's Colored Cook and his Shell. 
While at Morris Island, South Carolina, 
General Terry's colored cook, whose bump 
of curiosity must certainly have been de- 
veloped to an alarming degree, undertook 
to investigate the contents of a 10-inch 
shell by placing the portion containing the 




General Alfred II. Terry. 

fuse-cap before the fire of his stove, for the 
purpose of melting the lead and releasing 
the cap from the shell. As may be natur- 
ally supposed, the heat of the fire soon 
occasioned an explosion, Avhich seriously 
wounded the over-curious cook in different 
portions of his body, to say nothing of the 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



457 



very promiscuous damage done to the 
stove and to the kettles and pans resting 
thereon, the fragments of which it would 
have been quite impossible to count in any 
short space of time. A colored soldier, 
named David, a native of South Carolina, 
having been made acquainted with the 
circumstances of this occurrence, drew 
himself up and pompously remarked, with 
characteristic vernacular, that " white folks 
need not offer any more comparisons be- 
tween the Boston and the South Carolina 
darkies which were unfavorable to the 
latter, for it was now clearly demonstrated 
that the Boston chaps were both simple, 
and ignorant, while a South Carolinian, 
if put to the same test, would never have 
made such a fool of himself as to stick a 
loaded shell into the tire of a stove and 
stick his face into it ! " It would have 
been interesting, doubtless, to listen to the 
Yankee cook's comments upon his adven- 
ture — if indeed any comments were need- 
ed in view of his knocked-up appearance. 

♦ 

Commissaries and Chemists. 
The editor of the Baltimore American 
took it into his head one day to visit the 
commissary department of one of the large 
military hospitals conveniently accessible, 
and in the course of his observations no- 
ticed several barrels of dried coffee 
grounds, the purpose whereof naturally 
excited his curiosity. The polite Com- 
missary informed him that he received 
twelve dollars per barrel for the grounds. 
" But what is it purchased for ? " inquired 
the editor, with that curiosity for informa- 
tion natural to his profession. " Well," 
said the Commissary, hesitatingly, " it is 
re-aromatized by the transforming hand 
of modern chemistry, and put up in pound 
papers, which are decorated with attrac- 
tive labels and high-sounding names." 
Yes, re-aromatized ! Comment is unnec- 
essary. 

Halleck's TJse of a Bad Report. 
Connected with General Grant's great 
victory on the rivers Tennessee and Cum- 



berland, an interesting incident is told, as 
follows : 

Several rumors had appeared in the 
newspaper press, and had otherwise been 
publicly proclaimed, that General Grant 
was in the habit of getting intoxicated. 
This idea may have arisen from his slov- 
enly mode of attiring himself, or from 
some other equally unreliable cause. The 
friends of the Illinois troops under Gener- 
al Grant's command, being anxious for 
their safetv, selected a delegation to visit 




Major-General Ilalleck. 

General Halleck, and have Grant re- 
moved. 

" You see, General," said the spokes- 
man, " we have a number of Illinois vol- 
unteers under General Grant, and it is 
not safe that their lives should be entrust- 
ed to the care of a man who so constantly 
indulges in intoxicating liquors. "Who 
knows what blunders he may commit." 

" Well, gentlemen," said General Hal- 
leck, " I am satisfied with General Grant, 
and I have no doubt you also soon will 
be." 

While the deputation were staying at 
the hotel, the news arrived of the capture 
of Fort Donelson and thirteen thousand 
prisoners. General Halleck posted the 
intelligence himself on the hotel bulletin, 
and as he did so he remarked, loud enough 
for all to hear : 

" If General Grant is such a drunkard 



458 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



as he is reported to be, and can win such 
victories as these, I think it is my duty to 
issue an order that any man found sober 
in St. Louis to-night shall be punished 
Avith fine and imprisonment ! " 



Shoe-Haid by General Wads-worth. 
One of the cleverest Union raids during 
the war was that undertaken — and suc- 
cessfully carried through — by General 
Wadsworth, one of the heroes killed while 
serving in Grant's Richmond campaign. 
The General in giving an account of this 
' shoe raid ' to a companion, said : — I re- 
member during the march through Mary 
land, before the battle of South Mountain, 




General Wadsworth 

we passed over a tract of country extreme- 
ly rugged and stony, and I saw not only 
men but officers walking along with bleed- 
ing feet. The men's shoes gave out en- 
tirely. It hurt my feelings more than I 
can tell you, to see the good fellows trudge 
along so. We came to a town on the line 
of march, and I, who was riding at the 
head of the column, spurred ahead to see 
if there were not some shoe stores where 
I could purchase what was needed for the 
men. All the shops were closed ; the 
first men I saw were two sitting outside 
of a closed shop. " Are there any shoe 
stores in this town ? " I asked. They re- 
plied in a gruff way, that they could not 
tell — there mijjht be and there might not. 



I told them that I wanted to buy some 
shoes for my troops, who were barefooted. 
They replied they guessed I would'nt get 
many. At that I got angry. Said I, 
" There are two pair of shoes at any rate, 
which I see on your feet. Take them off 
instantly ! " They were obliged to do it. 
I went through the town, and took the 
shoes off every man's feet I could see, and 
thus I raised about two hundred pairs in 
all. One fine old fellow, a miller, Avhom I 
met, I did not deprive of his own pair ; I 
rode up to him, and asked if he had any 
shoes he could spare me, describing the 
pitiful condition of my men. The old 
man said, " I don't know if there's any 
shoes in the house or not, but " — looking 
down at his feet — " here's a pair you're 
welcome to at any rate." I would not let 
him take them off, but he gave me some 
from his house. All the rest I stripped. 



Ead Habit amongst Mules. 

When our troops at Paducah first re- 
ceived their teams, they were troubled to 
procure forage, so that the mules were 
turned loose or tethered in the outskirts 
of the town. Occasionally a few would 
be missing, until Uncle Sam found him- 
self minus some twenty-five or thirty. 
Those which strayed away were caught up 
by the rebel speculators and taken to 
Blandville, back of Columbus, where they 
had accumulated some fifty stolen and 
purchased animals, which were under five 
or six keepers. 

Two privates, members of the Four- 
teenth Illinois Volunteers, hearing of the 
whereabouts of said stock, asked General 
Smith's permission to attempt their recap- 
ture, which, with some misgivings, was 
granted. The boys, dressed in the garb 
of Kentucky farmers, went and surveyed 
the field and fold, and set to work. They 
had whiskey with them — whiskey such as 
Kentucky rebels liked . to get drunk on — 
good old Bourbon, and the first object was 
to get them as comfortably tight as nossi- 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



459 



ble, which was not long in being accom- 
plished. Then the boys went to the mule 
yard, let down the bars, mounted two of 
the best, without saddle or bridle, and 
started for Paducah, the whole lot follow- 
ing at break-neck pace, and braying in the 
most diabolical chorus. The keepers were 
not long in discovering the trick, and gave 
chase as far as they deemed it prudent 
toward our lines, but to no purpose ; and 
in good season Saturday afternoon the 
boys made their appearance at General 
Smith's headquarters to report, their faces 
beaming with a glow of satisfaction hard 
to describe. Their report was a clarified 
condensation of Laconism, in dialogue 
shape : 

General Smith — Well, boys, what luck ? 

Soldier — We got 'em, and more too ! 

General S. — How many did you get ? 

Soldier — Forty, I reckon ; haint count- 
ed 'em. 

General S. — But that is more than we 
have lost. You did'nt steal any, I hope ? 

Soldier — Steal ! C-ristopher, steal ! No, 
siree, but you see we did't have time to 
put the bars up after we had got Uncle 

Sam's out, and the things would fol- 

ler ; a very bad habit with some mules. 

The General drew on an elongated 
countenance, and as sternly as though he 
had been judge, and was sentencing a cul- 
prit to a life-time of imprisonment, lectur- 
ed «the soldier roundly for using profane 
language in the quarters and presence of 
a general officer. The soldier took the 
lecture uneasily, twirling his hat nervous- 
ly the while, and when the General had 
' subsided,' apologized as follows : 

" You see, General, we have had to 

cuss the things all day to get 'em into 

camp, and its' mighty hard to quit off all 
of a suddenly." 

Then the General's rigidity relaxed ; a 
smile, or rather a laugh, came up from his 
heart, and tried to escape from the corners 
of his mouth — but discipline is discipline 
with an old army officer, and it would not 
do to allow such a breach of decorum to 



pass unnoticed. Still, in consideration of 
the recaptured twenty-five mules, " and 
more too," he did not inflict any severe 
castigation or put them in arrest, but, 
thanking them for the services rendered, 
dismissed them with a caution to leave 
their profanity behind when they came 
again to head-quarters, and the boys left, 
declaring, as they closed the door, that 
" such a pious old cuss had'nt any busi- 
ness to be around amongst sojers." 



Half -hour's Experience of a Pedler with 
General Nelson. 
General Nelson occasionally went dash- 
ing through the camp, bestowing a gratui- 
tous cursing upon some offender, and was 
then off agahi like a shot. The General 
followed the seas many years and had be- 
come a great, rough, profane old fellow. 
He had a plain, good, old fashioned fire- 
place kindness about him that was always 
shown to those who did their duty. But 
offenders met with no mercy at his hands. 
The General conceived an awful hatred 
against pedlers. There were many that 




Pedler and Gen. Nelson. 

came about the camp, selling hoe-cakes, 
pies, milk, etc., at exorbitant prices. 
Cracker-fed soldiers would naturally be 
free with their money — willing to pay ten 
times the value of an article if in want 
of it. One day the General came across 



460 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



a pedler selling something that he called 
pies — not the delicious kind of pies that 
an absent soldier is made home-sick at the 
thought of, but an indigestible combination 
of flattened dough and -woolly peaches, 
minus sugar, minus spice, minus every- 
thing that is good, and any of which the 
General swore up and down " would kill 
a hyena deader than the d ." 

" What do you charge for those pies ? " 
belched out the General. 

" Fifty cents a-piece," responded the 
pie-man. 

" Fifty cents a-piece for pies ! " roared 
the infuriated General : " Now, you in- 
fernal swindling pirate," roared he, letting 
fly, in black and blue, one of his great 
rifled oaths, that fairly made the fellow 
tremble, " I want you to go to work and 
cram every one of those pies down you 
as quick as the Lord will let you. Double- 
quick, you villain! " 

Expostulations, appeals, or promises, 
were of no avail, and the pedler was 
forced, to the great entertainment of the 
soldiers whom he had been so ready to 
gouge, to down half a dozen of his own 
pies — all he had left. 

" Now," said the General to the fellow 
after he had finished his repast, and stood 
looking as death-like as the certain doctor 
who was forced to swallow his own medi- 
cine — " leave ! and if ever, ever I catch 
you back here again, swindling my men, 
I'll hang you. " The rat departed. 



Zealous for the Cause tout not for the Scrip. 

Mr. , a rebel farmer, living near 

Bear Creek, in Baltimore county, Mary- 
land, was so elated at the rebel incursion 
in Maryland, that he determined to visit 
"our deliverers," and for that purpose 
hooked up his horse and wagon and started 
merrily agog. He alighted at a hotel 
near Frederick, and was drinking a bum- 
per to Jeff", when a Confederate officer came 
in and inquired for the owner of the team. 
Bear Creek farmer was delighted, and with 
smiles, said — 



" I am, sir ; and that team is Southern 
all over, sir — horse, wagon, and driver, sir." 

" And what is the price ? " interrupted 
the son of Mars, pulling out a roll of Con- 
federate scrip. 

"Oh," said farmer, "I would not like to 
sell now, 'cause I can't use your kind of 
money in Baltimore." 

"Nonsense," says the officer; "haven't 
you declared over and over in your letters 
that the bankers and rich men of Balti- 
more are in the cause ; they'll buy, sir." 

And handing over the price in Confed- 
erate scrip, he left the zealous farmer pat- 
riot to toddle home afoot, with a pocket 
full of confederate treasure. He arrived 
in town in due time, and stopped several 
persons with, " Show me the man that 
buys Confederate scrip ! " Up to the 
latest accounts it was not known that the 
individual so eagerly sought for had been 
found. 



Secession Damsels and Federal Foragers. 

Quartermaster S. and Commissary B.,of 
one of the regiments in McClellan's army, 
were both of them very good felloAvs, and also 
very brave soldiers, when either of their 
departments of transportation and supply 
were brought into conflict with the enemy. 
One morning they mounted their mettled 
steeds and started out in company, to for- 
age for the officers' mess. Well provided 
with money to meet the exorbitant de- 
mands of the egg and strawberrry huck- 
sters of the section of country to which 
they were going, they gaily vaulted into 
their saddles, and bidding good bye to 
their friends, briskly trotted along on the 
road towards Richardson's house. Hav- 
ing reached there, they turned off on the 
AVhite House road, and after a short ride, 
stopped at a small house by the roadside, 
to inquire what articles they had for sale. 
B. was the spokesman, and at his sum- 
mons out came a blooming damsel, of eight- 
een summers, to answer the inquiry. 

" Have you any eggs, or butter, or milk, 
or anything of the sort to sell, ma'am ? " 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



461 



We 



" Whereabouts do you come from 

"About four miles from here, 
come from the Yankee army." 

"You do, hey? Well, I don't allow a 
Yankee to come within twenty yards of 
me, much less to speak to me." 

The officers opened their eyes at this 
desperate declaration, and riding into the 
yard the Commissary continued : 

" Say, look-a-here, don't you know that 
such folks as you are the only kind of meat 
we have down in our camp ? " 

" Yes, indeed," broke in lair Secessia, 
" I've heard that much about you." 

" Well, I suppose you have, and it's all 
true. Why, at the battle of Fair Oaks 
the Yankees eat hundreds just such look- 
ing rebels as you, and it took ever so many 
soldiers to guard the three thousand dead 
ones and keep us off." 

At this barbarous speech, which might 
have provoked most terrible results, if the 
young lady's eyes were any index of her 
state of mind, her parents appeared, and 
gently checking her, accosted the Union 
officers, and said they had nothing to sell. 
The father seemed somewhat amused at 
his daughter's spirit, and exclaimed : 

" That ere gal's got a beau in the Con- 
federate army, don't you see, and you 
know that's a good reason for her being so 
much opposed to the Yankees. Just you 
make an offer to capture her, and see if 
she don't haul down her colors." 

But Federal officers don't do such un- 
manly things, and so, finding they could 
procure no eatables at that domicil, they 
withdrew to the road, leaving their plucky 
little feminine enemy in her glory, and con- 
tinued their journey. 



Mrs. Partington on the New Military Crop. 
A shadow passed our window, the door 
opened, and looking up we saw the form 
of Mrs. Partington before us. " I've just 
dropped in," she said. ' Dropped ' in ! — 
she weighs one hundred and fifty if she 
does an ounce. She held out her snuff- 
box as she said " Good morning," filled 



with Rhode's delectable. Ike was by her 
side, and before we had time to prevent 
it, he had both arms stuck to the fly paper 
on the desks before us. " I've just drop- 
ped in to ask," she said, as she looked up 
inquiringly, " what sort of a crop the ces- 
sationists will be likely to get from plant- 
ing cannon, that I see something about in 
the papers ? / don't believe it will come 
up." 

" Perhaps it may," we said, favoring the 
idea, " as we see so many sprouts about us 
in uniform that are evidently sons of guns, 
and if, as Mr. Field has said, a soldier's 
sire and grandsire may be a sword, why 
not a gun have its descendants ? " 

" May be so," said she, brightening up, 
" may be so, it isn't the most unlikely 
thing that never came to pass, and that 
may be why guns wear breeches. I de- 
clare that I never thought of that before." 
Mrs. Partington, the merry and garrulous 
ward of B. P. Shillaber, was by no means 
idle during the war, in the good city of 
Boston, of which she is one of the noted 

spokes/we??. 

■* 

Visit of General Jenkins at a Pennsylvania 
Editor's. 

The raid of General Jenkins into Penn- 
sylvania was the occasion of a call at the 
domicil of the editor of the Chambersburg 
Repository, by that renowned chief, and 
there had good cheer, though the " land- 
lord" had "stepped out." The editor's 
remarks on this visit were as follows : 

However earnest an enemy Jenkins may 
be, he don't seem to keep spite, but is capa- 
ble of being very jolly and sociable when 
he is treated hospitably. For prudential 
reasons the editor was not at home to do 
the honors at his own table ; but Jenkins 
was not particular, nor was his appetite 
impaired thereby. He called upon the 
ladies of the house, shared their hospital- 
ity, behaved in all respects like a gentle- 
man, and expressed very earnest regrets 
that he had not been able to make the 
personal acquaintance of the editor. We 



462 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



beg to say that we reciprocate the wish 
of the General, and shall be glad to make 
his acquaintance personally — " when this 
cruel war is over." Colonel French and 
Surgeon Bee spent much of their time 
with Mrs. McClure, and the former show- 
ed his appreciation of her hospitality 
by taking her revolver from her when he 
left. An order having been made for the 
citizens to surrender all the guns and pis- 
tols they had, Colonel French took the 
pistol of his hostess. How many rifles 
he didn't get that were in her keeping, 
we " dinna choose to tell." General Jen- 
kins had the fullest information of the 
movements of the editor of this paper. 
He told at our own house, when we had 
left, the direction we had gone, and de- 
scribed the horse we rode, and added that 
there were people in Chambersburg suffi- 
ciently cowardly and treacherous to give 
such information of their neighbors. 
When it was suggested that such people 
should be sent within the rebel lines, he 
insisted that the South should not be made 
a Botany Bay for Northern scoundrels. 
We had not the felicity of a personal in- 
terview with the distinguished guerrilla 
chief, but our special reporters took his 
dimensions and autobiography with gen- 
eral accuracy. He was born of his mother 
at a very early age, and is supposed to be 
the son of his father. He was flogged 
through school in his boyhood years much 
as other children ; and may have startling 
traditions touching his early character, 
such as the hatchet and cherry-tree which 
proved that Washington could not lie ; but 
it is for the present regarded as doubtful. 
He subsequently graduated at Jefferson 
College, in this State, and gave promise 
of future usefulness and greatness. His 
downward career commenced some five 
years ago, when in an evil hour he became 
a member of Congress from Western Vir- 
ginia, and from thence may be dated his 
decline and fall. From Congress he natu- 
rally enough turned fire-eater, secessionist 
and guerrilla. 



Lending: to the Government. 

The use of United States compound in- 
terest notes in paying off employees gave 
rise, in a certain case, to the following lit- 
tle dialogue, as related by one of the par- 
ties concerned. 

Boss — How would you like to lend part 
of your wages to Government, Patrick ? 

Patrick — Ah, you see, I just make out 
to live on what ye pay me, — things is so 
high ! I can't save a dollar. 

Boss — But, Patrick, you know I raised 
your wages, and you ought to lay by 
something for a rainy day. Better put by 
$10 and get $11.94 for it three years 
hence ; or $20, and get $23.88 for it, in- 
stead of getting nothing or lending it to a 
savings bank at only five per cent. 

Patrick — (Looking at the table of inter- 
est on $10 compounded, and asking some 
questions as to what currency the savings 
bank would pay in) — Well, I'd like to 
take $50 in compound interest notes. 

Boss — But, Patrick, if you can spare 
$50, you had better put your money into 
7-30 notes, which pay more interest, and 
entitle you to gold-bearing bonds if you 
want them, or greenbacks if you please. 

Patrick — Would you please to just let 
me have one hundred dollars in the Seven- 
Thirties ? 



Agreeable Inducements to Travellers. 

Below is a bill of fare "found" in the 
Confederate camp at Vicksburg, which is 
of interest to all epicures, as well as to 
those who are not of that class : 

Hotel de Vicksburg. — Bill of Pare 
for July, 1863 : Soup — mule tail. Boiled 
— mule bacon with poke greens ; mule ham 
canvassed. Boast — mule sirloin. Vege- 
tables — peas and rice. Entrees — mule head 
stuffed a la mode ; mule beef jerked a la 
Mexicana ; mide ears fricasseed a la gotch ; 
mule side stewed, new style, hair on ; mule 
spare-ribs plain ; mule liver hashed. Side 
Dishes — mule salad ; mule hoof soused ; 
mule brains a la omelette ; mule kidneys 
stuffed with peas ; mule tripe fried in pea 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



463 



meal batter ; mule tongue cold a la Bray. 
Jellies — mule foot. Pastry — pea-meal 
pudding, blackberry sauce ; cotton-wood 
berry pies ; China berry tart. Dessert — 
white oak acorns ; beech nuts ; blackberry 
leaf tea ; genuine Confederate coffee. 
Liquors — Mississippi Water, vintage of 
1492, superior, $3; Lime Stone Water, 
late importation, very fine, $2.75 ; Spring 
Water, Vicksburg brand, $1.50. Meals 
at all hours. Gentlemen to wait upon 
themselves. Any inattention on the part 
of the servants to be promptly reported at 
the office. 

Jeff. Davis & Co., Proprietors. 
Card. — The proprietors of the justly 
celebrated Hotel de Vicksburg, having en- 
larged and refitted the same, are now pre- 
pared to accommodate all Avho favor them 
with a call. Parties arriving by the river 
or Grant's inland route, will find Grape, 
Canister & Co.'s carriages at the landing, 
or any depot on the line of intrenchments. 
Buck, Ball & Co., take charge of all bag- 
gage. No effort will be spared to make 
the visit of all as interesting as possible. 



Pumpkin-Pie Story of Lieutenant Wickfield 
and General Grant. 

The hero and veteran — Grant — who 
was citizen, Captain, Colonel, Brigadier 
and Major- General within a space of nine 
months, though a rigid disciplinarian, and 
a perfect Ironsides in the discharge of his 
official duties, could enjoy a joke, and was 
always ready to perpetrate one when an 
opportunity offered. Indeed, among his 
acquaintances, he is as much renowned for 
his eccentric humor, as for his skill and 
bravery as a commander. 

When Grant was a Brigadier in South- 
west Missouri, he commanded an expedi- 
tion against the Confederates, under Jeff. 
Thompson, in northeast Arkansas. The 
distance from the starting point of the ex- 
pedition to the supposed rendezvous of the 
Confederates was about one hundred and 
ten miles, and the greater portion of the 

route lay through a howling wilderness. 
* & 29 



The imaginary suffering that the Union 
soldiers endured during the first two days 
of their inarch, was enormous. It was 
impossible to steal or confiscate unculti- 
vated real estate, and not a hog or a chick- 
en, or an ear of corn, was anywhere to be 
seen. On the third day, however, things 
looked a little more helpful, for a few small 
specks of ground, in a state of partial cul- 
tivation, were here and there visible. 

On that day, Lieutenant Wickfield, of 
an Indiana cavalry regiment, commanded 
the advance guard, consisting of eighty 
mounted men. At about noon he came up 
to a small farm-house, from the outward 
appearance of which he judged that there 
might be something fit to eat inside. He 
halted his company, dismounted, and with 
two second Lieutenants entered the dwell- 
ing. He knew that Grant's incipient 
fame had already gone forth throughout 
all that region of country, and it occurred 
to him that by representing himself to he 




Pumpkin Pie. 

the General he might obtain the best the 
house afforded. So, assuming a very mar- 
tial demeanor, he accosted the inmates of 
the house, and told them he must have 
something for himself and staff to eat. 
They desired to know who he was, and he 
told them that he was General Grant. At 
the sound of that name, they flew around 
with alarming alacrity, and served up 
about all they had in the house, taking 
great pains all the while to make loud pro- 
fessions of loyalty. The Lieutenants ate 



464 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



as much as they could of the not over 
sumptuous meal, but which was, neverthe- 
less, good for that country, . whether in 
times of war or peace, and demanded what 
was to pay for their " entertainment." 
" Nothing," was the reply, and they went 
on their way rejoicing. 

In the meantime, General Grant, who 
had halted his army a few miles further 
back, for a brief resting-spell, came in 
sight of and was rather favorably impressed 
— as had been his Lieutenant — with the 
appearance of this same house. Riding 
up to the fence in front of the door he' de- 
sired to know if they would cook him a 
meal. 

" No," said the female, in a gruff voice, 
" General Grant and his staff have just 
been here and eaten everything in the 
house except one pumpkin pie." 

" Humph," murmured Grant, " what is 
your name ? " 

" Selvidge," replied the woman. 

Casting a half dollar in at the door, he 
asked if she would keep that pie till he 
sent an officer for it, to which she replied 
that she would. 

That evening, after the camping ground 
had been selected, the various regiments 
were notified that there would be a grand 
parade at half past six, for orders. Officers 
would see that their men all turned out, 
&c. In five minutes the camp was in a 
perfect uproar, and filled with all sorts of 
rumors ; some thought that the enemy was 
upon them, it being so unusual to have 
parade when on a march. 

At half past six the parade was formed, 
ten columns deep, and nearly a quarter of 
a mile in length. After the usual routine 
of ceremonies, the Assistant Adjutant Gen- 
eral read the following order : — 

" Head-quarters Army in the Field, 
Special Order, No. — . Lieutenant 
Wickfield, of the — Indiana cavalry, hav- 
ing on this day eaten everything in Mrs. 
Selvidge's house, at the crossing of the 
Ironton and Pocahontas, and Black River 



and Cape Girardeau roads, except one 
pumpkin pie, Lieutenant Wickfield is 
hereby ordered to return with an escort 
of one hundred cavalry, and eat that pie 
also. 

U. S. Grant, 
Brig. Gen'l Commanding." 
Grant's orders were law, and no soldier 
willingly attempted to evade them. At 
seven o'clock the gastronomic Lieutenant 
filed out of camp with his hundred men, 
amid the cheers of the entire army. The 
escort concurred in stating that he de- 
voured the whole of the pie, and seemed 
to relish it. 



General Stuart Too Late to Dinner. 
Rather a palatable circumstance of the 
war was that which General Stuart, wei*e he 
still living, would probably remember more 
vividly than anybody else. At the time 
this circumstance transpired, some there 
were who contended that Stuart no longer 
had command of the rebel cavalry, but 
that Fitzhugh Lee was the chief of that 
branch of the rebel army. Whether so 
or not will not change the fact that Stuart 
fought Buford on that eventful Saturday, 
for Buford ate his dinner in a cosy little 
house, nestled among pines, cedars, and 
jesamine, about one and a half miles from 
Culpepper, where General Stuart and staff 
were going to dine. Every luxury and 
delicacy that could be procured in that 
poor, ransacked country, was smiling on 
the white, spotless linen which covered 
the table. The fair occupant of the stool 
had no doubt hurried on a sun-bonnet, and 
slipped off to Culpepper. The ' Bonnie 
Blue Flag ' would not sound so well in the 
old parlor, and she feared General Buford 
and Staff could not appreciate her selec- 
tion of songs. However, the dinner was 
appreciated ; and if smacking of lips, and 
looks of regret at the fragments they could 
not eat, were of any significance, the dishes 
prepared by those kind people met with 
the appreciation of all the partakers. 



i 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



465 



Joke of the President on Secretary Chase. 
It was not reported what joke old Abe 
got off when he heard the news of the sur- 
render of Plymouth, which gave such joy 
to northern hearts. In regard to the Fort 
Pillow affair he made a Buusby speech, 
but no joke. The latter would appear to 
have been reserved for the benefit of Sec- 
retary Chase, as he was starting on a finan- 
cial trip to New York. Old Abe, like 
Cromwell, — though without the latter's 
military genius — seemed very fond of play- 
ing practical jokes upon his associates. It 
is said that after Cromwell signed the war- 
rant for the execution of King Charles, he 
turned round to one of his colleagues and 
smeared his face with ink. This he thought 
capital fun. Old Abe's jokes have been 
pronounced as smacking somewhat of the 
same quality. When Chase called upon 
him to say good-bye, he, as Secretary of 
the Treasury, asked for some information 
about the probable end of the war, saying 
it would help him in getting more money 
in "Wall street. " Do you want more 
money ? " asked Old Abe, and then quick- 
ly added, " What ! has the printing ma- 
chine gin out ? " This joke must be set 
down as fully equal to Cromwell's, and 
was not unworthy that famous American 
' Cruikshank,' Mr. Orpheus C. Kerr, whose 
penchant in this line is a boon to human 
nature, and — a fortune to his pocket. 



Hooker's Magnificent "War-Horse, "Look- 
out." 
Major- General Joseph Hookei; claimed 
the name of " Lookout " for his seven year 
old battle horse, which bore him through 
the perils of the fight above the clouds, 
so memorable in the annals of the war, 
and an account of which will be found in 
its appropriate department in these pages. 
Lookout, according to the description given 
of him, was a rich chestnut color, standing 
nearly seventeen hands high, and possess- 
ing all the dainty and elastic action of the 
most delicately-fashioned colt. He was 
three-quarters bred, being by Mambrino 



out of a half bred mare ; and notwith- 
standing his ponderous size, he had been 
known to trot, under saddle, in 2.45. He 
was bred in Kentucky, and selected when 
a five-year old, for Mr. Ten Broeck, as the 
finest horse that could be sent to England 
to exhibit style in a coapee. For some 
reason he was not forwarded further east- 
ward than New York city; but when 
there, was seen by the horse agent of the 
Emperor of the French, who repeatedly 
offered a thousand dollars to obtain posses- 
sion of him. It was at this time that 
General Hooker came in competition with 
His Majesty, Louis Napoleon, and finally 
succeeded in purchasing the horse. 

Lookout was undoubtedly the finest 
charger in the army of the Union ; and, 
in grandeur of form and action, dwarfed 
all other horses which approached him. 
Backed by his rider, the General — univer- 
sally acknowledged as a matchless rider — 
the people, could they have but beheld him 
moving up Broadway, would have pro- 
nounced it the finest equestrian statue they 
had ever seen. 



"War TTews from Richmond "Wanted. 
A gentleman of the press once dropped 
in at the War Department, and in the 
course of the conversation with the Secre- 
tary mentioned casually to him that he 
had just telegraphed certain information 
concerning army movements to the New 
York journals, with which he was con- 
nected. The Secretary looked at him in 
dismay, and replied : " Sir, I will give you 
one hundred thousand dollars from the army 
secret service fund, if you will give me 
the same information concerning the ene- 
my's disposition and movements which 
you have just conveyed indirectly, but 
surely, to Richmond." 



"Reliable Information." 
A visitor to the army of the Potomac 
called upon General Grant one morning, 
and found the great commander sitting in 



466 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



his lent, smoking and talking to one of his 
staff officers. The stranger approached 
the chieftain and enquired of him as fol- 
lows : " General, if you flank Lee and get 
between him and Richmond, will you not 
uncover Washington and leave it a prey 
to the enemy? 

General Grant, discharging a cloud of 
smoke with " a silver lining," from his 
mouth, indifferently replied, " Yes, I reck- 
on so." 

Stranger, encouraged by the reply he 
thus received, propounded question num- 
ber two : — 

" General, do you not think Lee can 
detach sufficient force from his army to 
reinforce Beauregard and overwhelm 
Butler ? " 

" Not a doubt of it," replied the Gen- 
eral. 

Stranger, becoming fortified by his suc- 
cess, propounded question number three, 
as follows : — 

" General, is there not danger that John- 
ston may come up and reinforce Lee, so 
that the latter will swing around and cut 
your communication^ and seize your sup- 
plies ? " 

"Very likely," was the cool reply of 
the General, as he knocked the ashes from 
the end of his cigar with his little finger. 

Stranger, horrified at the awful fate 
about to befall General Grant and his 
army, made his exit and hastened to Wash- 
ington to communicate the " news." Of 
such stuff comes much of the " reliable 
intelligence " and " authentic information " 
to which the public is treated. 



Material of which "Mudsill" Regiments 
are Made Up. 
Great admiration was excited by the 
readiness of the men of the Eighth Massa- 
chusetts Regiment, under General Butler, 
for whatever services they were called on 
to perform during their passage from New 
York to Washington. Whether men were 
required to act as engineers, machinists, 
carpenters, or sailors, they were to be had 



on demand. Volunteers from every de- 
partment of industry, there could scarcely 
be found a trade or profession, from butch- 
ers to lawyers, which was not represented 
in the regiment, by men ready for special 
service whenever required. On reaching 
the railway station at Annapolis, General 
Butler found that the secessionists had 
taken apart and broken the only locomo- 
tive there, so as to render it unserviceable. 
" Who knows how to repair this engine ? " 
demanded the General. Six practical ma- 
chinists stepped forward ; but one claimed 
the job — " Because you see, General," he 
said, " I made that engine," and he point- 
ed to his private mark on the machinery. 
These ' mudsill ' regiments, as Gov. Ham- 
mond would call them, are somehow 
strangely intelligent. 

-♦ 

Fresh Pork for the Eighth Illinois. 
When the Union army was stationed at 
Bird's Point, Missouri, secessionists Avere 
rather supposed to have "rights that a 
soldier must respect," and there were 
stringent orders against jayhawking. 
Colonel (afterward General) Oglesby was 
then in command of the Eighth Illinois. 




Fresh fork. 



Well, one day his fife and drum majors 
went out into the woods to practice a new 
tune. Attracted no doubt by the melody, 
a fine fat shote, of musical proclivities, 
came near — alas ! for the safety of his ba- 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



467 



con, too near — for the bass-drummer, by a 
change of base, made a base attack on his 
front ; while the fifer, by a bold and rapid 
flank movement, charged him in. the rear. 
'Twas soon over ; a few well directed vol- 
leys of clubs and other persuasives were 
applied, and piggy went dead again — a 
martyr to his love for music ! But how 
to get the deceased pork into camp ? — 
" That's what's the matter " now. After 
considerable discussion an idea ' strikes ' 
the drummer (not so as to hurt him) : 
" We will put him in the dmm." " Just 
the thing, by hokey ! " said the fifer. One 
head was taken out, and the hog stowed, 
and our heroes started for their quarters, 
carrying the drum between them. In the 
mean time the regiment went out for a 
dress parade ; and the Colonel, somewhat 
vexed at the absence of the principal mu- 
sicians, no sooner saw the gents than, in a 
voice of reprimand, he ordered them to 
take their places with the music. The 
drum-bearers halted, looked at each other, 
then at the Colonel, — but said never a 
word. The Colonel repeated his order in 
a style so emphatic that it could not be 
misunderstood. The dealers in pork felt 
a crisis had arrived, and that an explana- 
tion had become a " military necessity." 
So the drummer, going up close to the 
Colonel, in a low voice made him acquaint- 
ed with the status of affairs, winding up 
with, " We 'low, Colonel, to bring the best 
quarter over to your mess." " Sick, eh ? " 
thundered the Colonel. " Why didn'i, you 
say so at first ? Go to your ' quarters ? ' 
— of course ! Bat-tal-ion, r-i-g-h-t f-a-c-e ! " 
The Colonel had fresh pork for supper. 



Newspaporial Forestalling- of Dying- Senti- 
ments, etc. 

The representative of a now defunct 
newspaper is jocosely stated to have run 
up to a wounded officer who believed him- 
self mortally hurt, at the battle of Fort 
Donelson, and begged him not to die yet 

for the sake of the , (naming his 

journal,) which he had the honor to repre- 



sent ; remarking to the sufferer, that, if 
he had any last words to utter, they should 
appear in the best form in the earliest 
possible issue of his widely-circulated and 
highly influential paper. The officer turn- 
ed away his head in abhorrence and dis- 
gust, and some of his friends compelled 
the persevering reporter to retire. But 
the professor of the quill insisted, true to 
his craft, that he could make a better 
speech for the wounded soldier than he 
could for himself; and hoped he would 
remember not to give any other member 
of the press the least hint of his dying 
sentiments. 

Another correspondent is said to have 
locked General Buckner up in a room at 
Dover, and insisted on having a sketch of 
his life. The General demurred, when 
he was threatened with being printed as 
of the most horrible antecedents unless he 
complied. He blustered a little, but when 
the newspaper scribbler began putting 
down and reading off " General Buckner, 
a native of Massachusetts, formerly one 
of the editors of Lloyd Garrison's anti- 
slavery journal ; but compelled to fly to 
Tennessee on account of having been de- 
tected in a forgery of his father's name," 
etc., the General became a suppliant, and 
gave the irrepressible fellow the main 
events of his life. But, jokes aside, noth- 
ing in the newspaper system of all Eu- 
rope was ever equal to the splendid man- 
ner of marshaling their great array of 
facts, sketches, etc., during the four years 
war, by the correspondents of those prince- 
ly journals, the New York Herald, Times, 
Tribune, and World; the Philadelphia 
Ledger, Bulletin, North American, Press, 
and Inquirer ; the Boston Journal, Trav- 
eller, etc. ; the Springfield Republican ; 
the Cincinnati Gazette, Enquirer, Times, 
and Commercial; the Chicago Tribune, 
Journal, and Times ; the St. Louis Demo- 
crat, Republican, &c. It is not saying too 
much, that, from the materials furnished 
by the able and intrepid correspondents 
[of any one of the great journals here 



468 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



named, a history of the war might he 
written which, for vigor of style, skilf'ul- 
ness of construction, and amplitude of 
scope, would leave nothing to he desired. 

Hard to tell Pork from. Tomatoes. 

While the Brooklyn Fourteenth were 
in Virginia, it was noticed that where they 
were the enemy's pigs got scared, and that 
in the promiscuous state of things there- 
abouts, an accident would sometimes occur 
by which pig was turned into pork, and 
then — 

" Hallo, my man ! where did you get 
that pork ? " called out the Major to a 
soldier staggering along with something 

Co O © o 

wrapped up in his shelter tent, and crim- 
soning the ground as he passed. 

" It is'nt pork, Sir, it's tomatoes ; you 
don't know, Sir, how hard it is to tell pork 
from tomatoes in this country." 

The Major, a pleasant hand at a joke 
himself, was conquered at once, and did 
not press his inquiries. 



Refusal to Receive Pay for Fighting for his 
Country. 

Paymaster Rochester, feeling his lips 
to he unsealed by the death of General 
Wadsworth, of New York, stated that he 
always paid the General from his first en- 
try into the service ; and that when the 
General called on him for money on the 
eve of starting to the Mississippi Valley 
on a special mission connected with the 
arming and organization of the slaves of 
that region, he casually remarked to him 
that when he got to New Orleans he would 
find there Paymaster Vedder, to whom 
he would recommend him as a gentleman- 
ly officer to apply to for any moneys he 
might need. 

" No, Sir ! " said General Wadsworth, 
" I shall not apply to Major Vedder. 
While I am in the service I shall be paid 
only by you. And my reason for that is, 
that I wish my account with the Govern- 
ment to be kept with one Paymaster only ; 
for it is my purpose at the close of the war 
to call on you for an accurate statement 



of all the money I have received from th^e 
United States. The amount, whatever it 
is, I shall give to some permanent institu- 
tion founded for the life relief of disabled 
soldiers. This is the least invidious way 
in which I can refuse pay for fighting for 
my country in her hour of danger." It 
has been stated that Gen. ' Stonewall ' 
Jackson, of the Confederate army, acted 
upon the same principle of pecuniary dis- 
interestedness ; but as no mention is made 
of the circumstances by Mr. Orville J. Vic- 
tor, in his standard and admirable work, 
the " History of the Southern Rebellion," 
in which Gen. Jackson's chai'acter is so 
graphically portrayed, the statement needs 
to be verified. 

Anxious for a Trade. 

An incident which may be characterized 
as very Yankee-like occurred one morning 
in front of the Potomac Army — General 
Turner's lines. A sergeant deliberately 
stepped out from our rifle-pits and moved 
towards the rebels, waving a late paper, 
and regardless of the probability that he 
would at any moment be shot dead. A 
rebel officer shouted to him to go back, 
but the sergeant was unmindful of the 
warning, and asked — 

" Wont you exchange newspapers ? " 

'* No ! " said the rebel, " I have no pa- 
per and I want you to go back." With 
singular persistence, however, the sergeant 
continued to advance, saying — 

" Well, if you hain't a paper, I reckon 
some of your men have, and I want to ex- 
change, I tell you." 

" My men have not got anything of the 
kind, and you must go back." 

This the officer said in a louder tone 
and with great emphasis. Nothing daunt- 
ed, the Yankee sergeant still advanced, 
until he stood plumply before the indig- 
nant officer, and said — 

" I tell ye now you need'nt get your 
dander up. — I don't mean no harm no way. 
P'raps if ye aint got no newspapers ye 
might give me suthin else. May-be you 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



4f>9 



men would like some coffee for some to- 
bacco. I'm dredful anxious for a trade." 
The astonished officer could only repeat 
his command — - 

« Go back, you rascal, or I'll take you 
a prisoner. I tell you we have nothing to 
exchange, and we don't want anything to 
do with you Yankees." 

" Well, then," said the sergeant rueful- 
ly, " if ye hain't got nothin', why, here's 
the paper anyway, and if you get one from 
Richmond this afternoon, you can send 
it over. You'll find my name there on 
that." 

The man's impudence or the officer's 
eagerness for news made the latter accept. 
He took the paper and asked the sergeant 
what was the news from Petersburg. 

" Oh ! our folks say we can go in there 
just when we want to, but we are waiting 
to gobble all you fellows first," was the 
reply. 

" Well, I don't know but what you can 
do it ! " said the Lieutenant, turning on 
his heel and re-entering his rifle-pit ; " but 
meanwhile, my man, you had better go 
back." 

This time the sergeant obeyed the oft- 
repeated order, and, on telling his adven- 
ture, was the hero of the mo'-ning among 
his comrades. 



Helping: a Poor Soldier. 

When Parson Brownlow was in the 
town of ■, a good many people grum- 
bled about the high price of admission to 
his lecture. A very rich, but stingy man, 
who had been all the time very profuse 
with expressions of his patriotism, ex- 
claimed, in a crowd. 

" Give Parson Brownlow half a dollar ? 
No, Sir-ree ! I'd a good deal sooner give 
it to a poor soldier ! " 

" Oh ! " said a bystander, " then give 

your half dollar to Captain H (an 

officer dismissed from the army for cow- 
ardice) ; they say he's a mighty poor sol- 
dier!" 



Banking: Operations of General Schoepf in 
Kentucky. 

An excellent operation in banking is 
that related of General Schoepf, in Ken- 
tucky. When the General arrived in the 
neighborhood of London after the Wild- 
cat fight, he found that Zollicoffer had 
been levying on Union men for provis- 
ions, forage, transportation, etc., and had 
paid them in Confederate bonds. Imitat- 
ing an example which the secessionists 
thought so unexceptionable, General 
Schoepf commenced levying on the seces- 
sionists for similar supplies. In the mean- 
time, he assembled the Union men, and, 
opening an exchange office for their bene- 
fit, set at defiance all banking rules, by 
taking Confederate bonds at par, and sup- 
plying the Union men with good Ohio and 
Indiana money instead. Then when the 
secessionists presented their bills, he paid 
them off with the utmost politeness in their 
own currency. They didn't know enough 
to be thankful for the arrangement, but 
that wasn't his fault. 

Good Luck for an Iowan Soldier. 
When the Federal troops made one of 
their raids into the State of Mississippi, 
in pursuit of Chalmers' forces, one of the 
privates of the Seventh Iowa Infantry, 
while excavating the ruins of an old house, 
for the purpose of fixing a bed for the 
night, suddenly struck upon a bottle, which 
on being brought to light and examined, 
was found to exhibit the refreshing spec- 
tacle of seventy dollars in silver coin. 
Amazed at his un-dreamed-of good luck, 
he determined to follow the " lead," which 
soon changed from silver into gold — for, 
upon further digging, he turned up the 
glorious sum of seven hundred and eighty 
dollars in massive gold. A large and pre- 
cious haul indeed for a ' hard-up ' soldier 
in an enemy's Mid. It had probably 
been deposited there for safe keeping by 
some of the ' natives,' who ludicrously ex- 
pected it could thus escape a ' Yankee's' 
scent. 



470 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



How to Spike a Gun. 
A characteristic incident is related of 
Captain George T. Hebard, formerly a 
private in Company A., of the Cliicago 
Light Infantry, and subsequently com- 
mander of the First Vermont Battery, 
which participated in the hard contested 
battle near Grand Encore. During the 
progress of the bloody engagement, Major 
General Banks rode up and said, energet- 
ically : " Captain Hebard, your battery will 
probably be taken ; spike your guns ! ' 
As the General rode off, the Captain ad- 
dressed the men, saying : " Not by a — 
sight ! This battery isn't to be taken nor 
spiked. Give them double canister, 
boys ! " The battery was charged upon 
terribly three times after that ; the last 
time, they thought they would wait until 
the enemy had approached quite near, 
when they let fly a storm of deadly grape 
and canister, literally killing every man 
within range of the guns. The battery 
brought off every gun and caisson, show- 
ing that to be the best way of " spiking " 
— unless the General himself knew of a 
better one. 



Specimen of Ninth Corps Discipline. 
"While Brigadier- General Robert Pot- 
ter, commanding the Ninth Corps, in East 
Tennessee, was once riding along with his 
orderly, he saw a man running with some- 
thing in his hand, followed by a woman 
crying out after him. Stopping him, he 
found he had stolen some article, and asked 
him his corps. " Ninth Corps." " Very 
well," said the General ; and he instructed 
his orderly to tie him up to a tree, and 
give him a smart strapping with a stirrup- 
strap. Amid his howls it came out that 
he belonged to the Fourth Corps. " Very 
well," said the Geneml; "I am com- 
mander of the Ninth Corps ; if you belong 
to it, all right — if not, you'll know how 
we treat fellows that steal in the Ninth 
Corps." 



That Dinner at General Holt's. 

A Senator from the Western States 
was invited one day in the midst of war 
times, by the Judge Advocate-General, 
Mr. Holt, to dine at the latter's house in 
Washington, and accepted the invitation 
in due form. Having been up late at a 
whist party, he was reminded next morn- 
ing by a friend that he was to dine that 
day with Mr. Holt, in company with other 
civilians and military characters. He ar- 
ranged his toilet accordingly, was shaved 
by one of the barbers at the Capitol, and 
proceeded at the proper hour, after the 
Senate adjourned, to General Holt's resi- 
dence, there to partake of the General's 
viands, and to discuss, with kindred dig- 
nitaries, " the situation." He rang the 
bell, was shown into a parlor with no fire, 
and was soon joined by General Holt. 
After conversing some time, General Holt 
suggested that they would be more com- 
fortable in an adjoining apartment, where 
a fire was burning in the grate. Here 
they sat, one upon each side of the fire- 
place, and talked, and talked, and talked ! 

The Senator kept up the fire of con- 
versation briskly for an hour or so, and his 
host responded as briskly. But at last 
the talk began to flag. General Holt 
was evidently tired of the task of en- 
tertaining the Senator, and the latter 
began to be very hungry. The conversa- 
tion became rather fragmentary, then mo- 
nosyllabic, and finally died out altogether, 
the Senator meanwhile wondering Avhat in 
the deuce was the matter with General 
Holt's cook. The General looked at his 
watch once or twice, and asking to be ex- 
cused a moment while he delivered an or- 
der, left the room. " High time you hur- 
ried up your kitchen forces ! " thought 
the Senator, who having eaten a light 
breakfast, and no lunch, had long before 

" Begun to feel, as well he might, 
The keen demands of appetite." 

General Holt re-entered, and made an 
attempt to renew the conversation, with 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



471 



but partial success. At last a carriage 
arrived at the door and the General took 
out his watch and remarked, apologetical- 
ly, that he had a business call to make, 
and begging therefore to be excused, ad- 
ding — " I shall have the honor of seeing 
you at dinner to-morrow, of course ? " 

A light flashed instantaneously upon 
the mind of the Senator ; he was a day 
before " the fair ! " He declined the cour- 
teously proffered seat in General Holt's 
carriage, and, as soon as out of the house, 
he rushed for the nearest restaurant in a 
famished state. It was ten o'clock ! 
Next day he attended the dinner, and 
some of the party having got an inkling 
of his unhappy blundei', he was induced 
to tell the story at table, which he did 
with such effect that the " table was set in 
a roar " with " inextfnguishable laughter," 
which was repeated more than once after- 
ward, — wherever the Senator related, in 
his inimitable way, the funny circum- 
stances of his dining out. The war ■ sit- 
uation,' unfortuately, was not discussed 
with that gravity and profit to the nation 
which would otherwise have been the case, 
on account of this senatorial faux pas. 



Unsuccessful Search for Information at 
Head-quarters. 

A good story is told of a curious fellow 
enjoying considerable popularity in a cer- 
tain town in New York, and upon the ba- 
sis.of such popularity, he conceived it emi- 
nently proper that he should be informed 
of the plans for the spring campaign in 
the conduct of the various military ope- 
rations. So he called on the Secretary of 
War, and, in his largest style of assur- 
ance, asked, in the blandest manner, what 
Grant was going to do. For final answer 
he got: 

" I don't know ; and if I did, it wouldn't 
be my business to tell you." 

Surely, thought the politician, these 
officials are veiy short and snappish. A 
day or* two afterward he met General 
Halleck, with whom he had a slight ac- 



quaintance, at Willai-d's, and asked him if 
Grant meant to move direct upon Rich- 
mond, or would he take the Peninsula 
route, as some of the papers asserted. 

" Yes, I think so," confidently answered 
Halleck. Mr. Politician pricked up his 
ears for an instant, but soOn said — 

"Ah ' did you say he was going straight 
down, or by the Peninsula ! " 

" Oh ! " said General Halleck, " I don't 
know." 

His next effort was at the President, on 
the occasion of a levee* at the White 
House. Standing familiarly at his right 
in the blue room, he pleasantly remarked : 

" I suppose, Mr. Lincoln, you expect 
stirring times over here on the Rapidan, 
in a week or two ? " 

" Possibly," answered the President. 

" Possibly ! " echoed the New Yorker. 

" I don't know much about it," replied 
the President, " but I heard to-day that 
General Grant meant to take Richmond 
from the Charleston side." 

The fellow withdrew. There was, how- 
ever, yet one source mure. Representa- 
tive Washburne ought to know all about 
it — dead sure. He, therefore, caught 
Washburne in the House, early in the 
morning, before it was called to order, and 
said to him — 

" Can you tell me if I will be likely to 
find General Grant over on the Rapidan, 
say early week after next, if I go over 
there with my Congressman ? " 

" Can't tell you, Sir," answered Wash- 
burne, " General Grant didn't tell me 
what he was going to do, or where he was 
going to be, at any given time." 

The New Yorker concluded that things 
were in a very, very bad way, because no 
one knew what Grant was about nor what 
he was going to do. 



Misfortunes of a Cotton Speculator. 

No sympathy was felt for the cotton 

speculators in New Orleans, who swarmed 

there during the rebellion, and when one 

of them was fleeced it seemed to be a mat- 



4 72 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



ter of rejoicing among both parties — Fed- 
erals as well as rebs. Something of this 
sort happened to a citizen of that city — 
one of those neutral individuals who were 
'always on the fence, ready to jump on 
either s ; de which policy might dictate to 
be for their interest for the time being. 
He — Brown — left New Orleans, on one 
occasion, bound for the Confederate lines, 
with the intention of investing what 
money he had in cotton. Just before 
starting, he met a friend in the street, with 
whom, after exchanging the usual com- 
mon place remarks, he entered into the 
following conversation : 

"What are you up to now, Brown ? " 

" Oh, I've just made a good thing ; been 
into the Confederacy and bought out thirty 
bales of Cotton. Bound up again to-mor- 
row, and if nothing happens I'll bring back 
four times that quantity." 

" Be careful, Brown, or you'll get gob- 
bled up. They'll have you in the rebel 
army." 

" Oh, no fear of that. They all know 
me to be a good Confederate. Besides, 
I've got British papers." 

A month later the two friends met, 
Brown looking decidedly downcast and 
seedy. Wallace accosted him with — 

"Well, Brown, how about that cotton? " 

" Don't talk to me about cotton. Lost 
everything." 

"How's that? 

" Well, you see, I got up to Bayou Sara 
the same night the rebels made their raid 
into the place. I had plenty of time to 
escape, same as a good many others did, 
but I thought I was all right, and so with 
a friend sat down to a game of poker, 
just to show that we didn't feel at all 
alarmed. Presently in came some rebs, 
and began to search us. On my partner 
they found a lot of Confederate money, 
and they wanted to know what right he 
had in the Federal lines with Confederate 
money ? So they just took it. Of course 
I was convinced now that / was all right 



— my money was all greenbacks. ' What 
are you doing in the Confederacy with 
Federal money ? ' they asked. And they 
took mine too ! " 

" That was rough. Is that all they 
done to you ? " 

" All ! No, sir ; they stripped me of 
everything, and one strapping big fellow 
gave me such a spirited kick, while my 
back was turned, as to take me off my 
feet, accompanied with the remark all 
round that if they ever caught me in the 
Confederacy again Avith so little money, 
they'd hang me, if they wouldn't ! " 



Woman's Trials and Triumphs. 
The wife of an officer in the army, liv- 
ing in Williamson county, Illinois, received 
from her husband a package containing 
seven hundred dollars, a portion of which 
belonged to the families of soldiers living 
in that vicinity. A few days after the 
reception of the money there came a sick 
soldier to the house of the officer's wife, 
and asked permission to remain over night. 
The woman refused, but the soldier insist- 
ing, she finally consented. During the 
night the family was aroused by the vio- 
lent knocking of parties outside, who de- 
manded the door to be opened, and if not 
opened they would break it down, — that 
the officer's wife had a lot of money and 
they were bound to have it. The woman 
was terrified, and giving the money to the 
soldier inside, secreted herself and her 
children, when the soldier exclaimed in a 
voice loud enough to be heard by the vil- 
lains outside, " I am unarmed, but if I had 
a pistol I would fix the villains." The 
door was then bursted open, and the men, 
disguised as negroes, entered the house. 
Five shots were instantly fired at them, 
killing three of the party and wounding 
another ; the remainder fled. The black- 
ing having been removed from the faces 
of the dead, they were discovered to be 
the woman's nearest neighbors — one of 
them her brother-in-law. 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



473 



An Honor to her Sex. 
A lady appeared before a Federal Pro- 
vost-Marshal in Tennessee, as an applicant 
for pecuniary assistance. She was evi- 
dently a lady ' to the manor born,' with a 
chirography that would have done credit 
to any one, and her language was entirely 
free from that peculiarity of dialect so 
characteristic of the region from which 
she hailed. The case stood as follows : 

Provost Marshal — You are an applicant 
for relief? 

Lady — Yes, sir. 

Provost — Where is your husband ? 

Lady — He is dead, sir. 

Provost — When did he die ? 

Lady— In 1859. 

Provost — Have you a plantation ? 

Lady — Yes, sir, four hundred acres. 

Provost — Whe're are your slaves ? 

Lady — We had but four ; one of them 
is a decrepit, old woman, and is now with 
me. The remainder were carried off by 
Bragg's army, to keep them from falling 
into the hands of the Union troops. 

Provost — Were they carried away by 
your consent ? 

Lady — They were not. 

Provost — Have you any objection to 
taking the oath of allegiance. 

Lady — I have not ; I have always con- 
sistently opposed secession. I did so in 
the presence of Bragg's army, even more 
loudly than I oppose it now. 

This case shows that the chaff in that 
section was not unmixed with wheat. 

Affecting- Appeal to a Union Commissary. 
The distress produced in some portions 
of Kentucky and Tennessee by the seces- 
sion heresy almost exceeded description. 
At Bridgeport might frequently have been 
seen a crowd of females around the United 
States Commissary, applicants for relief. 
They were in many instances wretched 
creatures. Of forty-seven females present 
on one occasion, only three possessed any 
money to make purchases ; the remainder 
were all pensioners upon the bounty of the 



much despised Federal Government. Of 
course the whole throng had first to apply 
to the Provost-Marshal, and when the 
proper hour had arrived they were ush- 
ered into his tent, one by one, to relate 




Affecting Appeal to a Union Commissary 

their sufferings and the causes which had 
brought them to distress. They were all 
new applicants, the old ones getting sup- 
plies at regular intervals, without the in- 
tervention of the Provost-Marshal. The 
first whose fortune it was to be called, on 
this occasion, was a Mrs. Rieard. The 
Marshal asked her — 

" Are you a widow ? " 

" No, sir." 

" Where is your husband ? " 

"With Bragg, in the Third Tenne see 
cavalry." 

" Your husband is in the rebel army ; 
when did he join it ? " 

" Two years since." 

" Did he volunteer ? " 

" Yes, to keep from being con?crip'ed." 

" But the rebel conscription law was 
not then in force." 

" But they told him that it would soon 
be, and he had better volunteer." 

" Was he not a strong secessionist from 
the start ? " 

"Yes; he thought you wanted to de- 
prive us of our rights, and take all our 
slaves." 



474 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



" How many slaves did he own ? " 

" None." 

" Had he a plantation ? " 

" No, sir." 

" What property had he ? " 

" Nothing ; he lived by clays' work." 

" Why, then, was he so fearful about 
the slaves ? " 

" Because he was afraid the North would 
put the^niggers on an equality with us." 

" Your husband is in the rebel army, and 
you ask us to supply you with bread. 
Why do you do this ? " 

Mrs. Ricard threw aside the fly of the 
tent and just outside stood five small chil- 
dren, who had but a single article of cloth- 
ing — a light, home-spun cotton wrapper — 
on each, though the wind was blowing 
chilly cold from the north. " They have 
not had a mouthful since yesterday morn- 
ing," said Mrs. E.., "and not half enough 
for six months." The appeal was irresist- 
ible — the Provost-Marshal told her he 
would administer the oath and get her 
relief. 



From a Palace to the Attic. 
As an example of the financial inflation 
caused by the war and a redundant cur- 
rency, the following is not at all an ex- 
aggeration : An ex-mayor of New York, 
who lived in an elegant residence and in 
sumptuous style, was visited one day by 
two ladies, who asked permission to look 
at his house, stating that the house next 
door was for sale, but the occupants would 
not allow them to view it. His Honor 
courteously informed them that the houses 
in that block were exactly alike, and they 
might examine his house as fully as they 
pleased. On leaving, one of the ladies 
said to him, " I suppose you would not sell 
your house ? " " Oh, yes," said His Honor, 
" I'll sell anything but my wife and chil- 
dren." That afternoon he received a note 
from a leading real estate house, asking 
him if he would sell his house, and at what 
price. He ottered it at thirty thousand 
dollars. The offer was taken at once. 



The papers were passed and the money 
paid that night. The next day the house 
was sold for forty thousand dollars. Two 
or three things in this transaction made 
His Honor a little unquiet. He offered 
his house ten thousand dollars less than 
his next door neighbor asked. He had to 
abandon his comfortable and luxurious 
home instanter. He was literally turned 
into the street. Somebody made ten thou- 
sand* dollars out of him. Getting a fash- 
ionable residence at any reasonable price 
was out of the question. Nothing re- 
mained for him but the overcrowded Fifth 
Avenue Hotel, where, with his family, in 
an attic story, he was at last accounts 
waiting for something to turn up. 



Cord for Cord— Secession Currency. 

Quite a 'good un' is told of a steamboat 
Captain who stopped with his boat at a 
wood yard, coming down the river, and 
who thought to try the pretended loyalty 
of the owner of the yard by an offer of 
Confederate money, of which the boat had 
a good supply. 

" Will you take Confederate money for 
your wood ? " shouted the Captain, to the 
man on shore. 

" Yes," was the laconic reply. 

The boat hauled to, was made fast, 
and a stage thrown out, when it occurred 
to the Captain to inquire about the rate he 
was to pay. 

" What do you ask for wood now ? " he 
asked. 

"What kind of money did you say you 
would pay in ? " inquired the wood vender. 

" Confederate." 

" Well, then, I want cord for cord ! " 



Present of a Turkey to General Sedgwick. 
A woman came into the head-quarters 
of the Virginia army, from the country, 
and going to General Sedgwick, who was 
sitting en dishabille on the steps of a 
house, inquired for the General, saying 
she had brought him a turkey, because he 
had sent a guard to her house to protect 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



475 



her property. ""Won't you sell me the 
turkey ? " said the General, " I will pay 
you well for it." " No," replied the wo- 
man, " I have brought it for the General, 
and no one else can have it." The discus- 
sion was kept up some time, till finally the 
General pointed out an officer in full uni- 
form, saying, " There, go give it to him." 
She immediately went and delivered the 
turkey to the officer, who took it in amaze- 
ment, while she gave utterance to some 
voluble thanks. Some of the bystanders, 
who had heard the whole matter, subse- 
quently illumined the woman's conceptions, 
and she came up to the General, blushing 
and apologizing — expressing her regrets 
that she had given the turkey to the wrong 
person. The matter Avas rectified, very 
much to her satisfaction. 



Grant's Objection to having any Trade-Part- 
nership. 

Quite a characteristic anecdote is told 
of General Grant, relative to his refusal 
to engage in or authorize any movements 
for the reopening of trade with the rebel- 
lious States. On one occasion, especially, 
after his protests and orders suppressing 
such traffic, he was eagerly entreated by 
the agents of the Treasury Department to 
authorize some system of trade. For a 
long time he refused, for the reason that 
he could not successfully conduct his mili- 
tary operations while such persons were 
moving around him; but at last he con- 
ceded that a certain amount of trade in 
the recaptured districts of the South would 
be safe, proper, and even highly useful to 
the Union — provided it could be conducted 
through honest, unimpeachable Union 
hands. He was asked to name the per- 
sons to whom he Avould be willing to 
intrust such traffic : 

" I will do no such thing," was Grant's 
reply ; " for if I did, it would appear in 
less than a week that I was a partner of 
every one of the persons trading under 
my authority." 

Instances of the General's unbending 



integrity might be given in sufficient num- 
ber to fill a volume. They will be found 
amply and admirably displayed in that 
excellently prepared work, " Grant and 
his Campaigns," which exceeds in thrilling 
interest any similar works in which Napo- 
leon or Wellington are the central heroes. 

Balance of Power maintained between 
Turkeys and Chickens. 

A company of the — th cavalry of vol- 
unteers (no matter what State,) were out 
on a forage, with the usual orders to re- 
spect the enemy's property. But coming 
upon a plantation where chickens and 
turkeys were dallying in the sunshine, 
tired of pork and plaster pies, alias hard 
tack, gave the boys leave to club over as 
many of the " two-legged things in feath- 
ers," as they could conveniently come at. 
The result was that a good number were 
dispatched, and, tied together by the legs, 
were slung over the pommel of the saddle 
of " Benny," an old sabreur, who had from 
tiered it for years, been in more Indian 
fijrhts than you could shake a stick at. and 
gould tell, if he wanted to, of some high- 
old-hard times with those same Mdewa- 
kantonwar, Wahpekute, Ihanktonwannas, 
and Minnikanyewazhipu, red-skinned 
friends. Returning to camp, as ill luck 
would have it, they met the Colonel of 
their regiment riding out to a neighboring 
camp. Just before they met him, in fact 
when they were nearly up to him, for a 
curve of the road had hid him from sight 
until then, the officer in command rode by 

Benny with the command : " it now, 

why don't you sling those chickens the 
t other side your saddle? The Colonel 
will see them hanging that way." " Can't 
be done ! got fourteen turkeys there on a 
balance ! " By remarkably good fortune 
the Colonel did not see the chickens, so 
they and the turkeys were safely smug- 
gled into camp, Benny getting the full 
credit for ' maintaining the balance of 
power,' when the odds were dead against 
him. 



476 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



Hare Trick upon a War Correspondent. 

When the Union army occupied Fred- 
erick, in September, 18G2, one or two of 
the most enterprising correspondents of 
the press were early on hand, and railroad 
communication with Baltimore being sus- 
pended they were obliged to send their 
despatches through to Baltimore on horse- 
back. At that time a strong picket was 
thrown out from Baltimore to Ellicott's 



cure for him the pass required. He was 
" very much obliged," and received the 
following note : 

H'dq'rs, Lisbon, Maryland, Sept. 13. 
Provost Marshal, Ellicotts Mills : 

The bearer represents himself as a re- 
porter and messenger for the New York 
From certain suspicious circum- 



stances, I am strongly of the opinion that 




Conference of Newspaper Corruspocdcnt3. 



Mills, and Burnside's corps lay on the 
pike near Lisbon. Late one evening, 
a reporter entered what he supposed to be 
the Provost Marshal's office in Lisbon, and 
addressing a gentleman in semi-military' 
costume sitting at a table, introduced him- 
self, stated his business, and asked for a 
pass which would enable him to get 
through the pickets at Ellicott's Mills after 
the countersign was out. The reply was 
that he could not obtain a pass which would 
take him through the pickets, but he could 
have a note to the Provost Marshal at 
Ellicott's Mills which would probably pro- 



he is nothing but a Baltimore secessionist 
spy. He wants a pass, and I have referred 
him to you ; but I think it would be well 
enough to detain him until he can satis- 
factorily identify himself. 
Yours, etc., 

Timothy Jones, 
Captain and Provost Marshal. 
The correspondent went on his way re- 
joicing. Upon being challenged by the 
pickets at Ellicott's Mills, he presented his 
letter, whereupon to his astonishment he 
was forthwith taken into custody, and de- 
tained some twenty hours before he could 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



477 



satisfy the officers that a cruel " sell " had 
been practiced upon him. Of course, 
" Timothy Jones " was nobody less than a 
lazy correspondent who had got behind in 
his duties ; and he at once improved his 
chance, went up to Frederick, and got in 
his account as soon as his poor competitor 
whom he had practiced this sorry joke 

upon. 

♦ 

Hooker and the Newspaper Correspondents. 

General Hooker always treated every 

newspaper correspondent who visited him 

with great politeness, but he cared very 




to pass through the swampy grounds on 
the way to Richmond. One of the most 
noted chief commanders of the Union army 
was singularly liberal in this respect, and 
even the good General Steele left supplies 
for the rebels on a still larger scale. To 
facts of this kind is probably due the re- 
ply attributed to General Ripley, on a re- 
quisition for supplies being made upon him, 
before he was displaced : " Gentlemen," 
he said, " I must decline furnishing both 
armies any more. Let me know which 
army is to be supplied, and the depart- 
ment will meet, if able, or refuse, if not. 
the requisition." 



Maj. Gen Joseph Hooker. 

little for their opinion, and was as lenient 
towards the journals whose language was 
inimical to him as to those professing to 
be his friends. The representative of a 
radical journal once asked him why he al- 
lowed a certain " Copperhead " journal to 
circulate in his army. " Well, I'll see 
about it," said Hooker. Sometime after- 
ward, when asked by the same party why 
he did not suppress it, he replied that he 
" had read it carefully every day for two 
weeks, and was still looking for the overt 
act which would justify him hi doing it." 
Nothing more was said about the suppres- 
sion of newspapers by that party. 



Tapping- the Telegraphic Wires. 

The telegraph line between Memphis 
and Corinth was exceedingly important. 
General Halleck's messages all passed over 
it. But little of the line was guarded, for 
the rebels refrained from cutting the wires ; 
they found a better use for them. 

The Memphis operators detected some- 
thing wrong in the working of the instru- 
ments, and surmised that some outsider 
was sharing their telegraphic secrets. 
They communicated this suspicion to the 
superintendent at Corinth, who promised 
to keep a sharp lookout. They soon after- 



Inability to furnish Supplies to both Armies. 

It was regarded as a necessity by our 

men that they should throw off their 

blankets and great coats, in order for them 




a. in tt^tion. 



wards discovered that their uninvited con- 
fidant could talk as well as listen. The 
transmission of a message was suddenly 
interrupted by the ejaculation " O pshaw ! " 
A moment after it was again broken with 



478 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



— " Hurrah for Jeff. Davis ! " Individual- 
ity shows itself as well in telegraphing as 
hi the footstep, or in handwriting. Mr. 
Hall, one of the Memphis operators, in- 
stantly recognized the performer, not by 
his tune, but by his time, as a young man 
formerly in Buffalo and other Northern 
offices, but then employed by the Confed- 



(only about 3,000,) and their exact loca- 
tion ! 




Lieutenant ■ 



Perfumed Breath. 



erates. Mr. Hall surprised him by reply- 
ing promptly — 

" Ed. Saville, if you don't want to be 
hung, you had better leave ! Our cavalry 
is closing in on both sides of you ! " 

There was a little pause, and then the 
reply— 

" How in the world did you know me ? 
However, I've been here four ' days, and 
learned all we want to know. As this is 
becoming rather a tight place, I think I 
will leave. You'll see me again, when you 
least expect it. Good-bye, boys ! " 

The rebel operator made good his escape. 
He had cut the wire, inserted a piece of 
his own, and by a pocket instrument, been 
reading the official despatches. Some of 
the utmost importance, giving the very in- 
formation most desired by the rebels, were 
passing, and as they were not in cipher, 
they could easily be read. One from Gen- 
eral Hovey, in reply to a question from 
General Halleck, stated the precise num- 
ber of our available men hi Memphis, 



Lieutenant 's Perfumed Breath. 

Little Freddy H., a four-year-old, son 
of Chaplain H., of a New York regiment 
of volunteers, perpetrated a good thing 
while said regiment was at camp at Suf- 
folk. A smart look- 
ing Lieutenant, with 
dashing air and per- 
fumed breath, came 
into a tent where Fred- 
dy was. The little 
soldier scanned him 
very closely, and when 
a convenient oppor- 
tunity offered itself he 
said to the Lieuten- 
ant, "You are a doc- 
tor; I know you are a 
doctor." " No, my 
little man," replied the 
officer, " you are mis- 
taken this time ; I am 
not a doctor." " Yes, you are a doctor 
too," replied Freddy ; " I know you are a 
doctcr ; for I can smell the medicine I " 
This was too good a thing to be kept, and 
half an hour did not elapse before it had 
spread tliroughout the regiment. 



Sharing- General Magruder's Table. 
General Magruder always enjoyed the 
reputation, among his men, of being a 
brave officer and kind man, but filled with 
vanity, self-conceit, and pomposity. Short- 
ly after the war commenced he was sitting 
one day in a restaurant in Richmond, en- 
joying, solus, a twelve o'clock dejeuner 
with rigid dignity, every button of his 
splendid uniform exactly in situ, and his 
immaculate shirt-collar adjusted at precise- 
ly the proper angle. He had hardly tested 
the merits of his repast when in sauntered 
a tall, long-haired, recl-shirted private of 
the Louisiana First, *which regiment had 
just arrived in the city. With the utmost 
coolness red-shirt sat himself down in the 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



479 



vacant chair opposite the General, and let 
into the good tilings before him with a zest 
that plainly told of long marches and pre- 
vious scanty rations. This was too much 
for the aristocratic old officer. Drawing 
himself up a la General Scott, and with 
one of his severest frowns and the harsh- 
est voice he could command, he exclaimed, 
hi tones of evident disgust — 

" Sir, what do you mean ? Do you 
know at whose table you are sitting ? " 

The soldier, scarcely looking up replied, 
in the interval between a bite and a drink, 
" I know I am dreadful hungry ; and I 
ain't a bit 'particular who I eat with since 
I've gone soldiering! " 



All for the Whiskey. 
In one of the battles in Mississippi, an 
Indiana regiment was fiercely attacked by 
a whole rebel brigade. The Indianians, 
unable to withstand such odds, were com- 
pelled to fall back about thirty or forty 
yards, losing — to the utter mortification of 
officers and men — their flag, which re- 
mained in the hands of the enemy. Sud- 
denly a tall Irishman, a private of the 
color company, rushed from the ranks 
across the vacant ground, attacked the 
squad of rebels who had possession of the 
conquered flag, with his musket, felled 
several to the ground, snatched the flag 
from them, and returned safely back to 
his regiment. The bold fellow was, of 
course, immediately surrounded by his ju- 
bilant comrades and greatly praised for 
his gallantry, his captain appointing him 
to a sergeancy on the spot ; but the hero 
of the occasion cut every thing short by 
the reply, "Oh, niver mind, Captin, say 
no more about it ; I dropped me whiskey- 
flask among the rebels and fetched that 
back, and I thought I might just as well 
bring the flag along:." 



Going- Over his Battles Agrain. 

Captain McD. arrived in New Orleans 

about four hours after the battle at Baton 

Rouge, and as he was a good talker, and had 

30 



a pretty clear idea of the battle, he was in- 
stantly surrounded at his hotel and over- 
whelmed with questions. The result was 
that the Captain fought the battle over- 
and refreshed himself with " some of the 
same," until he got rather confused — so 
much so, indeed, that he was often caught 
getting the line of battle in disorder, and 
doing other very unmilitary movements. 
In the height of his excitement, Colonel 
■, a friend of the Captain's, came in, 



and the latter, determined that the former 
should have a clear idea of the action, 
commenced over again as follows : 

" Look here, Colonel — you see the 
Michiganders were stationed along here ;" 
and the Captain stuck his finger into his 
neighbor's sherry cobbler, and with the 
mixture, as it dropped off his finger, drew 
a short line on the top of the bar counter. 
"This, gentlemen," said the Captain, 
warming up, " that's the Michigan-ic-gan- 
ic Regiment, and here the Vermonters in 
the rear of the Indi-Indi-an-ians in the 
centre." Hereupon, the Captain stuck his 
finger in somebody else's glass, and drew 
a second line with his finger. " Now, you 
see," continued the Captain, with a very 
self-satisfied air, " that the Twentieth 
Maine was stationed out here ; " aud pop 
went the Captain's finger into another 
glass, the action resulting in the making 
of a formidable water-line considerably in 
advance of the other two. " Now," said 
the Captain, by way of parenthesis, "I 
believe if General Butler has a fair chance, 
he can whip the Confederacy or any other 
man." Just at this moment, one of the 
barkeepers, a stolid old negro, whose busi- 
ness it was to keep things neat and clean, 
espied the three marks the Captain had 
made on the top of the counter, and swing- 
ing ror.nd his formidable towel the front 
line disappeared in an instant. The Cap- 
tain glanced on the darkey for a moment, 
but most penetratingly, and then wrathful- 
ly exclaimed, " You infernal nigger you ! 
don't you observe you have wiped out the 
Twentieth Maine Regiment ? " 



480 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



The Captain having so suddenly been 
deprived of one of his most reliable regi- 
ments, and the Michiganders at the same 
time beginning to " dry up," he concluded 
he would adjourn the description until a 
more favorable season. The Captain was 
seen the next day, and seemed to complain 
of a severe headache — owing to the fact, 
perhaps, that there was a hole in his mos- 
quito-bar, and he was so bit up the night 
previous, by the insects, that he could'nt 
sleep. (Ahem.) 



" Swamp Angel " Incident. 

Colonel Serrell, of the New York En- 
gineers, had the charge of the construction 
of the " Swamp Angel," at Morris Island, 
S. C, and being of an energetic constitu- 
tion himself, and not afraid to enter 
swamps, his surprise can be imagined 
when one of his lieutenants, whom he had 
ordered to take twenty men and enter that 
swamp, said that he " could not do it — the 
mud was too deep." Colonel Serrell or. 
dered him to try. He did so, and the 
Lieutenant returned with his men covered 
with mud, and said : 

" Colonel, the mud is over my men's 
heads ; I can't do it." 

The Colonel insisted, and told the Lieu- 
tenant to make a requisition for anything 
that was necessary for the safe passage of 
the swamp. The Lieutenant did make 
his requisition in writing, and on the spot. 
It was as follows : 

" I want twenty men eighteen feet long 
to cross a swamp fifteen feet deep." 

The joke was a good one. It secured, 
however, not a cubit to the stature of the 
Lieutenant, but rather his arrest for dis- 
respect to his superior. The battery, nev- 
retheless, was built with the aid of wheel- 
barrows and sand. Like Jonah's gourd, 
it sprang up in a night. 



Reporters on a " Bender." 
Immediately after Grant's great victory 
in the Southwest, three newspaper corres- 
pondents, who had been at the scene of 



conflict, started for their respective desti 
nations, each seeking, of course, to come 
out in advance of the others with the pub- 
lic report, — one of the gentlemen being 
connected with the press of Chicago, Illi- 
nois, and the others with New York papers, 
The three arrived together at Nashville, 
Tennessee, when two of them leagued to 
play a joke upon their associate. All of 
them being wearied, they thought it not 
in bad taste to regale their appetites with 
some strengthening beverages. The 

ubiquitous John D — , of the N. Y. , 

boasted that he could drink more and not 
get drunk than any other knight of the 
quill in the Army of the Cumberland. 
The Chicago man and the other New 
Yorker closed the bet, and soon the three 
were engaged in their bibulous labors. 
The boaster tossed them down — the 
' slings ' and ' skins,' — without regard to 
what his competitors did, and soon got 
himself into a condition in which mere 
terrestrial affairs and worldly vanities gave 
him very little trouble. Business was the 
great point with his rivals, and by a leetle 
closer attention to that than to the bowls, 
succeeded in keeping sober, and when the 
time to depart had arrived, off they started, 
leaving the boozy and oblivious gentleman 
in charge of the chambermaid. Up to 
the latest date, no ' original ' report had 
appeared in the columns of that enterpris- 
ing reporter's paper. 



Honesty on the Battlefield. 
Lieutenant Tinkham was one among the 
many brave men who were killed at the 
second battle of Corinth. It appears that 
Lieutenant Tinkham was not seriously 
wounded when the rebels took possession 
of that part of the field where he fell, but 
was only shot through the leg ; and as the 
Union boys were contesting the advance 
of the enemy with desperate bravery, 
Lieutenant Tinkham raised himself upon 
his elbow to see the fighting, when another 
leaden messenger pierced his body, and he 
fell to the ground again. Seeing that he 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



481 



soon must he numbered among the slain, 
and that his life blood was fast flowing 
out, he made some sign to a passing rebel 
— which was said to be a Masonic sign of 
recognition — who immediately came to 
Tinkham's side, and rendered him all the 
assistance in his power. Just before the 
Lieutenant expired, he handed the rebel 
his watch and some money, with the in- 
struction to forward it to his family the 
first opportunity he had, — and in a few 
moments after saying this he expired. 
The rebel now pinned a small piece of 
paper on Tinkham's coat, stating his name 
and company, and left him. In this con- 
dition he was found by his company and 
by them buried. Time rolled on, and on 
the fourth of July, 1863, thirty-five thou- 
sand l'ebels surrendered to the victorious 
Federal army at Vicksburg, and among 
that vast multitude was to be found Lieu- 
tenant Tinkham's rebel friend — all honor 
to him ! — eagerly searching for the Four- 
teenth Wisconsin regiment. This he at 
last discovered, and, safely delivering the 
watch and money to one of its members 
disappeared among the throng. The ar- 
ticles were duly received by the Lieuten- 
ant's friends. What it is to have an hon- 
est foe 



Estimate of Confederate Promises-to-Pay, 
Down South. 

Lieutenant McFadden, of the Seventy- 
ninth Indiana, was taken prisoner at Chick- 
amauga, and, at Richmond, confined in 
Libby prison. He survived starvation 
rations, and after his release gave an ac- 
count of his amusing experiences, finan- 
cially, relative to the rebellion. When cap- 
tured he had two hundred and sixty dol- 
lars in greenbacks, concealed, which he 
hoped to be able to keep. But the rebels 
either heard of it or suspected it, and made 
him give it up. They assured him that if 
he gave it up readily it should be restored 
to him on his release, but if he refused, 
and compelled a search, he would lose it 
entirely, and find that things would not 



go well with him besides. He gave it up. 
On his release, he found in the prison 
office the sum of one thousand eight hun- 
dred and twenty dollars, in Confederate 
money, ready for him, as the return of 
his own which had been promised him. 
He " couldn't see it." He said to the 
Quartermaster that he would rather have 
his own money. He was replied to that 
Federal money was not currency in that 
region, and he could not be allowed to 
take it. "Why," retorted Lieutenant 
McFadden, " I read in the Whig of this 
city only this morning, that the Yankee 
currency was worthless, — that the treas- 
ury was bankrupt ; and, if it is, why may 
I not as well have my own money, espe- 
cially as I had rather have it ? " The offi- 
cer replied that he wanted " no words 
about it." "But," persisted McFadden, 
" if my money is no currency here, it can't 
do you any good, and if yours Is worth 
anything it will do you some good, and I 
am willing to take my little pile instead 
of your big one ; why not make the ex- 
change ? " 

This plain Saxon " poser" was met with 
the assurance that if he gave any further 
" lip " he should at once go to a cell and 
stay there. So he took the " money." 
The Quartermaster instructed the clerk 
to count it. Lieutenant McF. interrupted 
this rather unnecessary operation with the 
remark, " I am in a great hurry, Sir, and 
you need not wait to count it — a few hun- 
dred dollars more or less will make no 
difference." This came near sending him 
back to prison whether or no, but he 
managed to avoid the peril and get out 
to find that a hackman refused to carry 
him to the boat, about a quarter of a mile 
from the prison, for one hundred dollars 
of his rebel money. This fact, as well as 
the more significant one that the Govern- 
ment officials themselves gave seven dol- 
lars of their money for one of the Federal 
greenbacks, as the legal — or at least the 
officially recognized — difference, shows 
that if the Confederacy had not itself 



482 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



" gone under," its currency was certainly 
about at that point. 

The Newsboy and his Officer Customer. 
At a time when the war news was 
rather scarce, and the Washington news- 
boys were slightly ' stuck ' on their mer- 
chandise, one of them planted himself by 
the Metropolitan Hotel entrance and shout- 
ed, " Extra Star — Great battle in Ala- 
bama ! " so lustily that he speedily found 
a shoulder-strapped customer, who ran his 
eye eagerly over the columns for that 
'battle in Alabama.' He didn't find it, 
and called out, " You little rascal, I can't 
see any battle ! " " No," answered the 
boy, as he widened the gap between him- 
self and the officer, " I reckon you don't, 
and you never will see one if you loaf 
round this 'ere hotel all the time ! " 



Prompt Settlement of a Claim. 

— Old Lady — " Is this where Captain 
Bragg lives ? " 

Colonel Brent — "Yes, madam. Can I 
do anything for you ? " 




General Bragg (sitting near) — " Colon- 
el Brent, see that the lady's claim is set- 
tled immediately ! " 



Settuu;; ii Ciaiui. 



Old Lady—" Well, you see, Mister, I 
lives over where the fitin' was, and when 
Captain Bragg's company skered the 
Yankees, they ran rite peerst my house — 
rite peerst — when up comes Captain For- 
rest with his crittur company {cavalry] 
and makes a line of fight rite thi'ough my 
yard, and oversets my ash hopper, and 
treads " 



His Discharge Confirmed by Heaven. 

A solid shot is the most deceptive of 
projectiles. It may seem to move lazily 
— to be almost dead, — but, so long as it 
moves at all, it should be allowed a wide 
berth. Just before one of the battles in 
the Southwest, an artilleryman received 
his discharge for disability, but delaying, 
for some reason, his Northward journey, 
he was yet with his battery on the eve of 
an engagement, — and, true to his instincts, 
took his old place beside the horse, and 
was just preparing to mount, when a solid 
shot came ricocheting across the field, 
bounded up, and struck him in the lower 
part of the body. Crying out, " I've got 
the first ticket, boys ! " the poor fellow 
sank down, and only added, with that 
strange dread of a little hurt a terribly 
wounded man always seems to feel, " lay 
me down by a tree where they won't run 
over me." They complied with his re- 
quest, hastened into position, and saw him 
no moi'e. The wounded man's discharge 
was confirmed by Heaven. Now, that 
fatal ball, when, having finished its work 
there, it leaped lazily on, pushed out the 
skirt of the artillerist's coat as a hand 
would move a curtain, without rending it ! 



Style of Clearing off a Table by General 
Butler. 
Every lady reader knows — or should 
know — how to " clear off a table ; " in 
either case, General Butler's style of do- 
ing the thing will be found more interest- 
ing than instructive. A newspaper report- 
er had need one day to call upon General 
Butler, and gave him occasion for about a 
minute to use writing materials and a 
table. General Butler ushered the re- 
porter into his sitting-room meanwhile. 
In the centre of the sitting-room was a 
table piled with newspapers, pamphlets 
and books. The General for an instant 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



483 



ran his eye over its area in search of suffi- 
cient room to lay a sheet of note paper. 
There was none. What did Butler do 
but tilt over the table, spill its contents 
upon the floor, and then placidly sit down 
and do his writing. While he did this, an 
African nimbly removed the conglomerated 
heap of literature. This spontaneous 
clearing of the table by the General was 
suggestive of the manner in which Colum- 
bus made the egg stand upon its end, and 
the incident afforded a clue to the Gener- 
al's whole character. While others are 
thinking about doing a thing, he does it. 
The man who buys him for a fool gets a 
shocking bad bargain. 



Smug-g-lingr "the critter" into Camp. 
The smuggling of liquors into the Union 
camps of the Potomac army was carried 
on very ingeniously and to a very great 
extent. It was ascertained — and this was 
but one of the many cute devices resorted 
to — that parties engaged in bringing liquid 
offal from the camps in the vicinity of Al- 
exandria, conveyed enormous quantities 
of liquor across the Potomac, by construct- 
ing their tubs with false bottoms — one for 
the liquor and one for the offal. This lit- 
tle trick was at last exposed by a man en- 
gaged in the legitimate part of the busi- 
ness, the offal, — who feared that if the 
officials should discover the guilty, that all 
would be adjudged so, and that, in that 
way, he would be deprived of the lucrative 
profits winch he was then realizing. An- 
other mode of getting liquor to the soldiers 
on the opposite side of the Potomac was 
more difficult of prevention. Large num- 
bers of jugs, filled with villainous whisky, 
were carried across the river in true subma- 
rine style. Parties had a small wire, coiled 
on a tackle, by which means they drew 
bottles and jugs of the " critter " across, 
realizing enormous profits in their sale. 



Female Government Contractor. 
A married lady residing in the neighbor- 
hood of Boston — her husband holding a 



position in the custom-house of that city — 
was one of the largest contractors in 
Massachusetts for furnishing supplies to 
the army. Her contracts for clothing are 
said to have amounted during a single year 
to ha!f a million dollars, and the total 
amount of all her contracts since the com- 
mencement of the war to its third year 
was estimated as high as two millions of 
dollars. On one of her contracts she lost 
some money, but on the others realized 
handsome profits. 

The business of this lady having led 
her to visit Beaufort, she there saw neg- 
lected opportunities for speculation, which 
she improved to even more advantage than 
her government contracts. She established 
two wholesale and retail stores at or near 
Beaufort and Morehead City, then came 
back to Boston, and contracted for the 
materials and machinery of a steam saw 
mill, the erection of Avhich was carried on 
under her direction or superintendence, 
and the mill was soon ready to saw the 
logs which two hundred contrabands had 
been cutting for her in the pine forests of 
North Carolina. 

This lady possessed the advantage of 
being well educated, moving in the best 
circles of society, and joining with her ad- 
mirable self-reliance, a sound judgment. 
She will probably finally retire Avith an 
amjile fortune. 



Beef Steak and Hot Rolls Every Mornine. 

Colonel Leve, of the Eleventh Ken- 
tucky Cavalry, relates the following con- 
versation which took place between one 
of the Union and a rebel picket, in Tennes- 
see, showing on which side the 'grub.' pre- 
ponderated. 

" Hallo there, Yank, have you got a 
chew o' tobacco ? " 

" Yeas — lay down your shootin' iron 
and I will mine, and will meet you half, 
way." 

The next moment they were together, 
in earnest conversation, sitting on the 
ground as socially as any two friends. 



484 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Reb. — Got anything to eat over there 
in Knoxville ? 

Yank. — Anything to eat ! Yes ; more'n 
we know what to do with. ' Plenty — full 
rations for thirty clays. 

Reb. — Do they have sugar and coffee 
over there ? 

Yank. — Yes ; we've plenty ; but Gen- 
eral Burnside, not knowing what may 
happen, is issuing only half rations now. 
Why, see here (putting his hand into his 
pocket and hauling out a handful of parched 
coffee,) you see we carry it with us. 

The rebel's eyes stuck out with aston- 
ishment. 

Reb. — Have you got any cavalry over 
there ? 

Yank. — Now, friend, that is hardly a 
fair question, but I'll answer it the best I 
know how. I was at Corinth, Murfrees- 
boro', and Perrysville, but I did not see as 
many cavalry as Ave have in Knoxville. 

Reb. — Why, you astonish me. We 
thought you were all on quarter rations, 
and would be starved into surrender in a 
day or two. 

Yank. — Not a bit of it ; we can stay 
there as long as you did at Vicksburg, and 
luive good beef-steak and hot rolls every 
morning for breakfast! 

The rebel " gave it up." 



"Divide is the "Word, or You are a Dead 
Jolinny." 

Amidst all the horrors of the war, many 
instances occurred, amusing in themselves, 
and which sometimes, under the most try- 
ing circumstances, were provocation of 
mirth, forming subjects for " camp-stories 
months after. Our soldiers would some- 
times chase hares and pick blackberries 
when a shower of the leaden messengers 
of death were falling thick and fast around 
them. But the following, which took 
place at Mine Run, surpasses anything of 
its kind: 

On one of those biting cold mornings, 
while the armies of Meade and Lee were 
Staring firebolts at each other across the 



little rivulet known as Mine Run, when 
moments appeared to be hours and hours 
days, so near at hand seemed the deadly 
strife, a solitary sheep leisurely walked 
along the run on the rebel side. A rebel 
vidette fired and killed the sheep, and, 
dropping his gun, advanced to remove the 
prize. In an instant he was covered by a 
gun in the hands of a Union vidette, who 
said — 

" Divide is the word, or you are a dead 
Johnny." 

This proposition was assented to, and 
there, between the two skirmish lines, Mr. 
Rebel skinned the sheep, took one half and 
moved back with it to his post, when his 
challenger, in turn, dropping his gun, 
crossed the run, got the other half of the 
sheep, and again resumed the duties of his 
post amidst the cheers of his comrades, 
who expected to help him eat it. Of the 
multitudes of hostile men arrayed against 
each other on either bank of that run, 
not one dared to violate the truce thus 
intuitively agreed upon by these two 
soldiers. 



A Cluster of Little Courtesies. 
At the time of making the raid on New- 
bern, on the first of February, Genera] 
Pickett captured Lieutenant Kirby, of 
Angell's battery, with two pieces of artil- 
lery. Kirby being a great favorite, his 
friends made up a purse and clothing, and 
forwarded to Lieutenant K. by way of an 
exchanged prisoner, who did not deliver 
the money and goods, but deserted and 
made his way back into our lines, minus 
the articles. General Pickett, hearing of 
this transaction, felt very much mortified, 
and indemnified Kirby out of his own 
purse. General Butler, hearing of this 
courteous act, would not allow himself to 
be outdone, and forwarded to General 
Pickett the amount he had furnished 
Lieutenant Kirby. Such acts show that 
the rebellion did not entirely crush out 
courteous feelings or humane prompt- 
ings. 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



485 



Field-Carriag-es and Millinery Dispensed 

With. 
While on his way to the front of the 
Army of the Potomac, preparing for an 
advance, General Grant met an officer 
who had been his fellow cadet at West 
Point. Grant was on horseback, unat- 
tended except by his faithful orderly, cai'e- 
fully pursuing his inspections of his posi- 
tion through a heavy storm of rain. The 
officer was riding in a handsome four- 
wheeled covered carriage, on easy elliptic 
springs and softly cushioned seats, with an 
elegant stud of horses and a guard of out- 




Field-carriages dispensed with. 

riders. The meeting under such circum- 
stances was a mutual surprise. The re- 
cognition and salutes passed, the Lieuten- 
ant-General with that quiet humor Avhich 
sometimes cropped out in his character, 
politely asked, " May I have the pleasure 
of your company, Sir ? " Now the officer 
was clad in his best on this occasion. His 
uniform was a pink of perfection in its fit. 
His straps were of the broadest and most 
elegant pattern. His plumes were of the 
largest and glossiest. His gloves were as 
clean as yellow buckskin could possibly 
be. His patent-leather army boots were 
unsoiled by a single drop of rain or mote 
of mud. " Certainly, General," he replied, 
with great blandness and cordiality, "I 



will turn about and drive along with you. 
Or, will you not get in with me, Gener- 
al ? " " No, I'm obliged to you," replied 
Grant, " I am in great haste to get to the 
front, and have not a moment to lose. 
Besides, I wish to speak with you in pri- 
vate. Do me the favor to walk along this 
way." The officer left his comfortable 
seat, plunged out in the mud and rain, and 
trudged on by the side of the General, he 
all the while asking him important ques- 
tions respecting his department until he 
was wet to the skin. As he turned to go 
back to his carriage, the General quietly 
reminded him of the influence of his ex- 
ample on the troops, and politely intimated 
that there would be no more field-carriages 
supplied to officers from that clay. As the 
news of this reached the ears of the brave 
boys in the ranks they cheered it lustily. 



Johnnie and Yank at a Trade. 

A member of the Second New York 
Artillery, writing to a friend in New York, 
enclosed a ten dollar Confederate bill, — a 
bill printed on inferior paper, but very 
good in its mechanical execution. The 
letter gave the following account of the 
manner in which the bill came into the 
writer's possession : — 

I send you a ten-dollar Confederate bill ; 
I will not ask you to give me credit for it, 
any more than the credit of fighting for it. 
I was out on picket the other night, and 
my pit ws ! quite close to the rebel line ; 
so much so that I had a talk with a ' John- 
nie,' directly opposite. Towards morning 
we agreed not to fire at each other, and we 
got on more friendly terms. 

He asked me what I would give him 
for a plug of tobacco ? I offered him an 
old jack-knife, which he agreed to take. 
He told me to bring it over. I could not 
" see it," so I told him to come and get it. 
At length we agreed to meet each other 
half way. We did so, and made the ex- 
change ; but mark his treachery ! I had 
scarcely turned my back to return when 
he collared me and tried to drag me into 



486 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



the rebel lines. "We had quite - a scuffle ; 
at last I got the villain by the throat with 
my left hand ; I then threw my rigbt leg 
behind him, and backed him over it. Down 
came the Confederacy ! As he struck the 
ground his pocket-book fell from his pock- 
et ; also the knife I had given him. These 
1 picked up in quick time, and ran to my 
pit. 

When ' Johnnie Reb ' got up he looked 
daggers. He would liked to have made a 
rush upon me, but I don't think he liked 
the looks of my rifle pointing towards him. 
I found nothing in the pocket-book but 
twelve dollars, two of which I sent to my 
mother, and ten I reserved for you. 



One Man's Service to his Country. 
At the time of the Dupont attack upon 
Charleston, South Carolina, a telegraph 
operator was placed in charge of an elec- 
tric battery that was arranged by the 
rebels so as to explode a torpedo contain- 
ing several thousand pounds of powder, 
with instructions to blow up the Federal 
Ironsides should she near the spot. During 
the engagement the noble ship, in her ma- 
noeuvring, seemed directly over the infer- 
nal machine, and the officers in charge or- 
dered the instant explosion of the torpedo. 
The operator — who was a loyalist at heart 
— could not by any means get the machine 
to Avork. Soon an order for the fire of 
every battery to concentrate upon the 
Keokuk was issued to be telegraphed ; 
again the operator could not, 'for the life 
of him,' make the instruments work! 
These incidents occasioned so much dis- 
trust in the minds of the rebel leaders 
that the operator was soon after taken into 
custody and imprisoned. Being released 
a short time subsequently and sent to 
Richmond to resume his occupation, he 
was after a while sent to Winchester, Vir- 
ginia, to procure some instruments. The 
visit to Winchester afforded him the long- 
looked-for opportunity to escape to the 
Union lines, where he was well contented 
to remain. He may be said to have done 



as much for the Federal cause as any sin- 
gle person in the country. 



Real and Artificial "Cock-tails." 
The Alexandria detectives managed to 
bring to light a curious method of smug- 
gling liquor into that city for the soldiers' 
use. For a considerable time a certain 
chicken coop had been observed to have 
made frequent journeys between Alexan- 
dria and Washington, on the ferry boats, 
going up empty and returning well filled 
with fine fat shanghais. The poultry traffic 
had always been considered an honorable 
one, and no explanation could easily be 
given as to what first drew suspicion to- 
ward the integrity of the dealer in ques- 
tion ; but certain it is, that one of those 
curious chaps employed in the detective 
department took the liberty of inspecting 
said "coop," for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing the features of the latest improve- 
ments in that species of rural structure, 
and his labors were rewarded with the dis- 
covery that its bottom was composed of tin, 
in the shape of a flat shallow box ; and a 
closer inspection revealed the important 
item of thirty gallons of old rye, contained 
in the aforesaid box. The ' game ' was 
up ; the chickens — alias Avhisky dealer — 
was completely over-sloughed. The dodge 
was certainly an ingenious one, and would 
probably not have been discovered in this 
case but for the fact of its having been 
suggested that in a place where cock-tails 
were so numerous there must be something 
else at the bottom of it. Hence the dis- 
covery of the " critter." 

Three German Flank-Movements. 

One of Sigel's soldiers gives the follow- 
ing account of a foraging adventure he 
had in Virginia : 

" Veil, you zee, I goes down to dat old 
fellow's blace dat has a beech-orchard, vere 
ve vas stadhioned, to stheal some beeches, 
and ven I gets to de vront gate, vat you 
dinks I zee ? I zees dere a pig pull-dog, 
and he looks mighty savage. So I dinks 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



487 



I frighdens him, and I zays, ' Look here, 
Mr. Pull-dog, stand back, I fights on dis 
line all zunyner.' But de pull-dog, he 
don't care for dat, so I vlanks him ! " 

" How did you do that ? " 

" Vy, I goes vay arount again, so de 
pull-dog couldn't zee me, and yen I gets to 
de back gate, vat you dinks I zee ? Vy, 
dere I zee dat same old pull-dog ! So I 
vlanks him again." 

" How did you do that ? " 

" Vy, I goes vay arount again, so as he 
couldn't zee me, to anoder little beech-or- 
chard, and ven I gets dere, vat you dinks 
I zee ? Vy, dere I see dat same old pull- 
dog ! So I vlanks him again." 

" How did you do that ? " 

" Vy, I zays to dat old pull-dog, ' Look 
here, Meester Pull-dog, I vlanks you dree 
dimes, and every dimes I find you de same 
old pull-dog. Tarn your old beeches ! — 
who cares for your old beeches. My 
dime is out next months and de country 
may go to de debil for beeches,' — so I goes 
to my dent." 



Bold Female Smuggler and Highwayman. 

As four or five citizens of Tennessee 
were on their way into the interior from 
Fort Pillow, they were overtaken by a 
gay and festive woman upon a small sorry 
looking mule. She rode boldly up to the 
men, presented a persuader in the shape 
of a " Colt," and made known her inten- 
tion of riding her mule no longer, but of 
confiscating one of their best chargers to 
supply its place. The demurrer was 
Claude Duvalish and Dick Turpinish in 
the extreme, but she failed to make her 
victims fear and tremble. Her violence 
was not force enough for men who had 
faced all the dangers of siege and battle, 
and they rode off, leaving my lady-robber 
alone to her destruction. One of the par- 
ty, striking into another path, returned to 
rort Pillow, and there reported the sin- 
gular adventure with the woman. 

Captain Posten, of the Thirteenth Ten- 
nessee cavalry, with a squad of men, was 



despatched in pursuit of the bold rider of 
the little mule. After riding some five 
miles she was overtaken near the house of 
a Mr. Green, and blandly invited to visit 
the fort — invited in such an insinuating 
style that she could not find it in her soul 
to refuse — that is, the pointed arguments 
used by Captain Po-:ten were more than 
human logic could fancy or gainsay. The 
bold feminine said that no two men could 
have conquered her, but the numbers over- 
powered her and she must succumb. She 
then gave up her arms, and was delicately 
treated by the officer in charge. 

Upon being conducted to the fort and 
properly examined, upon her person were 
found orders from the rebel Colonel Hicks 
for a list of contraband supplies, consisting 
of gunpowder, short cavalry boots, and 
other articles. On being questioned, she 
acknowledged she was employed by the 
rebels in obtaining goods for their comfort 
and use, and smuggling them through the 
lines. Her salary was one hundred dollars 
per month, the rebels supplying the money 
to pay for her purchases. She usually 
transacted this business in St. Louis. On 
the last occasion she had landed from a 
steamboat at Randolph, and when taken 
was on her way to the house of a rebel 
sympathizer. 

This female smuggler gave her name as 
Mary Simpson. At Randolph she called 
herself Mary Timms, and proved to be a 
woman well known in the nei"hborino- 

o O 

country, where she had passed under sev- 
eral aliases a year before. She was strong- 
ly suspected of being a spy for the rebels 
and carrying intelligence from Jackson, 
Tennessee, to the Hatchie. Within a few 
months, it Avas found she had proposed to 
the rebel Colonel Stewart to purchase am- 
munition for his command. 

Mary's age was set down as not far from 
thirty years, — black hair, a brunette com- 
plexion, and a deep, dark, penetrating eye. 
Her intellect quick, and she was not easily 
disconcerted ; and, as her proposed but un- 
successful horse-trade with so many of the 



488 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



more masculine sex showed, fearless and 
dauntless as an ancient highwayman. She 
belonged to the married persuasion, her 
husband being a loyal soldier doing duty 
for his country at the fort. When she de- 
sired to see him after her arrest, he re- 
fused, saying she had brought disgrace 
upon him and their family by aiding the 
enemies of their country. He only de- 
sired that their true names might not be 
given to the public. The woman refused 
to tell where the goods were concealed, 
orders for which she had. 

Question in Infantry Practice. 
A few miles beyond Portsmouth there 
dwelt a sound Union woman, well known 
for her general kindness to the often pass- 
ing Federal troops. Her love for them 
and the Union, indeed, seemed only 
equalled by her hate of negroes and 
rebels. As it happened, some colored 
troops passed her way, on their route to 
service. Seeing them, she came out, and 
with a tongue which moved very easily on 




Question in Infantry Practice. 

its hinges, she spoke as follows: "The 
soldiers have been over and over this farm, 
cavalry and infantry, these two years, and 
I never lost a chicken yet, but as soon as 
you darkies come I lose them all. I al- 
ways said you would never make soldiers 



because you can't shoot. There you are 
with your foot on the tail of that rooster, 
after shooting at him three times and 
never hit him yet. Get out of here and 
let that rooster be ! " Exit soldier laugh- 
ing. That special darkey was never after- 
ward seen cleaning or handling a gun 
without being asked by his fellows how 
many shots it took to kill a rooster " when 
your foot be on him tail ? " 



Perils of Correspondents. 
Bullets and shells are no respecters of 
persons, and have been known to attack 
the "gentlemen of the fourth estate." A 
correspondent who was with Sherman's 
army, was writing in a tent, when a Minie 
bullet came whistling through the canvas, 
passing by several of General Tvood's 
staff, who Avere sitting inside. It com- 
pletely disturbed their reflective powers for 
the time being. Another struck him in 
the breast, passing through both coat and 
vest, but he fortunately had his portfolio 
full of paper inside, through which it also 
passed, but did him no serious injury. Mr. 
Bearrie, of the Cincinnati Times, had his 
portfolio shot tln-ough in his hand ; and 
Mr. Fury, (though a mild and unoffending 
man,) of the Cincinnati Gazette, was at 
supper, when an imceremonious shell came 
and took away his candle, leaving him a 
dark subject indeed. To these enterpris- 
ing correspondents, and their professional 
colleagues from other cities, like A. D. 
Richardson, Junius H. Browne, Bickham, 
Knox, Taylor, Crounse, Colburn, Davis, 
Carleton, Dunn Browne, and others, the 
reading public is indebted for the most 
faithful portraiture of life-scenes in the 
camp, the march, and on the battlefield, 
and their works have been eagerly sought 
for as among the richest and most exhilar- 
ating contributions to our war history. 



John Morgan and Mr. Clay's Horses. 
An incident is related concerning John 
Morgan, in Kentucky, and which, whether 
it be true or untrue, may be taken as quite 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



489 



characteristic of that remarkable guerrilla 
chieftain. After Morgan had stolen the 
celebrated race horse " Skedaddle," Mr. 
Clay started in pursuit with two fine ani- 
mals, worth over five hundred dollars 
each, and overtook the freebooter, offering 
him both of these fine horses, together 
with six hundred dollars in cash, if he 




Gen. John Morgan. 

would give up the racer to Mr. Clay, who 
prized it for its particular, uses very 
highly. " These will answer your purpose 
just as well," said Mr. Clay, pointing to 
the handsome pair he had brought with 
him. 

John looked at the horses carefully, and 
said : 

" Well, Mr. Clay, they will answer my 
purpose as well as Skedaddle ; and as I 

am disposed to accommodate you " 

Here Mr. Clay's countenance brightened. 

"As I am disposed to accommodate 
you, I will partly comply with your re- 
quest ; — " 

Mr. Clay was puzzled. 

" I will partly comply with your re- 
quest ; I'll take these two horses, but I 
can't give you the other." 

Mr. Clay was completely taken aback : 
— but he was not allowed to get away even 
that easy. The soldiers took the six hun- 
dred dollars away from him, and he Avas 
compelled to leave for home on foot with 
his pockets empty. 



Interview of a Canadian Editor -with the 
President. 

The editor of the Free Press, publish- 
ed in Loudon, Canada, visited Washing- 
ton while the war was at its height, and 
thus describes an interview which he had 
with the man who was sustaining so vast 
a weight upon his shoulders at that period 
— President Lincoln : 

The President's private room is just 
over the reception room, and is entered 
from a sort of square hall, about which 
there are many waiting rooms for persons 
seeking audiences with the President. 
Upon entering this room, I saw persons 
walking to and fro in waiting. I at once 
placed in the hands of a messenger my 
card and letters (previously procured from 
friends in New York and Cincinnati), to 
deliver to the President, and, with scarce- 
ly a moment's delay, I was ushered into 
his presence, when he arose and stepped 
forward in a stooping position, extended 
his hand and shook mine kindly, but rath- 
er loosely, as if he was afraid of hurting 
it, remarking, at the same time, 

" I am glad to see you, Sir ; be seated." 
" I am a stranger in the capital," I re- 
plied, " and have sought an interview with 
you, Mr. President, and have been much 
pleased with the easy means of access." 

" Yes," said the President, " this ready 
means of access is, I may say, under our 
form of government, the only link or cord 
which connects the people with the govern- 
ing power ; and, however unprofitable 
much of it is, it must be kept up ; as, for 
instance, a mother in a distant part, who 
has a son in the army who is regularly 
enlisted, has not served out his time, but 
has been away as long as she thinks he 
ought to stay, will collect together all the 
little means she can to bring her here to 
entreat me to grant him his discharge. 
Of course I cannot interfere, and can only 
see her and speak kindly to her. How 
far is your place from Detroit, Sir ? " 

"About one hundred miles east from 
Detroit; we have no water communica- 



490 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



tions, but have a very nice inland city. I 
intend remaining in Washington for a few 
days ; all seems stir and commotion here." 

" Yes, there never was anything in his- 
tory to equal this." 

" Your position must indeed be respon- 
sible and trying, President." 

" Yes, to think of it, it is very strange 
that I, a boy brought up in the woods, and 
seeing, as it were, but little of the world, 
should be drifted to the very apex of this 
great event." 

" I read your proclamation of this morn- 
ing, calling for more men; it will, no 
doubt, be filled up." 

" Yes, Sir, it will be filled up." 

" I thank you, Mr. President, for your 
kindness and courtesy," — I said, as I rose. 
The President shook hands again, and 
said — 

" I am most happy to have made youi 
acquaintance." 



Rich by Shoddy Contracts. 

Crossing the ferry between the cities of 
New York and Brooklyn, might have been 
seen, one day, a splendid equipage — pranc- 
ing steeds, liveried coachman and footman, 
and an elegant coupe. Within was a lady 
dressed with uncomfortable richness. She 
was ' fat,' not very ' fair,' and something 
more than ' forty.' With her was an un- 
licked cub of eight or ten years, whose fine 
clothes seemed to be as uncomfortable for 
him as were the gloves, tight to bursting, 
upon his mother's hands. Through an 
open window of the carriage he espied an 
apple woman with her basket of fruit. 
" Mam," cried the youthful aristocrat, " I 
warnt n'arple ! " " Hush up ! You ain't 
goin' to have none!" replied the furbe- 
lowed mamma. " But wont I though, by 
gorry ! " said the boy ; at the same time 
throwing himself half-way out of the win- 
dow, and seizing the apple, which he forth- 
with commenced upon. The gentle lady 
fell back with an air of resignation, ex- 
claiming, " Well, you darned critter, now 



you've got it, mind you only chaw it, and 
spit out the skin ! " The coachman and 
footman looked mortified, and winked sly- 
ly at the bystanders, as much as to say, 
" Rich by shoddy contracts !" 

" Aint no Business wid a Gun." 
A good story is told of a colored man 
employed by Captain Janney, General 
Sherman's staff-engineer in the Army of 
the Mississippi : Among the company 
which was working under Captain J., at 
Memphis, there was one very active, sharp, 
industrious, and faithful fellow, who had 
left his plantation, about twenty miles off. 
Soon after his good qualities had attracted 
Janney's attention, his owner, a rank rebel, 
came, as they often did with complete as- 




Aint no business wid a gun. 

surance, to ask that he should be given up 
to him. Janney assured him that the 
country needed his services, and it could 
not be thought of at such a time. Some 
weeks after this, the same negro came one 
morning to Janney's tent, and said : 

" There's a right good fowling-piece, 
Captain, and I want to gib it to you." 
" Where did you get it ? " 
" Got 'im ob my ole massa, Sah." 
" How is that ? What did he give you 
his fowling-piece for ? " 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



491 



" Didn't gib 'im me, Sab. ; I took 'im." 

"When?" 

" Lass nigbt." 

" Has your master been bere again ? " 

" No, Sah. I been down dab, to de ole 
place, myself, lass nigbt, and I see'd de 
gun dah, and I tort be was a rebel, and he 
ort'nt to be let hab a gun, and I ort to take 
'im away: tort dat was rigbt, Captain, 
wasn't it ? He ain't no business wid a 
gun, has he ? Only to shoot our team- 
sters wid it." 

" "What sent you out there ? " 

" Well, I went dah, Sah, for to get my 
wife an' chile dat war dah. I tried to get 
'em nodder way, but I was cheated, and 
had to go myself." 

" What other way did you try ? " 

" I'll tell you Sah. I want my wife and 
chile ; dey was down dah on de ole plan- 
tation. Lass Sunday when we'd got our 
pay, I seen a white man dat libs ober dah, 
and he tell me if I gib him my money he 
get my wife for me. I had thirty dollars, 
Sah, and I gib it to him, but — my wife 
didn't come. So I went myself. My 
wife house-servant, Sah, and I creep up 
to de house, and look into de windah ; de 
windah was open, and I here de ole man 
and de ole woman dah snorin in de corner, 
and I put my head in and dah I see de 
gun standin' by the fi'-place, I jumped 
right in and coch'd up de gun and turn 
roun' and hold 'im so. Says I, ' Massa, 
I Avant my wife.' ' You can take her,' 
says he, and he didn't say anodder word 
nor move a bit, nor Missus either. My 
wife she heerd me, and she come down 
wid de chile, and we just walked out ob 
de door ; but I tort I'd take de gun. He 
ain't no Union man, and he ortn't to had 
a gun, Captain. You'll take it, Sah, won't 
you?" 

" Yes, I'll turn it in for you." 



red of a peculiarly Southern character. 
Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, ex-member 
of Congress, was one of the second depu- 
tation of secessionists that waited upon 
Major Anderson, commander of the fort. 
He was the very embodiment of Southern 
'chivalry.' Literally dressed to kill, 
bristUng with bowie-knives and revolvers, 
like a walking arsenal, be appeared to 




Brandy at Fort Sumter. 
During the cannonading of Fort Sum- 
ter under Beauregard, an incident occur- 



General P. G. T. Beauregard. 

think himself individually capable of cap- 
turing the fort, without any extraneous 
assistance. Inside the fort he seemed to 
think himself master of everthing — 
' monarch of all he surveyed ' — and, in 
keeping with this pretension, seeing upon 
the table what appeared to be a glass of 
brandy, drank it without ceremony. Sur- 
geon Crawford, who had witnessed the 
feat, approached him and said : " Sir, what 
you have drank is poison — it was the io- 
dide of potassium — you are a dead man" 
The representative of chivalry instantly 
collapsed, bowie-knives, revolvers and all, 
and passed into the hands of Surgeon 
Crawford, who, by purgings, pumpings, 
and pukings, defeated his own prophecy 
in regard to Pryor's fate, and thus saved 
to Beauregard one of his most petted and 
redoubtable confreres. Both Beauregard 
and Pryor went up like rockets of fire, in 
the war of rebellion, and came down like 
black sticks. 



492 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



" Doug-hnation" from the Maine Ladies. 

The ladies of Augusta, Maine, set in 
operation and carried out a novel idea, 
namely, the distribution of over fifty 
bushels of doughnuts to the Third volun- 
teer regiment of that State. A procession 
of ladies, headed by music, passed between 
double lines of troops, who presented 
arms, and were afterwards drawn up in 
hollow square to receive from tender and 
gracious hands the welcome doughnation. 

Never before was seen such an aggre- 
gate of doughnuts since the world began. 
The circumambient air was redolent of 
doughnuts. Every breeze sighed — dough- 
nuts ; everybody talked of — doughnuts. 
The display of doughnuts beggared de- 
scription. There was the molasses dough- 
nut and the sugar doughnut — the long 
doughnut and the short doughnut — the 
round doughnut and the square doughnut 
— the rectangular doughnut and the tri- 
angular doughnut — the single-twisted 
doughnut and the double-twisted doughnut 
— the ' light riz ' and the hard-kneaded 
doughnut — the straight solid doughnut, 
and the circular doughnut, with a hole in 
the centre. There were, in a word, dough- 
nuts of all imaginary kinds, qualities and 
dimensions. It was emphatically a feast 
of doughnuts, if not a flow of soul. 



Contraband News— an Editor before the 
Cabinet. 
The editor of the Chautauque, N. Y., 
Democrat spent some time in Washington, 
and wrote home letters for publication. 
One of these was asserted to contain " con- 
traband news," and the editor — if ! his state- 
ment may be believed — was summoned 
before the Cabinet to answer for the hein- 
ous offense. Here is his account of the 
affair : 

So many weeks had slipped away since 
my friends in Jamestown commenced 
sending the Democrat regularly to the 
members of the Cabinet and Gen. Mc- 
Clellan, that the visions of a file of sold- 
iers had departed from my imagination, 



when one morning the subscriber received 
a gilt-edged jocky-club scented note, re- 
questing his distinguished presence at the 
White House at a certain hour. I had no 
doubt that the note was from Mrs. Lin- 
coln, who I supposed wished to apologize 
for the blunder that she made in my not 
receiving her invitation to the White 
House ball. 

So giving my boots an extra blacking, 
and my moustache an extra twist, I wend- 
ed my way to the President's domicile. 
After disposing of hat, cane, etc., I was 
conducted into the room used for Cabinet 
meetings, and soon found myself in the 
presence of the President, Messrs. Se- 
ward, Stanton, and Welles. Mr. Seward, 
whom I had met at a dinner-party at Gen. 
Risley's, in Fredonia, during the cam- 
paign of 1860, recognized me, and at once 
alluded to the excellence of Gen. Risley's 
brandy, and proposed to Abe that he 
should send over to his cellar at the State 
Department, and get a nice article he had 
there. I noticed three copies of the 
Chautauque Democrat spread out on the 
table, bearing certain initials, which for 
the sake of avoiding personalities I will 
not mention. I also noticed ominous black 
lines drawn around certain passages which 
I recognized as being part of my letter of 
several weeks ago. They looked like Mr. 
Benton's expunged resolutions on the Sen- 
ate Journal. 

Mr. Welles was so deeply engaged in 
reading a fourth copy, that he did not look 
up as I went in. It seems that the " mail- 
ing clerks," at Jamestown, had neglected 
to furnish the Navy Department with a 
copy, and the Secretary was deeply ab- 
sorbed in its perusal. Mr. Stanton was 
busy writing his recent order, thanking 
God and Gen. Halleck for the victoiy and 
slaughter at Pittsburg Landing, and paid 
no attention to my entrance. 

Mi*. Lincoln said : ' A Cabinet meeting 
has been called at the request of General 
McClellan, to consider your offence in wriN 



KATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



493 



ing the letter conspicuously marked in the 
Democrat before us, and which had been 
kindly furnished several of their number 
by certain patriotic and high-toned gentle- 
men in Jamestown, N. Y. But they would 
have to delay a few minutes, to await the 
arrival of the Commodore from Yorktown, 
with despatches from General McClellan, 
who had telegraphed that the business 
must not go on till his despatches arrived.' 

During the interval, me, and Abe, and 
Seward, sauntered through the rooms, 
looking at the various objects of interest. 
On entering the library, we found that the 
messenger had returned from Seward's 
cellar, with some of the Secretary's best 
Auburn brand. The cork was drawn, 
and we sampled the fluid. We next visit- 
ed the ladies' parlor, and were presented 
to " Mary," who came forward and shook 
me cordially by the hand, and desired to 
know " how I flourished ? " Said " she 
never should forgive me for not attending 
her ball." She was greatly shocked to 
hear that there had been a failure to con- 
nect, about getting the card of invitation. 

We were soon summoned to the council ; 
the Commodore had arrived, bringing 
saventeen of Gen. McClellan's staff, who 
had been delegated by him to transmit to 
the President his copy of the Democrat, 
which he had received at Fortress Mon- 
roe. On opening it, the same ominous 
ink-marks were drawn around the passa- 
ges intended to be brought to the especial 
notice of the General. The staff officers 
then withdrew, and the President proposed 
to proceed to business. At this juncture 
Mr. Welles looked up from the paper he 
had been so busily perusing, and inquired 
of the President — ' If he had ever heard 
anything about the fight the Democrat 
spoke of, between the Monitor and the 
Merrimac, and the danger there was of 
the latter getting out and coming up the 
Potomac and bombarding Washington ? ' 
Mr. Lincoln said, ' It was a fact.' The 
Secretary seemed greatly surprised, and 



said, ' he must write to his brother-in-law 
in New York, to send around a vessel to 
Hampton Roads, to watch the Merrimac, 
and also to send him the Weekly Post, so 
that he could get the news.' He chose 
the Post, because he had been in the habit, 
aforetime, of contributing essays for its 
columns. He also remarked that there 
was ' much valuable and deeply interest- 
ing news in the Democrat,' which was 
then some four weeks old. 

Mr. Stanton here proposed that the 
contraband article should be read, as he had 
been so busy of late, he had not read the 
copy sent him by his patriotic correspond- 
ents at Jamestown. So Mr. Seward read 
the article through carefully. When it was 
completed, Mr. Stanton brought his fist 
down on the table with the energy and 
vigor for which he is celebrated, and, says 

he,- ' Them's my sentiments, by .' 

The Secretary, contrary to the opinion of 
many who know him only by his short, 
pungent, pious, pithy, patriotic and pecu- 
liar proclamations, profanes pretty pro- 
fusely when excited. During the reading, 
he had been fumbling his vest pocket. 
Says he, ' What's the price of that paper 
per annum ? ' I informed him that it was 
furnished to advance paying subscribers 
at $1. He handed me a gold dollar, and 
says he, ' Send it along.' Mr. Welles, 
who was just then absorbed in reading 
the account of the ' embarkation ' of the 
army from Alexandria, looked up and said 
' He had thought of subscribing himself, but 
as Mr. Stanton had done so, he would 
have George send him the Post, and they 
could exchange.' 

The President now called for an opinion 
from the other members of the Cabinet, 
Mr. Stanton having voted, as I have before 
remarked. Mr. Seward, who was in a 
happy frame of mind, said that, ' Perhaps 
it was impolitic to have written just such 
an article, as he was always opposed to 
the expression of any decided opinions, 
but he thought the editor of the Democrat 



494 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



knew good liquor when he smelt it, and in 
view of the fact that he hailed from Old 
Chautauque, whose inhabitants he remem- 
bered with pride, having once been a resi- 
dent there, he voted that the article was 
not contraband, but that the writer must 
not do so again.' 

Mr. Welles said, ' He did not know 
enough about the subject under considera- 
tion to give an opinion. He had been 
much interested in the perusal of the arti- 
cle, and had found some useful hints in it 
in regard to the danger to be apprehended 
from the Merrimac, which he thought he 
should act upon by next year — on the 
whole, he thought the good balanced the 
evil, and he was for calling it square.' 

It was the President's turn, now, to de- 
cide the matter. He always gets the 
opinion of his 'constitutional advisers' all 
round, and then does as he has a mind to. 
Abe turned to me with a merry twinkle in 
his eye, and his lovely and expressive 
countenance seemed more seraphic than 
ever, and says he to me, says he, ' Your 

letter on reminds me of a story 

that I heard in the days of John Tyler's 
Administration. There was an editor in 
Rhode Island, noted for his love of fun — 
it came to him irresistibly — and he couldn't 
help saying just what came into his mind. 
He was appointed postmaster by Tyler. 
Sometime after Tyler vetoed the Bank 
Bill and came into disrepute with the 
Whigs, a conundrum went the rounds of 
the papers. It was as follows : ' Why is 
John Tyler like an ass?' This editor 
copied the conundrum, and could not resist 
the temptation to answer it, which he did 
as follows : ' Because he is an ass.' This 
piece of fun cost him his head, but it was 
a fact.' 

1 On the whole,' said Abe, ' fere's a dol- 
lar ; send me your valuable paper for a 
year, and be careful in future how you 
disclose Government secrets that have 
been published in the Norfolk Day Book 
only two weeks.' 



Prayer-Books and Scalping-Knives. 

The following letter, picked up by an 
officer of General Cox's staff, on the 
ground from which Governor Wise's troops 
fled, shows the affecting tone of true piety 
that sometimes accompanies transactions 
of a very nefarious character: 

" Way up on the Hill, 
Below Charleston four miles. 

" Mat. : — I want you to put every thing 
in the sergeant's room — every thing that 
belongs to us. And if there is any en- 
gagement, break my little trunk open, and 
take out my Bible and prayer-book, and 
those Boone County bonds, and save them 
for me. I have not read my Bible for 
sixteen years, but I want them saved. 
Cook all the provender up there, and put 
all our cooking utensils together in the 
sergeant's room. The news is that the 
enemy is coming up on both sides of the 

river in a strong force. I am the 

second company to have a shot. The 
orders are to scalp all we get near to. 
J. W. M. Sherry, 
Captain of Boone Rangers." 

Overtaken at Last. 
A remarkable instance of retribution 
was disclosed to the members of the Sev- 
enty-ninth Highlanders, on their arrival at 
Port Royal, in the case of an earnest 
and most unprincipled traitor. In the 
early part of the summer of 1861, a 
man employed in the Washington navy 
yard was discovered in the practice of 
filling shells with sand instead of the 
proper material. This man had received 
a medical education, and on his escape 
within the Confederate lines resumed his 
regular profession as a physician. Singu- 
lar to relate, when the Seventy-ninth 
landed at Port Royal, the first object which 
greeted them on entering the hospital was 
this man seated at a table, with a splendid 
case of surgical instruments before him, 
his left arm resting naturally upon the 
table and the position of his body indica- 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



495 



ting perfect ease, — but upon a closer ex- 
amination it was discovered that the entire 
upper portion of his head had been cut 
away, from the orown to the back of his 
neck, by a cannon ball. His career had 
been one of ingenious wickedness against 
his country and its defenders, but, in such 
an hour as he' knew not, he was overtaken 
at last. 



No Letter from his Sweetheart for nearly a 
Year. 

The following memorandum note was 
found in one of the camps at Island No. 
Ten, and is a decidedly good one of its 
kind : 
" To any Federal Officer of Comre Footers 

Fleet on the Mississippi : 

The finder of this will please hand it 
to one of the officers and ask him if he 
please forward it to its destination in 
Md. I would enclose a dime or such a 
matter to pay the postage, but upon my 
honor I have not got a cent in the world 
and you will not mind 3 cts to get a letter 
■to one's mother and sweet heart Who has 
not heard from either for nearly a year. 
Yours in every respect except politics, 

L. T. H." 

This was addressed to " Miss H b, 

Hyattsville, Md.," and enclosed in an en- 




Writing Home. 



velope, addressed as above. Of course, as 

every one knows what it is to want "to 

31 



'get a letter to one's mother and sweet 
heart," the tender missive was doubtless 
put on its due course of destination by the 
good-hearted Union boys. 

Dead Lock of Two Bullets in the Air. 

The story of two bullets, as related by 
the Vicksburg correspondent of a St. 
Louis journal, is most peculiar. He says : 
I lately saw at the head-quarters of Colo- 
nel Slack's brigade, two Minie bullets, 
which had once told a history. One was 
a rebel bullet of English manufacture, 
smuggled over by our dear brethren hi 
Britain to shoot their dear brethren in 
America. The other was a national ball, 
of the Springfield rifle type. The former 
was fired from a rifle pit at Jackson, at 
our skirmishers. The latter was fired 
from our line of skirmishers at the rifle 
pit. They met midway in the air, were 
welded by the compact, and fell harm- 
lessly to the ground. They are now firm 
friends, sticking each to the other closer 
than a brother or a lover. 

"Shameful Tyranny" of Butler in New 
Orleans. 

The little Coi\nt Mejan, formerly French 
consul at New Orleans, once frantically 
appealed to the Emperor Napoleon to 
send an armed force to protect the grog- 
shop keepers of that city from an " uncon- 
stitutional " tax General Butler had levied 
upon them. The Emperor was so puzzled 
to know what his consul had to do with 
the American constitution, and on what 
principles he made himself the champion 
of whiskey venders in an American city, 
that he called the Count home to explain. 

It will be seen, however, from what 
follows, that General Butlei''s suppositious 
tyranny did not stop at the mere taxing 
of grog shops. Thus, after the expulsion 
of the confederates and their allies, the 
Thugs, from New Orleans, the dead walls 
of that city were suddenly covered with 
conspicuous bills containing the following 
mandatory sentence : 



496 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



" Get your shirts at Moody's, 207 Canal 
Street." 

A planter, a secessionist, went to town 
some months after Butler had taken the 
reins in his hands, and marvelled much at 
the cleanliness and good order he found 
prevailing ; also, he was surprised at this 
notice which stared him everywhere in 
the face. 

" Get your shirts at Moody's " — said he 
to an acquaintance he met in the street ; 
" what does this mean ? I see it every- 
where posted up. "What does it mean ? " 

" Oh," was the reply, " that is another 
of the outrageous acts of that fellow But- 
ler. This is one of the ' orders,' of which 
you hear so much. Don't you see he 
has ordered us to get our shirts at Moody's, 
and we have to do so ? It is, of course, 
suspected that he is the silent partner in 
that concern, and pockets the profits." 

The poor planter listened to this expla- 
nation with eyes and mouth open, and, 
casting one more thoughtful glance at a 
bill of the kind which stared from the wall 
near which he then stood, replied impa- 
tiently : 

" I don't need any shirts just now, and 
it's a great piece of tyra*nny ; but this 
Butler enforces his orders so savagely, 
that it is better for me to give in at once." 

He accordingly went to " Moody's," and 
purchased half a dozen shirts — on com- 
pulsion ! 

♦ 

Georgia Girls and Federal Lieutenants. 

While Sherman's army was marching 
through Georgia, the soldiers learned how 
to rob beehives without the penalty of 
being stung. The plan was to rapidly 
approach a hive, take it up suddenly, and, 
hoisting it upon the shoulder, with the 
open end behind, run like lightning. The 
bees hustled out, and flew back to the 
place where the hive stood. The honey 
belonged to the soldier who thus won it. 
One day a cavalry Lieutenant, with his 
squad, rode up to a plantation house, and 
were pretty crabbedly received by the 



girls of the house, who desired to know 
" Why in thunder you'uns can't let we'uns 
be ? " and hoped the devil would get the 
Yanks. The Lieutenant was not very 
well pleased with the reception, and seeing 
some tempting looking hives of honey in 
the yard, he ordered one of his men to 
hoist one up to him. The hive was 
handed up in a jiffy, and the Lieutenant, 
bidding the gals good-bye, started off with 
the hive on his shoulder. But this time, 
alas ! the bees came out the wrong way, 
and swarmed upon the Lieutenant and his 
horse, compelling the former to drop the 
hive, sans ceremony, while the taunting 
Georgian girls on the porch clapped their 
dainty, tiny hands, stamped their little feet, 
and screamed "goody! goody! ! goody ! ! !" 
until they cried for joy. 

Unconsciously a Hero. 

The statement made in the newspapers, 
that General Hooker desired to appoint 
George W. Smalley, of the New York 
Tribune, on his staff, as an acknowledg- 
ment of the great merit of his report of 
the battle of Antietam, led to the publica- 
tion of the following interesting interview 
between General Hooker and the editor 
of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. Mr. 
Wilkes says : — 

The General was laid up with his 
wound, but, on the occasion referred to, he 
was well enough to be bolstered up in a 
chair, and was engaged in writing a letter. 
Our conversation soon turned to the bat- 
tle of Antietam, when he referred, with 
considerable enthusiasm, to what he char- 
acterized as the wonderful account of the 
battle given by the reporter of the Tri- 
bune. " It was," said he, " a perfect re- 
production of the scene and all its inci- 
dents ; and it is a marvel to me how you 
writers can perform such tasks." I asked 
the General if he knew who the reporter 
of the Tribune was. He replied : 

" I saw him first upon the battle field. 
I first noticed him when we were in the 
hottest portion of the fight, early in the 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



497 



morning. My attention was then attract- 
ed to a civilian, who sat upon his horse f 
in advance of my whole staff; and though 
he was in the hottest of the fire, and the 
shot and shell were striking and spatter- 
ing around us like so much hail, he sat 
gazing on the strife as steady and as un- 
disturbed as if he were in a quiet theatre, 
looking at a scene upon the stage. In all 
the experience which I have had of war, 
I never saw the most experienced and 
veteran soldier exhibit more tranquil for- 
titude and unshaken valor than were ex- 
hibited by that young man, I was con- 
cerned at the needless risk which he in- 
vited, and told one of my aids to order 
him in our rear. Presently, all my aids 
had left me, on one service and another ; 
whereupon turning to give an order, I 
found no one but this young stranger by 
my side. I then asked him if he would 
oblige me by bearing a dispatch to General 
McClellan, and by acting as my aid, until 
some of my staff should come up. He 
lode off with alacrity, through a most ex- 
posed position, returned with the answer, 
and served me as an aid through the re- 
mainder of the fight, till I was carried 
from the ground." 

"And his name, General ? " 

" He was a young man, recently from 
• college, named George W. Smalley, and I 
am writing to him now." 

Those who know the noble nature of 
General Hooker, will therefore wonder 
but little that one of his first acts, when 
placed in chief command of the army of 
the Potomac, was to ask to have George 
W. Smalley placed upon his staff. 



Mary Birkitt and her Two Million Percus- 
sion Caps. 

Searching for contraband articles among 

the passengers' baggage at the Relay 

House, Maryland, was at one time quite a 

brisk and busy occupation for the Federal 

officers. As the train bound for Harper's 

Ferry came rounding the curve, the guard 

was drawn up on each side of the track. 



Soon as the train stopped, a soldier stepped 
on each platform of every car, to see that 
no one got off or on. The one whose 
business it was to " develop " any contra- 
band articles or persons, commenced his 
labors by entering the forward passenger 
car. He then asked each person to open 
their ' traps,' and passed his hand as care- 
fully as practicable through the bundles 
of varieties with which human beings fill 
their traveling apparatus. 

On one of these rounds, the searcher 
came across a common-looking, red, wood- 
en trunk. It was marked : Mary Birkitt, 
Wheeling, Virginia. There was nothing 
suspicious about it. It looked in keeping 
with some village aunt, who had fore- 
sworn the company of the coarser sex, and 
had just returned from a visit to some re- 
latives who had lately thrown themselves 
away by swearing, in presence of a par- 
son, to keep house, neatly and economi- 
cally, for some one of those worthless 
creatures called men. 

Well, the searcher called out for Mary 
to come and display her dry goods, but no 
Mary was to be found. He called again, 
but with the same result. The conductor 
was questioned, but he knew nothing about 
the matter. The thing looked all right 
enough, but it wouldn't do to let even 
Mary Birkitt's trunk go out without know- 
ing what was hi it. So, having sounded 
another call for the presumed spinster to 
make her appearance, the searcher called 
for a hammer and chisel, and opened the 
thing. Nothing alarming presented itself. 
On the top was a very white, and nicely 
done-up pair of sleeves. Then came a 
chemisette, and then a dress, and then — 
two millions of percussion caps ! Ah, 
Mary, that was a sorry dodge. No won- 
der she didn't answer when her name was 
called by that officious Paul Pry. The 
trunk was confiscated. 



Silk Petticoats.— Southern Fashion. 
There was a petticoat exhibited at 
Washington, taken from a feminine seces- 



498 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



sionist, the weight of the garment being 
some fifty pounds avoirdupois. The gar- 
ment was apparently a quilted one, but in- 
stead of the usual filling, it was thickly 
wadded with the finest quality of sewing 
silk of assorted colors, the skeins being 
carefully arranged in layers. It was also 
provided with straps by which the weight 
might be supported by the shoulders. 
Sewing silk was one of the articles most 
needed, next to quinine, in the South ; 
and this was not the only attempt at smug- 
gling the article by women — ingenious and 
apparently secure, though it appeared — 
which the shrewd Government detectives 
brought to light. 



Pay Day in the Future. 

At the breaking out of the rebellion, 
John Overton was one of the wealthiest 
men in Tennessee. His plantation, seven 
miles south of Nashville, embraced several 
thousand acres of land, with buildings and 
improvements exhibiting the finest taste. 
Although the whole family were known 
to be violent secessionists, the first blast 
of war swept by without injury to them. 
Their crops were untouched, their groves 
and lawns were unscathed, and, while 
others felt the iron hand of war, theirs 
was still the abode of luxury and plenty. 
The plantation was left nominally in the 
hands of Mrs. Overton, her husband and 
sons being in the rebel army. This, how- 
ever, did not prevent her asking and ob- 
taining unlimited protection from the Fed- 
eral authorities. 

Soon after General Negley assumed 
command of Nashville, information was 
.received that a large amount of rebel 
stores, consisting of horse shoe iron and 
nails, was concealed at this place ; and a 
detachment of the Eleventh Michigan 
infantry, under command of Captain Hood, 
was sent to seize the goods. Arriving at 
the house, situated in a beautiful grove at 
some distance from the road, the Captain 
halted his men outside of the door-yard, 
caused them to order arms and remain in 



place, and announced himself at the door. 
The summons was answered by a lady, 
when the following colloquy ensued : — 

" Is Mr. Overton at home, madam ? " 

"No, sir; he is with the Confederate 
army," was the answer of the lady. 

" I presume he is a rebel, then." 

" Yes sir ; he is a rebel all over." 

" Well, madam, I wish to see some per- 
son who is in charge of the place. I am 
ordered to search for articles contraband 
of war." 

" I am Mrs. Overton. You can search 
the place if you wish ; but you will not 
find anything contraband of war. I wish, 
however, you would keep the soldiers away 
from the house." 

The Captain assured her that no depre- 
dations would be committed by the sol- 
diers, who were still standing at their 
arms, and added, — 

" I will commence by searching under 
the floor of the meat-house." 

The lady opened her eyes with aston- 
ishment. Recovering herself she replied, 

" There is no use of having any words 
about it. You will find some horse-shoes 
there." 

And they were found. About two tons 
of valuable iron Avas unearthed and turned 
over to the government. 

In the fall of 1862, Rosecrans' victori- 
ous army relieved Nashville, and remained 
a few days in the city. Early in Decem- 
ber a general advance was made, and the 
left wing of the army encamped on the 
Overton place, and it was then known as 
Camp Hamilton. The camp fires of the 
Union army were lighted on every part 
of the farm, and the rights of private 
property, in disloyal hands, gave way to 
the stern necessities of war. Grove and 
woodland resounded with the sturdy 
strokes of the axeman, and disappeared. 
Fences were destroyed, and the crops and 
stock were taken for the necessary use of 
the army, and receipts given, to be paid 
when the owner should " establish his loy- 
alty," — a long time ahead, certainly. 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



499 



Horse Incidents at Bull Hun. 
At the battle of Bull Run, one of the 
guns of the celebrated Sherman Battery 
was rescued from capture by the Confed- 
erates, and brought off the field by two 
horses that had been shot through by Minie 
balls. When the order " forward " was 
given, they resolutely straightened out, 
and actually brought off the gun. At the 
commencement of the battle, Lieutenant 
Hasbrouck, of the West Point Battery, 
was riding a little sorrel horse. In a short 
time he was shot three times, and from 
loss of blood became too weak for further 
service. He was stripped of bridle and 
saddle, and turned loose, as his owner sup- 
posed, to die. In the heat of the contest 
nothing more was thought of the little 
sorrel, nor was he seen again until the 
remnant of the battery was far toward 
Washington on the retreat. It paused at 
Centreville, and while resting there, Lieu- 
tenant Hasbrouck was delighted to be 
joined by his faithful horse, which, by a 
strong instinct, had obeyed the bugle call 
to retreat, and had found his true position 
with the battery, which was more than the 
most of the human mass engaged on that 
field could boast of doing. He went safely 
into Washington, recovered from his 
wounds, and was soon ready for another 
fight. 



In Bed with a Shell: Lively Times. 
It is stated that a soldier of a Missis- 
sippi regiment, at Pensacola, serving in 
the Confederate army, went to his tent 
and blankets one day to fight through an 
ague if possible. A bottle of hot water 
to his feet — a good domestic application, 
in such circumstances, — not being conven- 
ient, some of his comrades went out and 
picked up one of the numerous shells 
which had been sent over to them during 
the bombardment, heated it at the fire, 
and put it to bed with the sick man's feet. 
Unhappily, the shell had lost its cap, but 
had not exploded. The heat of the camp- 
fire accomplished what Federal pyrotechny 



had failed in, to wit, — an explosion. The 
tent was blown to pieces, and some of the 
men a little hurt and greatly astonished, 
though, strange to say, no one was maimed 
by the mishap. 



Parting- and Singular Meeting of Two War 
Correspondents. 

As an evidence of the rapidity of move- 
ment and great military strategy of Gen- 
erals Sherman and Thomas in their splen- 
did winter campaign of 1864 — as well as 
illustrating the enterprise of the newspa- 
per press of New York — the following 
facts are of peculiar interest. 

On the 11th of November two of the 
Herald correspondents shook hands to- 
gether in the city of Atlanta, Ga., won- 
dering where and under what circumstan- 
ces they would again meet. One accompa- 
nied Sherman on his grand march from 
Atlanta to Savannah, the other was with 
Thomas in his great career of triumphs 
in Tennessee : one South, the other North. 

The one who went with Sherman par- 
ticipated in all the prominent events which 
marked that magnificent undertaking. He 
was present at the taking of towns, the 
sacking of treacherous villages, in fights 
with rebel guerrillas and cavalry, at the 
capture of thousands of prisoners, negroes, 
horses, mules, forage, and witnessed the 
devastation which was spread through 
forty counties of the richest State within 
the Southern borders, on a line averaging 
sixty miles in width and three hundred 
in length, all the while living on the fat 
of the land. He was present at the 
assault and capture of Fort McAllister 
on the 14th of December, only a little 
over four weeks from the time of Sher- 
man's departure from Atlanta, and the 
date of his junction with General Foster 
on the seaboard. This representative of 
the Herald left Hilton Head on the 18th 
of December, and arrived in New York 
city on the 21st, with a full budget of 
stirring intelligence, obtained by all the 
various devices and ingenuity which the 



500 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



skilled reporters of the Herald, Tribune, 
Times, World, etc., know so well haw to 
put into requisition. 

The correspondent who accompanied 
General Thomas participated in the first 
fight with Hood at Franklin, on the 30th 
of November, retired with the Union troops 
to Nashville, underwent the brief siege 
which Hood was crazy enough to lay be- 
fore that city, advanced when Thomas 
again advanced, and when that peerless 
chieftain fell with such terrific force upon 
the Confederate lines the Herald war cor- 
respondent was in the melee. In the bat- 




Signaling. 



tie of Harpeth, on the 18th of December, 
the precise date when the Sherman corres- 
respondent left Hilton Head, the corres- 
pondent with Thomas was taking notes 
of the unexampled rout of Hood's forces, 
horse, foot and artillery ; and subsequently 
taking the Louisville cars, made his con- 
nections through, and reached the Herald 
office Dec. 21st, almost at the same mo- 
ment in the morning that his confrere at 
Atlanta also entered the building. Of 
course they shook hands again, and con- 
gratulated each other upon their fortunate 
escape from the many perils they had en- 
countered in different parts of the country 
while upon similar errands. The names of 
Conyngham and Knox will long be memo- 
rable as war correspondents and historians. 



"Nellie," the Btarwe Battle Horse. 
Among ' cavalry people,' in war times, 



the horse is second in interest only to the 
man himself. In fact, ' horse and rider ' 
are usually spoken of as one and the same 
person. Every good cavalry man takes care 
of his horse, provided he has a good one. 
And when he secures said kind of animal, 
the attachment the brave trooper will form 
for his horse is almost romantic. As gal- 
lant a charger of this sort as ever snuffed 
powder, was owned by a Federal cavalry 
officer, and mounted upon which he was 
some scores of times under fire. 

' Nellie,' (the name of the fine animal) 
was born and raised until she was six years 
old, in Athens county, Ohio, and was then 
sold to the Union officer, on account of 
her fondness for her neighbors' pastures 
and grain-fields, and her total disregard 
for fences, whether rail, picket or hedge. 
She was taken into the cavalry service in 
1862, but could not be rode in line on 
account of her high spirit. By reason of 
her being a ' hard rider ' — that is trotting, 
prancing, and going sideways all the time, 
making it decidedly uncomfortable for the 
rider, she was not used — till John Mor- 
gan's first raid through Kentucky, Indiana 
and Ohio, in 1863. Her owner rode her 
six days on that raid, and was completely 
worn out by her restlessness and fretting. 
He then put a black boy on her, who rode 
her during the remainder of that great 
raid, — riding her twenty-seven days and 
most of the nights, from Somerset, Ky., 
to Buffington Island, Ohio, following the 
trail of Morgan with General Hobson, 
and thence back to Stanford, Ky., in all a 
distance of almost a thousand miles. 

After resting only the brief period of 
two days at Stanford, her owner rode her 
with General Burnside's advance across 
the mountains into East Tennessee, and 
rode her every day during that campaign, 
lasting from August, 1863, to April, 1864, 
and in every engagement which his com- 
mand was in. During one of these en- 
gagements, her owner, while riding her, 
ran into an ambush of the enemy's, and a 
part of the bridle-bit was shot from her 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



501 



mouth, leaving the rider only one rem ; 
pulling too hard on that, her head was so 
suddenly turned, that she fell with him, 
and the rider was made prisoner. Spring- 
ing up she escaped and swam the Tennes- 
see river, and rejoined the cavalry with 




Nellie, the brave Battle Horse. 

the Federal troops. By good fortune her 
owner also escaped, and came in a few 
days after. Three times did she cross the 
Cumberland Mountains, where forage had 
to be packed on mules for a distance of 
one hundred miles, and three times did 
she make the march from Tennessee 
Valley to the Blue Grass region of Ken- 
tucky. 

In the memorable engagement at Cyn- 
thiana, Ky., June 12th, 1864, with the 
Confederates under John Morgan, her 
owner rode her in a cavalry charge upon 
the rebel retreating column. She leaped 
a stone wall with him and carried him so 
close to the rebels that the blood from the 
wound of a rebel, shot by her rider, 
splashed over her face and ears. On the 
subsequent march from the Blue Grass 
region of Kentucky, to join the army near 
Atlanta, a distance of over four hundred 
miles, she had no rider, and was neither 
bridled nor haltered during the whole 
march, lasting twenty-four days, keeping 
her place in the march during the day, 



and staying close in camp at night. She 
never made a false step of her own fault, 
even on the worst of mountain roads and 
in the darkest nights. She also knew the 
whistle of a bullet or the shriek of a shell, 
and the direction of their flight, almost 
as well as her owner did. 



Logic of Sugar and Coffee. 

John Morgan, after escaping from the 
Ohio penitentiary, and while on his way, 
stealthily, to his former field of exploits, 
came in almost personal contact with a 
Union picket. His first impulse was to 
kill the picket, but finding him asleep, he 
determined to let him sleep on. He made 
his way to the house of a Union man 
he knew lived there, and went up and 
passed himself off as Captain Quarter- 
master of Hunt's regiment, who was on; 
his way to Athens, Tennessee, to procure 
supplies of sugar and coffee for the Union 
men of the country. The lady, who ap- 
peared to be asleep while this interview 
was taking place with her husband, at the 
mention of sugar and coffee, jumped out 
of bed in her night clothes, and said : 

" Thank God for that, for we ain't seen 
any rale coffee up here for God knows 
how long ! " 

She was so delighted at the prospect 
that she made up a fire and cooked them 
a good supper. Supper being over, the 
General remarked that he understood 
some rebels had " tried to cross the river 
this afternoon." 

" Yes," said the woman, " but our men 
killed some on um, and driv the rest 
back't." 

"Now," says the General, "I know 
that, but didn't some of them get over ? " 

" Yes," was her reply, " but they are on 
the mountain, and can't get down without 
being killed, as every road is stopped up." 

"It is very important for me," said 
Morgan, " to get to Athens by to-morrow 
night, or I may lose that sugar and coffee, 
and am afraid to go down any of those 
roads for fear my own men will kill me." 



502 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



The fear of losing that sugar and coffee 
brought her again to an accommodating 
mood, and she replied — 

" Why, Paul, kan't you show the Cap- 
tain through our farm, that road down by 
the field ? " 

" Of course, Paul, you can do it," said 
the General, " and as the night is very 
cold, I will give you ten dollars, in gold, 
to help you along." 

The gold, now added to the prospect of 
sugar and coffee, was too much for any 
poor man's nerves, and he yielded ; so, 
getting on a horse, he took Morgan seven 
miles to the big road. The good woman, 
however, waited in vain for her sugar and 
"rale coffee." 



Conundrums at the Wrong Time. 

Army teamsters have always been pro- 
verbial for the scientific volubility of their 
swearing. Modern times have not altered 
this fact. A teamster with the Cumber- 
land army got stuck in the mud, and he 
let fly a stream of black and blue oaths 
that would have astonished "our army in 
Flanders," even. A Chaplain, passing at 
the time, was greatly shocked to hear such 
solid balls of nouns substantive whizzing 
around. 

" My friend," said he to the teamster, in 
plaintive accent, " do you know Avho died 
for sinners ? " 

"D — your conundrums! Don't you 
see I'm stuck in the mud ? " 

The worthy Chaplain here became so 
confused, that he tried thirteen times in 
his mind to make joiner's work of the 
question and answer, but was obliged, like 
Dogberry, to " give it up." 

" Strictly Confidential." 
Colonel B., of the Eighteenth Wiscon- 
sin regiment of volunteers, was, withal, a 
lawyer and politician, and, like many law- 
yers, wrote a very poor hand, so that it 
was almost impossible for a person not ac- 
quainted with it to read it. Once upon a 
time this made bad work all round. The 



Colonel, it seems, wrote to a political chum 
at Appleton, in which some important 
plans for an approaching campaign were 
divulged ; but said Appleton friend was 
unable to read the letter. Finally, after 
showing it around to all the leading per- 
sonages of the place, and getting all the 
aid he could, he was enabled to make out 
all the contents of the letter but one line 
at the bottom. A few days after receiving 
the Colonel's letter, he was visited by the 
Colonel himself, at Appleton, and after 
exchanging the usual salutations, and 
while surrounded by a bevy of jolly ac- 
quaintances, the Appleton friend remarked 
to the Colonel that he had received the 
letter, and with the aid of the good folks 
of Appleton, all of whom had read it and 
some of them several times, he could read 
it all but the last line ; and producing the 
letter, remarked to the Colonel that not 
one of the many to whom he had shown 
the letter could make out that. " Why ! " 
said the Colonel, " that is ' Strictly con- 
fidential.' " The Appleton chum stood 
treat. 



"Old Sortie," the Rebel General. 

There was a jolly old Captain in the 
Eighteenth Missouri regiment of mounted 
infantry. He was everything good and 
efficient as an officer, a friend, and a gen- 
tleman ; but he never deemed a close 
study of the dictionary as essential to get- 
ting a living or subduing a Southern re- 
bellion. One hot day, the Captain, float- 
ing around, sat down under the arbor in 
front of a fellow officer's tent, and, pick- 
ing up a late paper, commenced to read 
aloud the heading of the telegraphic col- 
umn as follows : 

"Repulse — of — a — sortie — at — Charles- 
ton." Says he, after musing a moment : 

"Sortie? Sortie? A. Sortie? Cap, 
have the rebels any General by the name 
of A. Sortie ? " 

" Certainly, I've heard of old Sortie 
frequently." 

" Well, I guess I have," said the Cap- 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



503 



tain, " come to think now ; I've hearn of 
his being repulsed very often." 



Chickamaug-a and Chattanoog-a. 
The name ' Chickamauga,' in the Cher- 
okee tongue, means " stagnant water," or 
still water, so named because of the ap- 
parent stillness or stagnancy of the water 
in that river. ' Chattanooga ' is the Chero- 
kee for hawk's nest or eagle's nest. The 
town was originally the head-quarters of 
John Ross, the Cherokee chief. It received 




Indian Mound, Chattanooga. 

its name from its location, being surround- 
ed on all sides by mountains, the poetic 
vision of the red man seeing in it an exact 
resemblance to a hawk's nest — albeit, 
General Bragg's definition of it would 
probably be " hornet's nest." 



Letter to Eight Young- Ladies from a Soldier. 
The following curious epistle explains 
itself. Its publication first appeared in 
one of the daily papers of Chicago, Illi- 
nois, — the Tribune. 

Memphis, Tenn., July 28, 1864. 
" To Eight Young Ladies, residing in 
Illinois, Indiana and Michigan : 



Ladies, permit me to address a few lines 
to you through the Tribune, in regard to 
' correspondence ' with soldiers and officers 
serving in the army of our country. We, 
the officers and soldiers of the army, need 
and deserve the sympathy and counsel of 
our mothers, wives, sisters and lady ac- 
quaintances, from the dear homes Ave have 
left behind. From these, letters are al- 
ways acceptable, are read with a deep in- 
terest, and there is always a deep feeling 
of respect for the writers and the dear old 
homes whence they come. There is no 
levity or expression of vulgar thought, or 
leAvd allusions to the writers of them — 
holy home thoughts of the dear ones we 
love so well ; and often have I seen the 
bronzed face of the veteran, as well as the 
fair cheeks of the young recruit, flushed 
with manly pride, or over them flowing 
tears that spoke louder than words of true 
hearts and brave men. Not so when your 
cold, insipid and stale letters are received. 
There is generally a shout of derision from 
many voices as your carefully written non- 
sense is retailed out to a corporal, ser- 
geant, private, or may-be a negro ser- 
vant ; and could you hear the vulgar wit 
and coarse expressions over your letters, 
and at your expense, I think, ladies, you 
would answer no more " Wanted, corres-*^ 
pondence for mutual cultivation." I trust, 
ladies, that this article may be of service 
to you, inasmuch as it will urge you to 
write only to those whom you know ; and 
you may put it down for a fact that any 
soldier or officer advertising for lady cor- 
respondence, does so for no honorable or 
noble purpose. Ninety-nine out of every 
hundred letters received by officers or 
soldiers are treated with contempt and de- 
rision. Thus you see that your tender 
effusions, gushing out flowery and senti- 
mental platitudes, are used to your disad- 
vantage and injury. In many cases the 
officer or soldier takes pains to ascertain 
your true name, and then your letters not 
only reflect to your disadvantage, but 
bring disgrace to your friends. I know 



504 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



of one young lady who is the laughing, 
stock of a whole regiment, and many of 
them are or were friends and neighbors of 
hers not two years ago. Her fair name 
and character are blighted, and one who 
has counted on her being something more 
than a friend to him in the future has cast 
her aside, and her letters of truth to him 
are unanswered, or returned unopened. 
Ladies, good-bye. Learn from this to do 
better. Write to your known and tried 
soldier friends and relatives, and none 
other. 

I am, ladies, your friend and well- 
wisher, E. V. Wilson, 
1st Lieut., Co. H, 39th Reg't Wis. Vols. 

Canine Patriotism, Sufferings and Honors. 
Nearly every company, certainly every 
regiment, in the Army of the Potomac, 
had a pet of some kind or other. It mat- 
tered not whether the object of their affec- 
tion was a dog, cat, possum, cow, or horse, 
— of whatever name or species, the brute 
was loved by all, and woe be to the out- 
sider who dared to insult or injure one of 
these pets. More personal encounters 
were brought on between soldiers about 
some pet animal than in any other way. 
Occasionally these pets became great he- 
roes in their way, and then they became 
general favorites in the whole army. One 
of this kind was a dog named ' Jack,' pho- 
tographs of which were as universal as 
those of the Commanding General. Jack 
served a regular term with the Niagara 
Fire Lisurance Engine Company in Pitts- 
burg, Penn., before the war broke out; 
and when volunteers were called to put 
down the rebellion, several members of 
the Niagara Company entered the service 
in the One Hundred and Second Pennsyl- 
vania volunteers, and Jack, no doubt 
prompted by patriotic impulses, also went 
into the field with some of his old friends, 
and made a good military record of him- 
self. He was at the siege of Yorktown, 
battle of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, battle 
of the Pickets, Malvern Hill, (where he 



was wounded,) first and second Fredericks- 
burg ; at Salem Church he was captured, 
after which he was exchanged and returned 
to the regiment. In the battle of Cedar 
Creek, Oct. 19, he was again taken pris- 
oner by the Confederates, early in tlie 
morning, while on duty at division head- 
quarters, but was recaptured when Gen- 
eral Sheridan made his famous advance at 
four in the afternoon. 'Jack' had to run 
on three legs, as the penalty of his patri- 
otic services, but in other respects contin- 
ued as agile as ever, — wearing his honors 
with the meekness becoming a good dog. 



Dealing with a Rebel Trader. 
The case of a German clothier and 
merchant tailor of Baltimore, who was 
arrested for engaging in contraband trade 
with the South, in 1864, excited much 
public interest at the time, and great ef- 
forts were made by his friends to obtain 
the Executive interference in his behalf. 
A deputation of nearly a dozen persons 
presented themselves before President 
Lincoln, one morning, to interpose in favor 
of the derelict party, all these persons, ex- 
cept one, being men employed as cutters 
in some of the establishments carried on 
by the arrested man. They made a very 
formidable display, asserting through 
their speaker, who introduced himself as 
" an humble tobacconist," but who evi- 
dently had had some experience as a 
speaker, that they were' all good Union 
men — that they had even voted for Mr. 
Lincoln, and intended to do so again, — 
consequently they were entitled to a hear- 
ing, and that they were sure of the inno- 
cence of their employer. A good deal of 
eloquence was expended, but the Presi- 
dent would not be moved. It was even 
ascertained that this same merchant had 
given money — some hundreds of dollars — 
toward carrying on the war. At last the 
President spoke : 

" Gentlemen, this Government is a big 
machine, even in times of peace ; it is no 
small thing to keep it in good running or- 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



505 



der — but now, when added to the usual 
duties of my position, I have on my hands 
this great rebellion (which is to be put 
down,) I have no time to waste. I have 
been visited already more than once by 
parties from Baltimore, urging my inter- 
ference in this case. You protest that 
this man is innocent ; then let him await 
his trial, when he can easily prove it." 

" But," said the speaker, in behalf of 
his friend, " but we vote for you." 

" Can't help it ; it is not so essential 
that I have votes, as that the rebellion be 
crushed. To what purpose is it that you 
vote for me ; that you pay a small sum of 
money to soldiers, as a cover up, while 
you supply the rebels with goods or arms ? 
I tell you, gentlemen, it will not do. Al- 
ready has the War Department declared 
to me that it could not and would not 
stand by me in this work of subduing the 
rebels, if every time they catch a rascal, 
I let him loose. Gentlemen, I ain't going 
to do it." 

" Well, but, your excellency, I am a 
fighting man. I once paid three hundred 
dollars for knocking a man down." 

The President drew himself back, and 
with much good nature said — 

" Let me beg you not to try that on 
me." 

Then the speaker, in behalf of the ac- 
cused, took another turn. 

" Mr. President, even your enemies say 
you have much goodness of heart. Will 
you not parole this man, accepting bonds, 
which we will procure to any amount ? " 

The President could not be moved. 
When appeals were made to his sympathy, 
he said, with great decision, — 

" I will not listen." 

u But, Mr. President, you can do this 
thing." 

" Certainly I can, and I can end this 
war and let the rebels have their own 
way ; but I am not going to do it." 

" Six months in the White House, " by 
Mr. F. B. Carpenter, is a volume of in- 
tense interest, as exhibiting, by an eye- 



witness and familiar household associate, 
the winsome, inner-life traits, of the late 
beloved President. But for Mr. Carpen- 
ter's fortuitous and fortunate residence at 
the Presidential mansion, in his profes- 
sional occupation, at a period when Mr. 
Lincoln's personal and official traits were 
so strikingly called forth, the world would 
have lost one of the most authentic and 
affecting portraitures of the martyred 
President. Mr. Carpenter's book will 
happily be accessible to multitudes Avho 
may never have the opportunity to look 
upon his splendid " Emancipation " pic- 
ture. 



Flight from the Shenandoah. 

The order for the desolating of the 
Shenandoah Valley, issued by General 
Grant, that it might not afford sustenance 
to the Confederate raiders, was the source 
of wide-spread ruin to the inhabitants of 
that region. Property of all descriptions 
was swept away as with a besom in 
an iron hand, and families without num- 
ber were scattered houseless to poverty, 
exposure and hunger. An illustration 
of the scenes attending such a hegira 
is afforded in the case of a woman — a 
very Niobe in her distress — who was dis- 
covered sitting by the wayside, on an old 
chest, and with whom the following con- 
versation transpired : 

" You look very sad, Ma'am." 

" Yes, and I feel so, too, Sir," replied 
she ; " but I've got through crying long 
ago, Sir ; I've no more tears to shed." 

" Do you come from the Valley ? " 

" Yes, we are all from the Valley." 

"How far?" 

"Nigh fifty miles I reckon we came. 
Why, we were rich," continued she ; " we 
had a nice farm, a good house and barns, 
and, let me tell you what we had. We 
had nine head of young cattle, we had 
four cows, and four old horses, and six 
colts. Then there were thirty sheep, and 
six fatted hogs, and six pigs. Then I had 
in the house two barrels of apple buttei. 



506 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



three hundred pounds of honey, three 
crocks of butter, and I had silk in the 
house for two new dresses — to say no- 
thing of my drawers being full of sheets 
and pillow cases, and all kinds of house 
linen, and a feather bed on every bed- 
stead. Well, Sir, I was a Union woman, 
I»was ; I gave my honey and my apple 
butter, and all my things to your men, 
when they came up there scouting, and I 
never begrudged it. When the order 
came for your men to clear the Valley, 



said she ; " we sold a colt to one of your 
men, and he was a kind man, too, for thirty 
dollars. We had considerable of Confed- 
erate money, but that was no good." 
" Well, whei'e do you intend to go ? " 
" Me and the children hope to go to 
Ohio, but we don't know as we shall. We 
don't know what to do." 

In this same condition, each with its 
kindred tale of wo, were hundreds of fami- 
lies, on their way from the depopulated 
Valley of the Shenandoah. In the dark- 




Flight from the Shenandoah Valley. 



some of them came while I was over to a 
neighbor's. I saw the light in my direc- 
tion, and, oh dear ! I knew what was going 
on — I knew my barn was going. I run 
all the way, and I come on one man with 
a pot of butter, and another with a pot of 
honey, and all my things ; I knew whose 
they were, and when I got there they had 
gutted my house. I just had time to get 
a few things together— there's all that's 
left, Sir," pointing with an air of unutter- 
able despondency to a little pile of effects 
at her feet. 

" Have you nothing left but those ? " 
" Only thirty dollars in money besides," 



ness of the night, the scene was one that 
mingled the wretched and the picturesque 
in a manner that never yet engaged the ar- 
tist's pencil. An angry sky over their heads, 
and bleak, cold winds whistling around 
them ; women with children of tender years, 
often with babes at the breast ; young 
girls and boys and feeble old men — for 
there were no young or able men among 
them ; such were the scenes and groups 
which met the eye and wrung the heart. 



Happy Burial Occasion for the Twenty- 
seventh Illinois. 
Early one morning in 18G2, while at 
Farmington, near Corinth, Mississippi, as 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC 



507 



General Palmer was riding along his 
lines to inspect some breastworks that had 
been thrown up during the previous night, 
he came suddenly upon some of the boys 
of Company I, Twenty-seventh Illinois 
Volunteers, who had just shot a two hun- 
dred pound hog, and were engaged in the 
interesting process of skinning it. The 
soldiers were startled ; their chief looked 
astonished and sorrowful. 

"Ah! a body, — a corpse. Some poor 
fellow gone to his last home. Well, be 
must be buried with military honors. Ser- 
geant, call the officer of the guard." 

The officer was speedily at hand, and 
received orders to have a grave dug and 
the body buried forthwith. The grave 
was soon prepared, and then the company 
were mustered. Pall bearers placed the 
body of the dead upon a stretcher. The 
order was given to march, and with re- 
versed arms and funeral tread, the sol- 
emn procession of sixty men followed the 
body to the grave. Not a word passed, 
nor a muscle of the face stirred, while the 
last rites of sepulture were being per- 
formed. The ceremony over, the General 
and his staff waved their adieux, and were 
soon lost in the distance. 

The philosophy of a soldier is usually 
equal to the emergency. He has read 
and pondered. He can painfully realize 
that flesh is as grass, and that life is but 
a shadow. But he thinks of the resur- 
rection,' and his gloom passes away. So 
with the philosophic boys of Company I } 
Twenty-seventh Illinois. Ere the Gene- 
ral was fairly seated at his own breakfast 
table, there was a raising of the dead, and 
savory pork steaks were frying in many a 
camp pan. 



"Aunt Charlotte," the Old Cook at New- 
bern. 

"Aunt Charlotte " was one of the insti- 
tutions within the Union Lines at New- 
born, N. C. She was an old family cook. 
When her master and mistress ran away 
and deserted her, to join their fortunes 



and their fates with the disunionists, and 
their premises were assigned by General 
Burnside as the headquarters of the Sani- 
tary Commission for his division, "Aunt 
Charlotte" came into the employ of the 
Sanitary Inspector for the Department of 




Aunt Charlotte, the Old Cook. 

North Carolina, and many a sick and 
wounded soldier from the States of New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Massachusetts, had reason to bless the cu- 
linary accomplishments of this venerable 
contraband cook, and to praise the alacrity 
with which, in times of their greatest 
need, she exerted her skill to save them 
from suffering. 

On one occasion, soon after the battle, 
when a steamboat load of sick and wound- 
ed soldiers from the battle-field were un- 
expectedly landed in Newbern, and found 
themselves in a bare hall, with no accom- 
modations for the night, without any pro- 
visions or any appliances for cooking, and 
too late in the evening for any relief from 
the ordinary " regulation " sources, " our 
old cook" was appealed to, and the alac- 
rity with which she came to the relief of 
those sick and wounded men, will never 
be forgotten. 

By the time comfortable beds had been 
prepared for their occupation, "Aunt 
Charlotte " had sent over a warm and 
bountiful supper for some forty or more 



508 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



famished and exhausted patients — a supper 
of those choice materials with which the no- 
ble charity of northern ladies had so gener- 
ously supplied the service through the 
Sanitary Commission, and which the skill 
of " our old cook," on that night of wretch- 
edness, served up to the wan and hungry 
soldiers with a nicety and a delicacy of 
flavor which can only come from an ac- 
complished cuisine, but which all palates, 
however unsophisticated, can appreciate. 
The poor soldiers wei-e no less surprised 
than gratified at such unexpected relief 
from the sufferings of that wretched day 
of exposure and hunger. And their ex- 
pressions of satisfaction, as they quietly 
dropped off to sleep after their hunger was 
appeased and their wants attended to, 
would almost have paid the old slave wo- 
man for her long life of bondage. The 
next morning, and the next night, and 
a second morning, did this old " col- 
ored lady " add to her ordinary day's la- 
bor the preparation of suitable food for 
this whole hospital of sick and wounded 
soldiers. 

"Aunt Charlotte " was born in Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, but came many years 
ago to Newbern, and was the slave of one 
of its wealthiest citizens. She is about 
sixty-five years old ; has a great deal of 
character, and follows a thorough, system- 
atic routine of life — always at her post — 
always reliable. She possesses no mean 
administrative abilities, reminding one of 
an old merchant, habituated to a regular, 
systematic life, with ability enough to 
keep all surroundings subordinate to that 
system. It seemed as if, were she to be 
superseded in that kitchen, she would lose 
her hold on life, and the whole " darkey " 
appendage to the domestic establishment 
would be deprived of its balance wheel. 

When, therefore, on the first occupation 
of the premises, she was told that so long 
as she did right, she would keep her place 
in the kitchen, and receive six dollars a 
month, the "old lady" appreciated her 
position at once, and from that day forth, 



without further trouble to her employer, 
was secured the proper regulation and de- 
portment of all the servants " on the lot " 
— men, women and children — and of all 
who visited them. Nothing ever hap- 
pened among them to annoy or displease, 
the household being as well ordered as if 
the white mistress were still there to di- 
rect. 

"Aunt Charlotte's" domestic relations 
were as well ordered as the household. 
She had children, grandchildren, and great 
grandchildren. Her old husband — " Un- 
cle Sam " — in propria persona — but almost 
superannuated, at the age of seventy-five, 
Avas General Burnside's gardener. It was 
touching to witness the habitual care 
which " Old Aunty " took of this venera- 
ble partner of her life and her bondage. 
As regular as the clock, the old man, with 
his staff, came in at mid afternoon from 
his daily employment. He invariably 
found a chair set for him on the kitchen 
piazza, by the side of a well-scoured deal 
table. On this, " Old Aunty " placed be- 
fore him a plate well filled from all the 
dishes which she had that clay served from 
her employer's table. 



"Working: the Monster Parrott Gun. 
There being, of course, no manual laid 
down for the operating of that novel Phi- 
listine in military practice, the "three- 
hundred-pounder Parrott," the mode of 
working it will be best understood by an 
explanation free from technical language — 
thus : The piece is on its carriage and 
" from battery." Implements, no two in 
the same place and no one in its proper 
place. The instructor gives the command, 
" Load her up ! " At this command the 
gunner says, " Some of you fellers bring a 
shell," and "John, bring a cartridge." 
Some of the ' fellers ' take a small hand- 
barrow and bring a shell. Gumier says, 
"Stick in that powder." "Now, boys, 
hold on till I get out a fuse." " Stick it 
in." All hands by hard heaving get the 
shell to the embrasure. Guimer says, 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



509 



" Swab her out." She is swabbed out. 
" Now, heave and haul, and in it goes." It 
goes in accordingly. " Now, ram it down." 
It is rammed down. " Now, run her in." 
She is run in. "Screw down the recoil- 
bands." They are screwed down. Gun- 
ner aims. " Slew her round a little." 
'All right!" "Where's that primer?" 
" Now, git out of the way, everybody." 
All go to windward, and No. 3 steps round 
a corner, so as not to be hit if the gun 
bursts. Gunner says, " Blaze aivay ! " 
She blazes away. Remark of the gunner 
on returning to the gun : " How are you 
Sumter?" Repeat. 



planted in the rear of the train, and began 
firing shells up the road, over the wagons, 
at the longest range, and with a good ele- 
vation. A few of those "rotten cannon 
balls " bursting over the train roused the 
laggards and fixed the business. Believ- 
ing that the rebels were thus close — very 
close upon them, the wagon-masters and 
teamsters applied whip and spur, and the 
. whole caravan was moved off safely. 



Buford's Method of Spurring up Teamsters. 
While Meade's army was on its retro- 
grade movement, an incident occurred 
which showed that General Buford was as 
fertile in expedients as he was brave in an 




Bridge Across Platte Creek 

emergency. While bringing up the rear, 
with the rebels not far behind him, he 
came up with a train of wagons several 
miles long, numbering, in all, some eight 
hundred. The train was stopped, and 
Buford could find no one in command to 
start it. No time was to be lost. The 
enemy were coming — coming! and Bu- 
ford's command would be cut up and the 
train captured. The teamsters in that 
long line could not be made to comprehend 
and act. But General Buford, in a few 
seconds, both comprehended and acted. 
He ordered one of his rifled pieces to be 



History of a Sword. 
Major William Stubbs captured a sword 
at the battle of Shiloh, which has a histo- 
ry which pertains to few weapons of its 
kind, or indeed to any other. It had been 
presented to him by his fellow-conductors 
on the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, 
and bore an appropriate inscription of re- 
spect from the donors to the Major. When 
captured it fell into the hands of a Con- 
^ federate Lieutenant- Colo- 

nel, who was taken prisoner 
at the battle of Corinth by 
a private of the Tenth Mis- 
souri regiment. The pri- 
vate, however, having no 
use for thfc article, gave it to 
his Lieutenant. After the 
fall of Vicksburg the origi- 
nal owner of the sword was 
exchanged, and the Missouri 
private, reading a list in a 
Chicago paper, saw the 
name of the officer, w r hich 
was the same as that inscribed upon the 
sword. He thereupon wrote to the Major, 
who answered in person, and the sword 
was returned. It had passed through 
three campaigns, sometimes wielded for 
and sometimes against the Union. 



Soldier Mechanics. 
Captain Arnold, of company E, Rhode 
Island Fourth regiment, was one day or- 
dered to take possession of the cross-roads 
at Havelock station. Near this place he 
came upon a large and valuable property, 
in the shape of a corn and flour mill, com- 



510 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



bined with a saw-mill, belonging to Dr. 
Master, of Newbern. He found the place 
deserted, and the machinery purposely 
thrown out of gear to prevent its use by 
the Yankees. The turbine wheel had 
wedges and clogs placed in it, so that it 
would be both difficult and dangerous to 
attempt to start the mill. Being a practi- 
cal mechanic, and withal possessing some 
experience in the management of mills, 



mechanism, from the soldier-boys of the 
victorious army. 




lullatiug tue 1'outoon. 

Captain Arnold immediately discovered 
" what was the matter with the mill." He 
accordingly first drew down the pond, came 
to the seat of the difficulty, repaired dam- 
ages, and in a few hours the mill was jog- 
ging along as good as new, doing capital 
service in the cause of the Union by grind- 
ing corn-meal for the use of the troops. 
After it had been restore J, a person, claim- 
ing to be an agent of the Doctor, made his 
appearance, when, everything being made 
satisfactory, the premises were gracefully 
turned over to him without any charges 
for repairs. It was the easiest thing in the 
world, for Union soldiers from the North 
and "West to improvise machinery of all 
sorts, repair locomotives, build bridges, dig 
canals, throw up dams, and, as to pontoons, 
Prof. Airy himself might have taken les- 
sons in the philosophy of that kind of 



Could not "Wait for Death. 
At the general hospital in Washington, 
says Prof. Hackett, a soldier from Penn- 
sylvania, who had been severely wounded 
— so much so as to be beyond recovery — 
was lying on the floor. AVhen the exam- 
ining surgeon of the hospital came along 
and looked at the 
condition of the suf- 
ferer, expressing his 
hopeless belief as to 
the recovery of the 
man, to his assist- 
ant, he raised his 
head and said : 

" Doctor, will I re- 
cover ? is there any 
hope for me ? — for, 
if not, I want you to 
kill me." 

The surgeon tried 
to calm him, and he 
appeared to drop into 
a doze. In a few* 
moments he took a 
revolver from his 
pocket, placed it resting against his tem- 
ple, and fired ; being so feeble he could not 
hold it firmly, and the ball just glanced 
over the skin without starting blood, but 
the discharge blackened his face. The 
pistol was immediately taken from him, 
when he said — though then only half an 
hour before he was a corpse, — 

" I do not want to linger in pain with- 
out a hope." 



Four-leg-g-ed Messeng-er proving- Disloyal. 
A Federal officer who came up from 
City Point, Virginia, one October's day, to 
Washington, was observed to have with 
him an ugly-looking specimen of the genus 
canine, which he guarded very carefully. 
The dog, it appears, was a great pet with 
both the Union and Confederate pickets in 
front of Hancock's corps. The animal had 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC. 



ill 



been trained to carry messages from time 
to time between the pickets. A southern 
paper would be placed in his mouth, and 
he would scamper off to the Union lines, 




Four-legged Messenger proving Disloyal. 

deliver up the paper, and then return with 
a northern paper. He would at other 
times be intrusted with packages of coffee 
and tobacco, which he always delivered 
promptly and safely. The secessionists, 
however, after a while undertook to make 
use of him for transmitting information 
from one portion of their lines to another, 
and the four-legged messenger having been 
caught with one of these contraband mes- 
sages, he had to suffer the penalty of such 
disloyalty by being confiscated and brought 
North. 



Ammunition Sent toy the Enemy Jnst in 
Time. 
Late one night, after the redoubts had 
been captured, an ammunition wagon, 
drawn by six mules, was driven up from 
the direction of Petersburg, to a particular 
point in the chain of fortifications. Gen- 
eral Birney, surprised to see it coming from 
that direction, asked the driver at once 
what he had in the wagon ? The answer 
was, " Ammunition for Battery No. 9." 
" Where did it come from ? " inquired the 
General, supposing that additional ammu- 
32 



nition might have been sent for some of 
the field-pieces he had placed in the breast- 
works. " From the arsenal," said the. 
driver. " Oh, very well," said Birney, 
" I'll take charge of it." This was ammu- 
nition sent from the city to the rebels ; but 
Birney and some of his troops, unknown 
to the driver of the ammunition wagon, 
occupied Battery No. 9. The General 
duly appreciated such a timely addition to 
his supplies. It was the right battery but 
the wrong General. 



Customer for Grant's Biography. 
Rather an amusing incident concerning 
General Grant is related as having occur- 
red while he was on a journey in a railroad 
train, and where he displayed, as usual, 
none of the insignia of his military rank. 
A youthful book peddler traversed the 
cars, crying, " Life of General Grant." 
A mischief-loving aid pointed the young- 
ster to the General's seat, suggesting to 
him that " that man might like a copy." 
General Grant turned over the pages of 
the book, and casually asked, " Who is it 
this is all about ? " The boy, giving him a 
most incredulous grimace of indignation 
and disgust, replied, " You must be a 
darned greeny not to know General 
Grant ! " After this volley the Lieuten- 
ant-General of course surrendered, and 
bought his biography. 

Consul and General matched against each 
other in Savannah. 

The scene which took place between 
General Sherman and the British Consul 
at Savannah was one of the richest and 
most piquant during that general's event- 
ful peregrinations. On his arrival in that 
city, the General saw a large number of 
British flags displayed from buildings, and 
his curiosity was naturally excited to know 
how many " British Consuls " there were 
in that important city! He soon ascer- 
tained that these flags were on buildings 
where cotton had been stored away, and 
he at once ordered it to be seized. Soon 



512 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



after that, while the General was busy at 
his head-quarters, a pompous gentleman 
walked in, apparently in great haste, and 
inquired if he was General Sherman? 
Having received an affirmative reply, the 
pompous gentleman remarked : 

" Well, sir, when I left my residence, 
United States troops were engaged in 
removing my cotton from it, notwithstand- 
ing its protection by the British flag." 

" Stop, sir ! " said General Sherman ; 
" not your cotton, but my cotton ; my cot- 
ton, in the name of the United States 
government, sir. I have noticed a great 
many British flags here, all protecting cot- 
ton ; I have seized it all in the name of 
my government." 

" But, sir," said the Consul, indignantly, 
" there is scarcely any cotton in Savannah 
that does not belong to me." 

" There is not a pound of cotton here, 
sir, that does not belong to me, for the 
United States," responded Sherman. 

" Well, sir," said the Consul, swelling 
himself up with the dignity of his office 
and reddening in his face, " my govern- 
ment shall hear of this. I shall report 
your conduct to my government, sir." 

" Ah ! pray, who are you, sir ? " said 
the general. 

" Consul to her British Majesty, sir." 

" Oh ! indeed ! " responded the General. 
" I hope you will report me to your gov- 
ernment. You will please say to your 
government, for me, that I have been 
fighting the English government all the 
way from the Ohio river to Vicksburg, 
and thence to this point. At every step 
I have encountered British arms, British 
munitions of war, and British goods of 
all descriptions — yes, at every step, sir. 
I have met them in all shapes, sir ; and 
now, sir, I find you claiming all the cotton 
sir. I intend to call upon my government 
to order me to Nassau at once." 

" What do you propose to do there," 
asked the Consul, somewhat taken aback. 

" I would," replied the General, " take 
with me a quantity of picks and sliQvels, 



and throw that cursed sand-hill into the 
sea, sir. You may tell your government 
that, sir. I would shovel it to the sea, 
sir ; and then I would pay for it, sir, — if 
necessary. Good day, sir." 

It is needless to say that General Sher- 
man was not again troubled with the offi- 
cial representative of her Majesty's gov- 
ernment, — whose mind became confused 
in the crash of such nouns-substantive as 
cotton, arms, picks, shovels, sand-hills and 
the like. 



Shultz's Timely Discover 

An honest Schuylkill county German 
merchant, who had been prospered some- 
what beyond the average, and had accu- 
mulated more money than he could employ 
as capital in his business, went to a patri- 
otic banker in Philadelphia, and said : 

" I have got some moneys, and I want 
you to buy me some gold." 

" Why, Shultz ! what do you want gold 
for ? That isn't a thing you sell in your 
store." 

" I knows that ; but I want to make 
some money on de rise of gold. Beoples 
say it is going up, and I tink I may make 
a tousand dollars." 

" Shultz, you dear old fellow, don't you 
know that if you buy gold you will be a 
rebel ? " 

" N-o ! " said Shultz, with a tone of re- 
sentment in his wonder. 

" Suppose you buy ten thousand dollars 
of gold ; suppose that same morning you 
read in the papers, in big letters — "Terri- 
ble disaster to the Union cause ! Grant's 
army routed and destroyed ! ! The rebels 
marching on Washington ! ! ! ' " 

" I should say dat was tarn pad news," 
excitedly interrupted the German. 

"Yes, but wouldn't you say right off, 
' dis, however, will put gold up — pad for 
the Union cause, tarn pad, but it is goot 
for my ten thousand ! ' Don't you see 
Shultz, that in buying gold you instantly 
make the interests of the rebels your inter- 
ests — that you bribe yourself to wish them 



RATIONS, CURRENCY, ORDNANCE, MAILS, ETC, 



513 



to succeed, and to wish your country and 
your countrymen to fail ? And if these 
unholy desires, Shultz, don't define you 
a rebel, there is no language to define one. 
Don't you see that buying gold inevitably 
turns honest, patriotic, devoted men like 
you, away from the cause which they ought 
to support, and which they think they do 
support, because they have made it for 
their interest not to support it ? Don't you 
see it, my dear fellow?" 

" Be shure I do," said the honest man, 
with gravity of manner and a humility in 
keeping with the discovery he had made ; 
" and I ax pardon of the war. Put de 
whole of dat in Seven-Thirties. My 
money goes mit my principles." Honest 
soul ! 



Saddling: to Suit the Route. 
While the Sixth New Hampshire regi- 
ment was stationed at Russellville, in 
southwestern Kentucky, the inhabitants 
of the surrounding country were frequent- 
ly annoyed by the incursions of guerrilla 
bands from Tennessee. News coming in 
one morning that a band of these outlaws 
had plundered one of the neighboring vil- 
lages, Lieutenant-Colonel P., the active 



Middleton it was discovered by the Ma- 
jor that he was too late to intercept the 
marauders, and he consequently ordered 
the horses unsaddled and fed. Now, the 
Major's hostler was a son of the Emerald 
Isle, entirely ignorant of everything per- 
taining to the equestrian art, and, coming 
in from half an hour's scout through the 
village, in a state closely bordering on 
intoxication, he put the Major's saddle on 
facing to the rear. When the horses were 
brought up for a fresh start, the Major, 
instantly discovering the mistake, demand- 
ed with a wondering scowl why the sad- 
dle was put on in that manner. 

" An' shure," said Pat, a little terrified, 
" an' shure, Major, an' I didn't know which 
way you was going ! " 

An explosion followed — the Major was 
abundantly satisfied — and Pat escaped 
without further rebuke. 




Saddling to suit the Route 



and efficient commander, immediately dis- 
patched a small detachment of the regi- 
ment, commanded by Major Q., in pursuit 
of them. On arriving at the village of 



Moderate Ideas of a Competency. 
While Mr. Lincoln was visiting New 
York city, some time previous to the 
assembling of the presidential Republican 
nominating convention at Chicago, he met 
in one of the business establishments in 
New York, an Illinois acquaintance of for- 
mer years, to whom he 
^-, jj |j said in his dry and 

good-natured way : 

"Well, B., how have 
you fared since you 
left Illinois?" 

"I have made," re- 
plied B., "one hundred 
thousand dollars and 
lost all ; how is it with 
you, Mr. Lincoln ? " 

"Oh, very well ; I 
have the coltage at 
Springfield, and about 
eight thousand dollars 
in money. If they 
make me Vice-President with Seward, as 
some say they will, I hope I shall be able 
to increase it to twenty thousand, and that 
is as much as any man ought to want." 



514 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Brandy for all Hands. 
When Stuart made his famous cavalry 
raid around McClellan's lines before Kich- 
mond, the appointed rendezvous of the 
Confederate troops was not far from New 
Kent Court-House, at a small village 
where several main roads joined. The 
first party that arrived found that the 
place contained several finely furnished 
suttlers' stores, and depots of goods depos- 
ited thus far in the rear of the army, to 
be conveyed up to the front as circum- 
stances demanded. They were, in fact, 
central or wholesale Union establishments, 
to furnish regimental sutlers, stocked with 
everything that could be required, having 
tasteful bar-rooms attached, in which were 
sold champagne, and all sorts of expensive 
wines and liquors. The fatigued and 
dusty men hitched their horses and entered, 
without ceremony, but were so unprepos- 
sessing and unpresentable, that all present 
rose, including several field officers who 
had trotted to the rear "to spend the day" 
convivially. " Brandy, gentlemen ! " in- 
quired the fat proprietor, urbanely — " cer- 
tainly ! " and presenting decanters, the 
new comers began to imbibe freely. 
" Might I inquire to what cavalry you be- 
long, gentlemen ? " asked the proprietor, 
acutely surveying their dusty figures, from 
head to foot. " We ? " answered one, lay- 
ing his violent hands on a box of Havan- 
nas, and emptying the decanter, " oh ! we 
are Maryland cavalry, just arrived ; anew 
regiment raised in Baltimore, just returned 
on a scouting party after the rebel Stuart ! " 
" Stuart, eh ? You don't mean to say that 
. he is in our lines ; do you ? Well, let him 
come, that's all, and, although I'm not in 
the army, I'll show him a thing or two ; 
just see if I don't!" And as his eye 
danced over a fine case of revolvers ex- 



posed for sale, he seemed as valiant as 
Ajax. The rest of the company were 
dressed too finely to shake hands with the 
dusty strangers, so smoked and talked 
apart, in dignified reserve. Hearing the 
approach of a squadron, the cavalry troop- 
ers went to the door, and the landlord pre- 
pared bottles and glasses for his expected 
visitors. "Are these coming some of your 
party, gentlemen ? " "Yes," was the re- 
ply, " and as 'tis no use fooling any more, 
we are Stuart's cavalry." All present 
were struck dumb with astonishment, but 
were soon disarmed and made prisoners. 



Official Likeness of President Lincoln. 

Just before Mr. Lincoln Avas put for- 
ward as a candidate for the presidency, a 
friend fell into conversation with him upon 
the photographs of his face then before 
the public, and a regret was expressed to 
him that none had been found that did 
him justice. He laughingly suggested 
that it might not be desirable to have 
"justice" done to such forbidding features 
as his, but added that a likeness taken in 
Springfield a few days before was, in his 
judgment, and that of his friends, the best 
ever had. Of that his friend procured 
four copies, and subsequently asked Mr. 
Lincoln to append to each his autograph 
and the date, which he did with apparent 
pleasure, calling for a pen and ink, and 
writing upon his knee. Of these pictures, 
which were the first taken after he had 
allowed his beard to grow, and the first to 
give those that had not seen him a belief 
that he was not " horrid ugly," three were 
distributed to friends, and from one of 
them the head of Mr. Lincoln upon the 
ten dollar Treasury Note was engraved — 
which may be called the . official likeness 
of the Western President. 




PART VIL— CHRISTIAN AND SANITARY COMMISSIONS. 



PART SEVENTH. 

ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION— DOMESTIC, MORAL, WOMANLY, 
SANITARY, AFFECTIONAL, MATRIMONIAL, ROMANTIC, ETC. 

Exhibition of Personal Traits, — Benevolence, Generosity, Courtesy, Magnanimi- 
ty, &c. Illustrations of the Home Affections and Household Attachments ; 
Female Soldiers; Regimental Pets; Marriages in Camp; Words and Deeds of 
Loyal Women ; Rancor and Criminalities of Female Secessionists ; Hospital 
Patients; Ministrations to the Sick and Wounded; Bogus Invalids; Partings, 
Reunions, Bereavements, Burials ; Touching Death-Bed Scenes, — Last Words, 
Mementoes, Keepsakes and Souvenirs ; Prison Contacts, Companions, and Hor- 
rors ; Sayings and Doings of Chaplains ; Genialities, Caricatures, Pathos, Fan- 
cies and Realities, &c, &c. 



"Sisters, faithful to your vow, 
Smooth his limbs and cool his brow : 
Peace ! his soul is passing now — 

Gently ! gently ! " 

" He talked of his mother far away, 

And he talked of his gentle wife, 
When the fever frenzied his burning head, 

And loosened his hold of life." 

This flag graced my wedding table, and I love it, and every soldier that fights for it. — Union Lady in Pensacola. 
The highest duty of a soldier is to be a Christian. — General Mitchell to his troops. 

It isn't much I want ; only that you will get something soft to put under my head ; this rail is so hard, it has almost 
"worn off my poor scalp — Wounded Soldier on the Gettysburg battle-field. 



Colonel Farrar Winding up a Dance. 

olonel Farrar, com- 
manding at Vidalia, 
Mississippi, learned 
one afternoon throu' 
a lady, that a mili- 
tary ball was to be 
given that night at a 
Mr. Johnston's plan- 
tation, on Black riv- 
er, thirty-three miles 
distant. Unfortu- 
nately, the Colonel's mounted force was on 
the Natchez side, having been scouting, 
and it was then too late to undertake to , 
cross them to the Louisiana side. 




Det2rmined, however, not to let such an 
opportunity slip, he hastily mounted ten 
men of the Thirtieth Missouri infantry, 
and twenty-five of the Second Missis- 
sippi heavy artillery, then on duty at that 
post, and with them, though not an invited 
guest, the gallant Colonel started for the 
scene of festivity. 

The route pursued led directly through: 
a swamp, which being partially covered 
with water, rendered a rapid movement 
almost impossible. Nothing daunted, the 
little band pushed on, and by four o'clock 
in the morning, ('tis the early bird catches 
the worm,) had approached within half a 
mile of the house. Here, dismounting, 
they moved cautiously along the unguard- 



518 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



ed road to within a few rods of the scene 
of mirth and merriment. The brilliant 
lights which gleamed so cheerily from the 
windows, the lightsome forms flitting to 
and fro, and the sweet cadence of the mu- 
sic, told that all went merrily within. 

To rush .through the gateway and sur- 
round the mansion was the work of hut a 
moment. Colonel Farrar and Captain 
Orgue dashing into the house, pistol in 
hand, demanded the surrender of every 
Confederate officer and soldier there. 
They did this — it almost passes belief! — 
followed by a squad of the rebels' own 
countrymen and brothers from the Second 
Mississippi heavy Artillery of African de- 
scent ! Of course the Confederacy surren- 
dered. 




Miss Brownlow. 

Noav, the Colonel, universally known to 
be a man not less gallant than brave, not 
wishing to spoil the fun of such a pleasant 
party too abruptly, kindly requested the 
guests to continue the dance. The music 
once more struck up ; and not yet being 
too old for a little of such exhilarating 
enjoyment, the Colonel himself graciously 
led upon the floor a fair and blushing 
daughter of the South, and with her was 
soon lost in the dizzy mazes of the dance. 
Daybreak warned the little party of the 
danger of delay. The prisoners were 
hastily mounted on their own good steeds, 
adieus were given .to their disconsolate 



friends, and each, with a sable guard by 
his side, commenced their northern jour- 
ney, convinced, doubtless, with the poet, 
that " each pleasure has its poison too, and 
every sweet a snare." One can not help 
being reminded, by this ' military ball ' of 
Mississippi secession belles, of that other 
military ' ball ' with which the noble- 
hearted Tennessee belle, Miss Brownlow, 
stood in readiness to entertain a certain 
' party' at her father's house, if they dared 
to desecrate the flag of her country ! A 
portrait of this glorious woman adorns 
these pages. 



Beautiful but Dead, on the Field of Honor. 

After the battle of Stone Bridge, a staff- 
officer rode out next day to view the 
ground, and passed piles of dead in vari- 
ous directions. Under a large tree, a body 
was seen lying, very handsomely dressed) 
with a fancy sword, and a handkerchief 
over the face. Attracting the officer's cu- 




Beautiful but Dead. 

riosity, he stopped, and removing the hand- 
kerchief, there was revealed to him one 
of the handsomest faces he ever met with, 
— that of a boy not more than twelve or 
fourteen years old. His appearance and 
dress indicated high position, like that of 
temporary aid to some general officer 
To ascertain who he was, his pockets were 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



519 



examined, in which was a Testament, hav- 
ing the inscription — 

"James Simmons, ]S T ew York. From 
his loving mother. My son, remember thy 
Creator in the days of thy youth." 

The officer wished very much to take the 
body away, but being six miles from quar- 
ters and on horseback, it was impossible. 
Radiant and serene, almost beyond de- 
scription, was the countenance of that 
youthful soldier, bespeaking the fact that 
once, within that fair and winsome casket, 
was a spirit as bright and pure as the 
stars. But there lay his face and form of 
youthful loveliness, soon to change to de- 
cay and offensiveness. "Thou makest his, 
beauty to consume away like the moth." 
Such was some of the " blood " which con- 
spirators declared they would "sprinkle in 
the face of the nation ! " 



"That is my Brother." 
Colonel Kinney, of the Fifty-sixth Ohio 
regiment, was an observer of one of those 
strange and melancholy scenes which the 




*' That is my Brother. " 

' fortunes ' of war not unfrequently bring 
to pass. As he was riding along the 
breastworks of Fort Donelson, a day or 



two after the surrender, and while many 
of the dead were still lying unburied, he 
noticed before him a private in his regi- 
ment, named Bowman, strolling along. 
As he came up, he observed the latter 
suddenly start back, with agony depicted 
in his countenance, as if transfixed at the 
sight of a body before him. Approaching 
nearer, the Colonel asked him what it was 
surprised him, and added that he supposed 
he would have become accustomed to see- 
ing dead bodies by this time. Turning to 
his inquirer, with an expression on his 
face such as only a discovery like this 
could produce, and pointing to the body, 
he replied, " Colonel ! that is my brother ! " 
His brother had been a resident of Ten- 
nessee, and had joined the Confederate 
army, but he had no knowledge of his 
whereabouts, or any thought of his being 
one of the victims of the bloody conflict, 
until he thus accidentally stumbled across 
his dead body. Procuring a blanket, and 
the assistance of some comrades, he wrap- 
ped him in it, and buried him tenderly in 
the spot where he had fallen. 



Miss N- 



-'s Copy of Byron, and the 



Rebel Sergeant. 

On the Confederate troops possessing 
themselves of the town of Martinsburg, 
in August, 1864, they divided themselves 
into small squads or "messes," as they 
called them, and entering the houses of the 
Union people, ordered dinner, and, while 
the repast was being prepared, they ran- 
sacked bureaus and wardrobes, relieving 
them of such jewelry, ornaments, and ne- 
cessaries, as they could conveniently carry 
off. 

One of these messes paid a visit to a 
house where, after helping themselves to 
many other things, a sergeant seized an 
elegantly bound volume of Byron belong- 
ing to Miss N , which had been 

presented to her by a friend in London. 
On the clasp, which was of gold, was en- 
graved the name of the donor and donee. 
Miss N- begged the sergeant not to 



520 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE KEBELLION. 



cany it away, telling him how greatly she 
prized it, not on account of its intrinsic 
worih — though that of course was consid- 
erable, — but as a token from a friend. 
Perceiving that the sergeant did not heed 
her entreaties, she drew from her finger a 
diamond ring, which she assured him was 
of greater value than the book, while he 
could carry it away with less trouble, and 
offered it to him if he would leave her 
keepsake. But the sergeant was inexora- 
ble. At length he proposed that if she 
would read to his " mess " four certain 
Cantos from Don Juan, he would give 
her back the book. The young lady did 
not resent the insult with a disdainful curl 
of the lip or angry flash of the eye, but 
gently, almost kindly, said, 

" Sergeant, you surely have no sister, 
and I fear you lorget that you ever had 
a mother, or you would not so insult an 
unprotected woman. But, sir, you shall 
not steal my book — I give it to you ; take 
it and go." 

And the callous sergeant, laughing at 
the rebuke he had received, made off with 
his booty, first making an offer, in his 
most enticing Avords and manner, but un- 
successfully, to leave the book if the young 
lady would kiss him — the roue ! 



Military Monomania of a Brooklyn Girl. 

Quite a remarkable case of monomania 
— military, occurred in the army of the 
west, in the career of a young lady from 
Brooklyn, N. Y., about nineteen years of 
age. She became inspired with the idea 
that she was a second and modern Joan 
of Arc, called by Providence to lead the 
armies of the Union to certain victory in 
saving the life of the nation against its 
foes. The hallucination acquired great 
hold upon her mind, and a change of 
scene being suggested by her physician, 
she was carried to Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
Her mania, however, instead of diminish- 
ing, as was expected, increased until it 
was found necessary to confine her to her 
apartment. She, however, succeeded in 



making her escape, went to Detroit, where 
she joined the drum corps of a Michigan 
regiment, her sex known only to herself, 
and succeeded in getting with her regi- 
ment to the Army of the Cumberland. 
How the poor girl survived the hardships 
of the Kentucky campaign, where strong 
men fell in numbers, must forever remain 
a mystery. 

The regiment to which she was attached 
had a place in the division of the gallant 
Van Cleve, and during the bloody battle 
of Lookout Mountain, the fair girl fell, 
pierced in the left side by a Minie ball, 
and when borne to the surgeon's tent her 
sex was discovered. She was told by the 
surgeon that her wound was mortal, and 
he advised her to give her name, in order 
that her family might be informed of her 
fate. This she finally, though reluctantly, 
consented to do, and the Colonel of the 
regiment, although suffering himself from 
a painful wound, became interested in her 
behalf, and prevailed upon her to let him 
send a dispatch to her father. This she 
dictated in the following manner : 
" Mr. , No. — Willoughby street, 

Brooklyn. 

Forgive your dying daughter. I have 
but a few moments to live. My native 
soil chunks my blood. I expected to de- 
liver my country, but the fates would not 
have it so. I am content to die. Pray, 
pa, forgive me. Tell ma to kiss my da- 
guerreotype, Emily. 

P. S. — Give my gold watch to little 
Eph." (The youngest brother of the 
dying girl.) 

The poor girl was buried on the field 
on which she fell in the service of her 
country, which, in the mania of her patri- 
otic feeling she fondly hoped to save. 



Foreshadowingrs of their Fate: A Brave 
Trio. 
It would seem as if Ellsworth, Lyon, 
and Baker, saw the black plumes of the 
Death Angel in the path before them. 
Though as live a man as ever breathed, 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



521 



the dauntless Ellsworth penned a solemn 
farewell to his parents, in the dead of the 
last midnight that he ever Avatched. The 
brave Lyon, too, exhibited a strange and 
reckless bewilderment, on that disastrous 
day when his gallant heart was breaking 
under the double conviction that death 
had marked him, and the government had 
forgotten him. Colonel Baker for several 
days was oppressed by this overhanging 
consciousness. He became as restless as 
an eagle in his camp. He came down to 
"Washington and settled all his affairs. 
He went to say farewell to the family of 
the President. A lady — who in her high 
position was still gracefully mindful of early 
friendships — gave him a bouquet of late 
flowers. As he took them he said, quietly, 
and with a pensive eye resting upon the 
sweet and fragile blossoms, — 

" Very beautiful ! These jiowers and 
my memory will wither together ! " 

At night he hastily reviewed his papers. 
He indicated upon each its proper disposi- 
tion " in case I should not return." He 
pressed with quiet earnestness upon his 
friend, Colonel Webb, who, hoAvever, 
deprecated such ghostly instructions, the 
measures which might become necessary 
in regard to the resting-place of his mortal 
remains. All this Avithout any ostentation. 
He performed these various offices Avith 
the quiet coolness of a soldier and a man 
of affairs, then mounted his horse and rode 
gaily away to his death. Every man in 
that ill-starred struggle to which he hast- 
ened fought as bravely as if victory Avere 
really among possibilities. Their duty 
was to stand there until they Avere ordered 
away. Death A\*as merely an incident of 
the performance of that duty ; and the 
coolest man there AAas the Colonel com- 
manding. He talked hopefully and cheer- 
ily to his men, eAen Avhile his heart Avas 
sinking with the sun, and the grim pres- 
ence of disaster and ruin Avas before him. 
He A\ T as ten paces in their front, Avhere all 
might see him and take pattern by him. 
He carried his left hand nonchalantly m 



his breast, and criticised the firing as 
quietly as if on parade, saying, 

" Lower, boys ! Steady, there ! Keep 
cool now and fire low, and the day is 
ours ! " 

All at once, as if moved by one impulse, 
a sudden sheet of fire burst from the 
curved covert of the enemy, and Edward 
Dickinson Baker Avas promoted, by one 
grand brevet of the God of Battles, above 
the acclaim of the field, above the applause 
of the world, to the heaven of the martyr 
and the hero. But the floAvers were still 
beauteous and fragrant, as will ever be the 
memory of this most gallant soldier and 
of his brave compeers, EllsAA'orth, Lyon, 
and the long procession of martyr patriots. 



Tracts vs. Pound Cake. 

A secession lady visited the hospital at 
Nashville one morning Avitn a negro serv- 
ant, Avho carried a large basket on his arm, 
covered Avith a Avhite linen cloth. She 
approached a German and accosted him 
thus : 

" Are you a good Union man ? " 

" I ish dat," Avas the laconic reply of the 
German, at the same time casting a hope- 
ful glance at the basket aforesaid. 

" That is all I Avanted to knoAv," replied 
the lady, and beckoning to the negro to 
folloAV, she passed to the opposite side of 
the room, Avhere a Confederate soldier lay, 
and asked him the same question, to which 
he very promptly replied : " Not by a 
sight. The lady thereupon uncoA-- 



ered the basket and laid out a bottle of 
Avine, mince pies, pound cake, and other 
delicacies, which Avere greedily deA'oured 
in the presence of the soldiers, Avho felt 
somewhat indignant at such un-Samaritan- 
like conduct. 

On the folloAving morning however, an- 
other lady made her appearance with a 
large coA'ered basket, and she also accosted 
our German friend, and desired to knoAv 
if he was a Union man. 

" I ish, by Got ; I no care what you got ; 
I bese Union." 



522 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



The lady set the basket on the table, 
and our German friend thought the truth 
had availed in this case, if it did not in 
the other. But imagine the length of the 
poor fellow's countenance when the lady 
uncovered the basket, and presented him 




Tracts vs. Pound Cake. 

with about a bushel of tracts. He shook 
his head dolefully and said ; 

" I no read English, and, beside, dat 
rebel on 'se oder side of 'se house need tern 
so more as me." 

The lady distributed them and left. 

Not long afterwards along came another 
richly dressed lady, who propounded the 
same question to the German. Pie stood 
gazing at the basket, apparently at a loss 
for a reply. At length he answered her 
in Yankee style, as follows : 

" By Got, you no got me dis time ; vat 
you got mit the basket ? " 

The lady required an unequivocal reply 
to her question, and was about to move 
on when Teuton shouted out — 

" If you got tracts I bese Union ; but 
if you got mince pie mit pound cake unt 
vine, I be secesh like de tibel." 



Tender Burial of a "Onion Drummer Boy by 
Two Girls. 
After the Battle of Bean Station, the 



Confederate soldiers gave loose play to all 
manner of indignities toward the slain. 
They stripped their bodies, and shot per- 
sons who came near the battlefield to show 
any attention to the dead. The body of 
a little drummer boy was left naked and 
exposed. Near by in an humble house, 
there were two young girls, the eldest but 
sixteen, who resolved to give the body a 
decent burial. They took the night for 
their task. With hammer and nails in 
hand, and boards on their shoulders, they 
sought the place where the body of the 
dead drummer boy lay. From their own 
scanty wardrobe they clothed the body 
for the grave. With their own hands they 
made a rude coffin, in which they tenderly 
put the dead body. They dug the grave 
and lowered the body into it, and covered 
it over. The noise of the hammering 
brought some of the rebels to the spot. 
The sight was too much for them. Not a 
word was spoken, no one interfered, and 
when the sacred rites of the burial were 
performed, all separated, and the little 
drummer boy lay in undisturbed rest in 
the grave dug by gentle maidens' hands 
on the battle field. Such tenderness and 
devotion deserve to run along the line of 
coming generations with the story of the 
woman who broke the alabaster box on 
the loved head of the Saviour, and with 
her who of her penury cast her two mites 
into the treasury. 



Talk -with, a Pretty Secession Miss. 

While stopping at a certain town in 
Georgia, a Union man on public business 
found himself, on the invitation of a friend, 
sitting at meat not only with Republicans 
and sinners, but also with rebels. A young 
lady did the honors of the table most 
gracefully, taking great pains in pouring 
out the essence of Java into cups of china 
to display to good advantage the daintiest 
taper fingers in the world. Withal she 
was very pretty. 

The usual table talk began, when the 
friend referred to, who well understood 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



523 



her secession proclivities, turned to her, 
and pleasantly remarked : 

" Mr. , my friend and our guest, 

has relatives in the South — two brothers 
in the rebel army." 

" Is that true ? Tliey are fighting in a 
good cause," she said spiritedly. 

"No doubt they think so," he simply 
replied, hoping to avoid the discussion of 
an unpleasant subject ; but in this he was 
doomed to be disappointed. 

" How can you, Mr. , fight against 

them ? " she continued half angrily. 

" I am not fighting or willing to fight 
against relatives," he rejoined, " but, for a 
principle — a flag — a government. Nor 
am I in the loyal army because I hate 
the South, for in my opinion that man who 
can not rise above sectional animosities is 
not equal to the emergency ! One can 
give no greater proof that he loves his 
whole country than that he is willing to 
die for its salvation." 

A warm discussion after the usual sort 
ensued, at which the young lady became 
angry at everybody in general, and her 
guest in particular — who, however, neither 
spoke nor wished any harm to her, any 




Alexander It. Stephens. 

way. And when, a few days afterwards, 
her brother was caught in the act of burn- 
ing a railroad bridge, and she could be 
seen in her despair, imploringly asking, 
" Will the authorities hang him, my poor, 



dear brother? " that same denounced guest 
was on hand to offer her his heartfelt sym- 
pathy. 

Sequel : That bright young secession 
miss, so warm an advocate of Southern 
rights, subsequently married a full-blooded 
Yankee officer ! Bravo! Like Vice-Presi- 
dent Stephens, foremost among Georgia's 
political law givers, but who so eloquently 
defended the Union at the first breaking 
out of secession, then turned a complete 
summerset the other way, and Avhen last 
heard from was re-advocating the Union 
cause, — it is no wonder that similar gyra- 
tions should be performed by the other 
sex. To make up for the loss of her 
pretty phiz, in a pictorial sense, that of 
Stephens will at least afford as much food 
for study, physiologically considered. 



General O.'s Stern Particularity as to his 
Nig-ht Wardrobe. 

After the advent of General Logan's 
splendid corps at Huntsville, the rooms in 
the principal hotels were quite in demand. 
A beautiful and accomplished actress had 
been staying for a while at the Huntsville 
Hotel, and in about a minute, minute-and- 
a-half, or two minutes, after she had va- 
cated her room, the gallant General O. 
was assigned to it by the landlord. The 
General, on examining his bed previ- 
ous to retiring, found a snow r y robe de 
nuit neatly folded under his pillow, 
marked in delicate characters with the 
name of the fair owner. The chamber- 
maid was called and asked by the Gener- 
al, as he held up the pretty garment in 

his hand, " Do you know Miss ? " 

" Yes," answered the bewildered chamber- 
maid. " Then carry this to her Avith my 

compliments, and say General is 

not in the habit of sleeping with empty 
night-gowns." By a strange oversight, 
the funds of the Sanitary Fair held at 
fell short considerably, in default 



of that snowy robe de nuit not having been 
on raffle, labelled with the General's stern 
refusal to have it in his night wardrobe. 



624 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Capt. Dickson's Ride with the Pretty Secesh. 

Captain Dickson, of the Ninth New 
York Cavalry, while at the sunny South, 
came across an out-and-out ' shecesh ' land 
mermaid — though in the Captain the de- 
lectable creature met her match. He was 
directed to escort said dangerous damsel 
of eighteen or twenty summers, outside 
of the Union lines. Having several miles 
to ride in company, the conversation nat- 
urally was upon matters connected with 
the war. She was good-looking, young, 
sarcastic, and a member in her mouth 
evidently hung in the middle, which en- 
abled her to talk with an astounding vol- 
ubility. Having got fairly started on their 
way — 

"Well," says the little Miss, pertly, 
" when are you going to Richmond ? You 
did not succeed by the way of Fredericks- 
burg ? " 

Captain — " No, that was only a feint; 
we are going to Richmond by the way of 
Tennessee." 

The smirk that this answer caused ma- 
demoiselle to put on cannot be placed on 
paper. 

Lady — " Your Colonel (Cesnola) want- 
ed to take me prisoner ; I would not like 
to be a prisoner and bive on hard tack and 
pork as your soldiers do." 

Captain (complacently) — " Don't know 
about that ; we could feed you well ; we 
are daily supplied with cotton and other 
delicacies of the season ; " naively allud- 
ing to the provisions brought in by forag- 
ing parties, from whose daily visits the 
lady herself had suffered as much as any 
one. Another smirk of her pretty face 
and a toss of the head was the only reply. 

Captain — "Under Pope we managed 
to live well." 

Lady — " Yes ! (Dry emphatic) that old 
mean Pope ; I only wish he was in com- 
mand now, how we would run you back 
to Washington again ? " 

Captain — " Yes, but it was a great pity 
that your army had to leave Maryland so 



abruptly before Little Mac." After a 
little pause, 

Lady (resuming) — "You did'nt make 
much out of Vicksburg ? " 

Captain — " Oh, we only attracted your 
attention there, while our troops took a 
little post of eight thousand men in Ar- 
kansas ! " 

Lady (changing the attack) — " You are 
going to cross now at Richard's Ferry ? " 

Captain — " Yes." 

Lady — " I heard you were going to 
cross below Fredericksburg." 

Captain — " Yes, Burnside says it is the 
most practicable." 

The lady at this point, provoked and 
puzzeled beyond measure, exclaimed in 
the most sarcastic manner imaginable, and 
with correspondent expression of her pret- 
ty phiz, 

" I understand that if it remains muddy 
you are all going bach to Washington!" 

Captain (with provoking coolness) — 
" Yes ; I believe that is the latest order." 

The Captain, being a most redoubtable 
Avag, was one too much for Miss Secesh, 
and before they parted she frankly " owned 
up " to that much. 



Material for the Novelist's Pen. 
There was in one of the Indiana regi- 
ments a young girl who did soldier's ser- 
vice for the space of two years, and all 
under the most peculiar circumstances, — 
never until the last disclosing her sex. 
Having, at the end of the period named, 
got tired of the rough and arduous life 
she was leading, she procured a supply of 
feminine apparel, and arraying herself 
therein, set off for home, after calling on 
her Colonel, telling who she was and bid- 
ding him good-bye — leaving him and all 
the rest of the officers, as well as the men, 
who became aware of her identity, utterly 
dumb with amazement. She had fought 
bravely, and had done her duty well, all 
through the two years she had been in the 
service, and had received two severe 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



525 



wounds, but during all this period her sex 
was undiscovered. Her reason for enter- 
ing the service was that she might be near 
a young man whom she loved ; but he 
proving a coward, she became disgusted 
with him, and then continued to serve in 
the hope that some friendly bullet would 
end her unhappy life. But finally becom- 
ing cured of her love, romance and mis- 
anthropy, she concluded to return to hei'- 
proper sphere in life and live like a ra- 
tional creature. 



Speedy Realization of an Angry Wish. 

A correspondent writing from the York- 
town peninsula tells the following : — While 
coming from a scout this afternoon we call- 
ed at a house and found a couple of ladies, 
quite young, and one as handsome as a 
Hebe. They were secesh to the back- 
bone, and had each a " lovyer " in the 
rebel army ; one of them was at York- 
town, and only left the day before to pick 
his way back along the York river, and 
carry such information as he had gotten 
from us. The young lady showed us his 
photograph, a good looking Lieutenant, 
and hoped Ave should meet him face to 
face, that he might leave us for dead. 

"Oh," said she, "if all the Yankees 
were one man and I had a sword here, I 
should like to cut his throat ! " 

And she said it with a vim, too. W,e 
told her we would take good care of young 
Lieutenant White, and see that Miss Flo- 
rill had an opportunity to change her name 
after the battle was over, hoping for an 
invitation to the wedding, and as she had 
called me the ' Divine,' or chaplain of the 
regiment, I proposed to marry them. 

"Never," said she ; " I hope he will come 
home dead before you shall take Yorktown. 
I would wade in blood up to my knees to 
bury his body." 

She spoke of poison in a glass of water 
we drank, but I replied that " one look of 
her angel face, one smile from her lovely 
features would be an antidote to the rank- 



est poison." " Yes," she replied, " and to 
your hatred of the South, too." 

The flirtation nearly made her in favor 
of ' Union ' and us the more so. But we 
had not gone far when we observed a com- 
pany of soldiers approaching, who brought 
with them the ' lovyer ' — a corpse upon a 
litter, returning to his sweetheart. He had 
been shot while trying to avoid the quick 
eye of our sharpshooters, near a house 
upon the York river shore, where his father 
had resided, and where a negro informed 
the soldier that his mother and sister were 
at the house where we had been in con- 
versation with the ladies, one of whom 
was his sister, and our soldiers had, after 
receiving orders, carried him to be buried. 
We did not mar the sorrow of- the rela- 
tives by stopping to witness the reception 
of the body. Her hasty wish that he 
might ' come home dead ' was speedily and 
sadly realized 



Kentucky's Joan d' Arc. 
A marauding band of secessionists in 
Kentucky, on their way to Mount Sterling, 
stopped at the house of a Mr. Oldom, and, 
he being absent at the time, plundered 
him of all his horses, and among them a 
valuable one belonging to his daughter 
Cornelia. She resisted the outrage as lone 
as she could, but finding all her efforts in 
vain, she sprang upon another horse and 
started post haste toward the town to give 
the alarm. Her first animal gave out, 
when she seized another, and meeting the 
messenger from Middletown, she sent him 
as fast as his horse could carry him to con- 
vey the necessary warning to Mount 
Sterling where he arrived most opportune- 
ly. Miss Oldom then retraced her way 
toward home, taking with her a double- 
barreled shot-gun. She found a pair of 
saddle-bags on the road, belonging to a 
Confederate officer, which contained a pair 
of revolvers, and soon she came up with 
the advancing marauders, and ordered them 
to halt. Perceiving that one of the 



526 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



thieves rode her horse, she ordered him to 
surrender the animal ; this he refused, and 
finding that persuasion would not gain her 
ends, she levelled the shot-gun at the 
rider, commanding him, as Damon did the 
traveler, " down from his horse," and 
threatened to fire if he did not comply. 
Her indomitable spirit at last prevailed, 
and the robbers, seeing something in her 
eye that spoke a terrible menace, surren- 
dered her favorite steed. When she had 
regained his back, and patted him on the 
neck, he gave a neigh of mingled recog- 
nition and triumph, and she turned his 
head homeward and cantered off as leis- 
urely as if she were taking her morning 

exercise. 

♦ 

Elizabeth Comstock and the Dying- Soldier. 
Elizabeth Comstock, a lady of English 
birth, and a resident of Michigan, is an 
eloquent preacher of the Society of 
Friends. For some years she had devot- 



Iiil 




Eliz Comstock and the Dying Soldier. 

ed herself particularly to visiting prisons 
and hospitals, and with the self-denying 
spirit of a Ho7/ard or a Fry, has minis- 
tered to the suffering inmates. She was 
in attendance at the Yearly Meeting of 
Friends, at Newport, Rhode Island, in 



1864, and at the close it was urged to visit 
Salem and spend Fast Day with friends 
there. This invitation she declined, say- 
ing that there were no hospitals or prisons 
there, and to these was her mission. Soon 
after, however, yielding to a strong im- 
pression upon her own mind, that it was 
her duty, she announced that she would 
go. She attended Friends' Meeting and 
preached, her subject being " the value of 
early religious training." Illustrative of 
this, she related the following touching in- 
cident : — 

Soon after the terrible battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, she visited one of the hospi- 
tals in the vicinity of Washington, going 
from ward to ward, and from cot to cot, 
comforting and consoling the wounded 
sufferers. Upon one bed lay a young 
man, with eyes closed, and apparently in- 
sensible. The attendant remarked that it 
would be useless to speak to him, as he 
had been constantly delirious since his ar- 
rival, and had now relapsed into a death-like 
stupor. But the good lady, full of moth- 
erly, christian sympathy, stopped by the 
bedside, and repeated Dr. Watts's hymn, 
in her sweet tones : 

' Jesus can make a dying bed 
Feel soft as downy pillows are,' &c. 

As she closed, the young man looked 
up, with an intelligent smile, and seeing 
the female form, said — " I knew you would 
come, mother, and speak to me of Jesus." 
By his side the good Avoman remained, till 
the youth's spirit left him, and catching 
his last accents on earth, " Mother, I am 
going to Jesus." 

But the most remarkable part of this 
affecting story is to come. 

As the meeting broke up, and the 
Friends were leaving, the preacher's at- 
tention was arrested by a female face in 
the throng, and she remarked to a friend, 
" That must be the mother of the young 
soldier, of whom I spoke." They met, 
the preacher and the mother, and upon 
comparing notes, the ftust was established, 
that it was the son of that mother, to 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



527 



whom good Elizabeth Comstock had min- 
istered in his dying hour, and had thus 
brought to her the first knowledge of that 
son's death. Perhaps none but a parent 
can imagine the consolation thus given by 
the assurance that, in his dying hour, the 
young soldier thought of his mother, and 
coupled her name with that of the Saviour, 
whom she had taught him to revere. 
Who shall say, that the Good Spirit did 
not lead Elizabeth Comstock, out of her 
chosen path of labor, to carry comfort to 
the heart of that Salem mother ? 



Music in the Hospital. 

A young lady was heard to say, " I wish 
I could do something for my country ; I 
would willingly become a nurse in a hos- 
pital, but I have not the physical strength. 
What can I do ? " 

" You can sing," a friend replied. 

" Yes, I can sing, but Avhat of that ? " 

" Go to one of the hospitals, and sing 
for the soldiers." 

The idea pleased her. She accompa- 
nied a friend who was long used to such 
visits, and who introduced her by saying 
to the patients : 

" Here is a young lady who has come 
to sing for you." 

At the mere announcement, every face 
was aglow with animation, every eye 
was rivited upon her with expectant pleas- 
ure. She sang a few songs, commencing 
with the glorious " Star Spangled Ban- 
ner." As the thrilling notes of that song 
rang through the apartment, one poor 
man, who had been given up by the phy- 
sician as an almost hopeless case, raised 
himself in his cot, leaned his head upon 
his hand, and drank in every note like so 
much nectar. The effect was electrical. 
From that moment he began to amend, 
and finally recovered. 



ing upon it the following endorsement : 
" This bill was paid for one plate of ice 
cream in Jersey City, at a fair for the 
benefit of sick and wounded soldiers, by 
J. A., Esq., April 11, 1863. H. M. H." 
This raised the little query, " How much 
change did J. A. get ? or, if he did not 
receive any, then who is J. A ? " Well, 
there was, it seems, a fair at Jersey City, 
for the benefit of sick and wounded sol- 
diers ; and among other things provided 
by the benevolent ladies in charge was a 
bountiful supply of ice cream. In the 
course of the evening a well known and 
excellent gentleman called for a plate of 
the cream, ate it, and laid down a five 
hundred dollar treasury note in payment. 
The lady from whom he had procured the 
delicacy was thunderstruck — declaring her 
utter inability to make the change. " Never 
mind the change ! " said the gentleman, 
and walked away. The gentleman who 
chose this pleasant mode of contributing 
to a noble cause was Mr. John Armstrong, 
of Jersey City. 



Five Hundred Dollars for a Plate of Cream. 

A treasury note for five hundred dollars 

was sent to the United States Treasury at 

Washington, for redemption, in 1863, hav- 



Two made One : the Sergeant and the 
Daughter of the Regiment. 

The marriage of a favorite Massachu- 
setts sergeant with the " daughter of the 
regiment " constituted one of those pleas- 
ant episodes in military life which every 
body loves to witness or see chronicled. 
Says 'Carleton,' that admirable delineator, 

Six bold riflemen, clad in blue, with 
scarlet doublets over the left shoulder, and 
bearing blazing torches, six glittering 
Zouaves, with brilliant trappings sparkling 
in the light ; and then the hollow square, 
where march the bridegroom and bride ; 
then seven rows of six groomsmen in a 
row, all armed cap-a-pie, with burnished 
weapons, flashing back the lustre of the 
Zouave uniform ; and all around the grand 
regiment darkening the white tent-folds, 
as their ruddy faces were but half dis- 
closed between the red and yellow glare 
of the fires, and the soft, silver light of the 
May moon. 



528 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



Marching thus, preceded by the two 
files of sixes, and followed by the glitter- 
ing rows of groomsmen, the little cortege 
moved out of the great tent on the edge 
of the circle, and went slowly, amid the 
bold strains of the " Midsummer Night's 
Dream," toward the regimental chaplain. 

The bride was fair-haired, blue-eyed, 
rosy-cheeked, dai'kened in their hue by 
exposure to the sun, and in just the dress 
worn by les jilles du regiment. She was 
formed in that athletic mould which dis- 
tinguishes the Amazon from her opposite 
extreme of frailty. She was, in a word, 
a young girl apparently about eighteen 
years of age, with clear, courageous eye, 
quivering lip, and soldierly tread. 

The bridegroom was of the same san- 
guine, Germanic temperament, as the 
bride, and full six feet in height ; dress — a 
cocked hat, with blue plume, dark blue 
frock, with bright scarlet blanket, tartan 
fashion over the shoulder, and small sword, 
— looking every inch a hero. And there 
they stood before the regimental chaplain, 
with his robe and surplice and great book, 
amid the stare of a thousand anxious 
hearts, and to the music of glorious old 
Mendelsohn. The music ceased ; and then 
a silence, succeeded by the clear voice of 
the preacher — a few short words, a few 
heart-felt prayers, the formal legal ceremo- 
nial, and the happy "amen." It was done. 
The pair were man and wife. The grooms- 
people formed a hollow square around the 
newly-wedded couple. In one corner a 
gateway Avas left for the entrance of the 
men. Then came one by one the mem- 
bers of that troop, with a kind word each, 
as each touched the bride lightly on the 
cheek, and grasped the bridegroom heartily 
by the hand — of one the sworn fathers, 
of the other the friends and brothers, com- 
rades in arms. 

The drums rolled forth a^ain ! 



Anna Manley, the Baltimore Heroine. 
The band of the Sixth Massachusetts 
regiment that left Boston, numbered twen- 



ty-four men, who, with their musical in- 
struments, occupied a car by themselves 
from Philadelphia to Baltimore. By some 
accident, this car got switched oft* at Can- 
ton Depot, so that instead of being the 
first, it was left in the rear of all .the 
others, and after the attack had been made 
by the mob tupon the soldiers, they came 
furiously upon this car of unarmed men, 
assailing them violently with stones and 
other missiles, wounding some severely, 
and demolishing their instruments. Some 
of the miscreants jumped upon the roof 
of the car, and, with a bar of iron, beat -a 
hole through it, while others called for 
powder to blow the whole concern up. 
The poor fellows had now to jump out 
and meet their fiendish assailants hand to 
hand. They were at once stoned furiously, 
and ran swiftly through the crowd, fight- 
ing their w T ay along, and going they knew 
not where. As they were thus fleeing at 
random through the streets, a rough look- 
ing man suddenly jumped in front of their 
leader, and exclaimed, " This way, boys ! 
this way ! " 

It was the first friendly voice they had 
heard since entering Baltimore ; their new 
guide took them up a nari'ow court, where 
they found an open door, into which they 
rushed, being met inside by a powerful 
looking woman, who grasped each one by 
the hand and directed them up stairs. 
The last of their number was knocked 
senseless just as he was entering the door, 
by a stone, which struck him on the head, 
but the woman who had welcomed them, 
immediately caught up their fallen com- 
rade, and carried him in her arms up the 
stairs. 

" You are perfectly safe here, hoys" said 
the Amazon, who directly proceeded to wash 
and bind up their wounds. After having 
done this she procured them food, and then 
told them to strip off their uniforms, and 
put on the clothes she had brought them, 
— a motley assortment of baize jackets, 
ragged coats, and old trowsers. Thus 
equipped, they were enabled to go out in 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



529 



search of their companions, without clan- 
ger of attack from the Plug Uglies and 
Blood Tubs. 

They then learned the particulars of 
the attack on the soldiers and of their 
escape, and saw lying at the station the 
two men who had been killed, and the 
others that were wounded. On going 
back to the house where they were so 
humanely treated, they found that their 
clothes had been carefully tied up, and 
with their battered instruments had been 
sent to the depot of the Philadelphia rail- 
road, where they were advised to go 
themselves. They did not long hesitate, 
but started in the next train, and arrived 
in Philadelphia just in time to meet the 
Eighth regiment of Massachusetts Volun- 
teers, under command of General Butler, 
who told them to hasten back to the Old 
Bay State to show their battered faces and 
broken limbs, and that they should yet 
come back and play " Hail Columbia " in 
the streets of Baltimore, where they had 
been so inhumanly assaulted. 

The noble-hearted woman who rescued 
these men, dressed their wounds, fed them 
at her own cost, and sent them back in safe- 
ty to their homes, was a well-known public 
character in Baltimore — an outcast, accord- 
ing to the verdict of Christian society; but 
she was a true heroine, nevertheless, and 
entitled to the grateful consideration of 
the country. "Anna Mauley" is the name 
by which she has been known in the city 
of Blood Tubs. 



Love and Treason. 

A young man, belonging to one of the 
Tennessee regiments — he held the rank 
of First Lieutenant in his company — re- 
ceived a mortal wound in the Fort Donel- 
son conflict. This young officer was a 
native of Harrisburg, Penn., and had re- 
sided there until the autumn of 1859, 
when he went to Columbia, Tenn., and 
there engaged in the practice of law with 
considerable success. 

While in Tennessee he became ac- 
33 



quainted with and enamored of a young 
lady of culture and fortune, a distant rela- 
tive of General Pillow, and was soon en- 
gaged to marry her. The love-stream of 
the young couple flowed smoothly enough 
until the fall of Sumter and the secession 
of Tennessee, when the affianced husband, 
a strong advocate for the Union, returned 
home, designing to wed after the troubles 
w r ere over. The betrothed pair corres- 
ponded regularly ; but, some weeks after 
the lover had gone to Harrisburg, the girL, 
who had suddenly grown a violent seces- 
sionist, informed him that she woidd not 
become his wife unless he would enlist in 
the rebel service and fight for the inde- 
pendence of the South. 

The young man was exceedingly loth 
to take such a course, and remonstrated 
with his beloved to no purpose, — and at 
last, in the blindness of his attachment, 
and the goading selfishness of passion, he 
informed his parents of his intention to 
win his mistress on the tented field ; the 
field of his country's enemies. In vain 
they endeavored to dissuade him from 
such a resolution. He went to Tennessee, 
raised a company, received the congratu- 
lations of his traitorous friends, and the 
copious caresses of his chai'ming tempter. 

The Lieutenant proceeded to Donelson, 
in December, and, a few clays before the 
fight, heard that his betrothed was the wife 
of another! His heart had never been in 
the cause, though it was in another's keep- 
ing ; and, stung by remorse, and crushed 
by the perfidy of his mistress, he had no 
desire to live. Unwilling to desert on the 
field of battle the cause he had embraced, 
lest he might be charged with cowardice, 
he resolved to lose that existence that had 
become unbearable to him ; and in the 
thickest of the fight, while seeking death 
without endeavoring to inflict it, he re- 
ceived a mortal wound. 

Those who have not read "Edmund 
Kirke's " marvelous delineations of life 
and character in the midst of " the institu- 
tion," have yet to feast themselves from 



530 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



one of the rarest of literary dishes yet 
served up. ' Uncle Tom's Cabin ' can not 
compare with it in point of originality, 
freshness, pathos, and sparkling narrative ; 
and the same remark is applicable to his 
later sketches of the scenes and localities 
of the war. 



Flowers from Lowly Hands for the Fallen 
Brave. 

The killing of the brave and accom- 
plished Captain Howard Dwight, by the 
hands of guerrillas, was an event which 
brought sorrow to many a heart, and de- 
prived the nation of one of the most gal- 
lant and trusty officers. After he fell, his 
body was taken to New Orleans, and borne 
to his former residence there, to await the 
departure of a steamer which should trans- 
port it to his home in Massachusetts. A 
guard of men detailed for the purpose, 
from the Forty-seventh Massachusetts 
regiment of volunteers, was placed around 
the house both day and night. 

The brother and immediate friends of 
the deceased wrapped the coffin in the 
American flag, and covered it with flowers. 
These arrangements being concluded, they 
left the apartment and retired for the 
night. When, on the next morning, the 
afflicted brother entered the room again, a 
scene presented itself which showed that 
there were others besides the immediate 
friends who sought to pay their tribute 
of respect to the memory of the fallen 
hero. 

Members of " the Union Association of 
Colored Women" had visited the room 
early in the morning. They had brought 
white linen with which they had covered 
the furniture of the room, and upon which 
they had sewed green leaves. They had 
filled the room and covered the coffin with 
the freshest and sweetest flowers, made 
into wreaths and bouquets. They had 
made the scene one upon which the eye 
rested with delight. Each morning this 
labor of love was repeated. At each re- 
turning dawn the faded flowers of the pre- 



vious day were removed, and those of fresh 
beauty and fragrance took their place. 

Before Lieutenant Dwight left New 
Orleans, on his sad mission, he attempted 
to express his thanks to those who had 
shown such tender care for him whom he 
mourned. He therefore said to one of 
their number, in tender gratitude for their 
loving offices to the departed : 

" I want to thank you, but I know not 
how to express my thanks." 

" You owe us no thanks," was the reply ; 
" Who are your friends, if we are not. All 
we ask of you is, that when you go home, 
you will tell the northern people how we 
feel, and say to them that we want our 
husbands and our sons to be allowed t<? 
fight in this war." 



Medicinal Properties of Blankets Gloriously 
Illustrated. 

In the month of December, 1863, a 
Vermont regiment was encamped beyond 
Arlington Heights, in Virginia. The men 
of the regiment were brawny and robust, 
but protracted exposure had occasioned an 
unusual degree of sickness among them ; 
and application was made to the Sanitary 
Commission for supplies, medical and oth- 
erwise. The regiment, for some cause, 
had never been supplied with blankets, 
and many of the sick were consequently 
destitute of the most necessary protection 
from the cold. The wants of the men 
once discovered to the Sanitary Commis- 
sion, arrangements were immediately made 
to supply them, and in a day or two one 
hundred and fifty blankets were forward- 
ed ; blankets made and given, most of 
them, by the wives and sisters of volun- 
teers. 

In this regiment was a private — An- 
drews, he may be called, — a large, stal- 
wart fellow, who had been broken down 
by severe service, and Avas considered by 
all as beyond hope of recovery. He 
had behaved with marked bravery in eve- 
ry engagement in which his regiment had 
participated, and was a universal favorite 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



531 



among his comrades. Though naturally- 
courageous and stout hearted, his physical 
prostration had seriously affected his mind, 
and he was full of despondency, expecting 
momentarily to die.. When the supplies 
of the Sanitary Commission were con- 
veyed to the camp, the condition of this 
man was brought particularly to the atten- 
tion of the agent having them in charge. 
He, full of sympathy for the suffering fel- 
low, provided him Avith all possible com- 
forts, such as fruits, medicines, and agree- 
able food, adding to his supplies a sick 
blanket, which he carefully folded over 
the patient, as he lay on his hard, board 
bed. The following day, visiting the reg- 
imental camp a second time, the agent was 
met by the Colonel Avith the information 
that Andrews was much better, and prom- 
ised, after all, to recover. 

" Would you believe it," said the Colo- 
nel,*" the sight of that blanket seemed to 
bring the fellow right back to life ; his 
whole manner brightened ; his very fin- 
gers grew nettlesome, clutching the blank- 
et with a very ecstacy of delight." 

The agent hurried to the sick man's 
tent, and found him, indeed, vastly im- 
proved. His face brightened as the agent 
approached, but he did not take his gaze 
from the blankets. Presently, pointing 
with his long, thin finger to a comer of 
the blanket, he whispered — 

" That, Sir, has been better medicine 
than all your hospital stuff. It has put 
new life into my veins ; if I'm ever a well 
man it'll be because God sent me this 
blanket." 

The story of that blanket was a simple 
and yet a surprising one. It had been 
made by the soldier's own tvife, living, far 
away among the Vermont hills, and had 
been sent with other contributions from 
the same neighborhood to the Sanitary 
Commission. The woman was poor, her 
home was humble, but she had a true 
heart, and having nothing else to give she 
had actually cut up the silk dress in which 
she was married, and applied it to the 



purpose in question. On one corner she 
had marked her name, and with that mark 
only had sent it on its mission, little 
dreaming what coincidence would attend 
that mission. The blanket, laid with ten- 
der hands over the soldier, immediately 
caught his eye ; the material seemed fa- 
miliar ; he had certainly seen it before, 
and that thought roused his whole nature. 
Presently, pulling up the corners to his 
face — he was too weak to raise himself — 
and passing the whole slowly before his 
eyes, he saw the name dearer to him than 
all the world besides ! In an instant the 
whole story of her sacrifice for the sol- 
diers' sake was daguerreotyped upon his 
thought. What wonder that, under the 
flood of memories which that moment 
came over him, sweeping away all thoughts 
of self, all despondency and gloom, he 
grew hopeful again, realizing that he still 
had something to live for, and work to 
do — and all because of this precious gift ; 
a tonic which strengthened and saved him 
when nothing else, it may be, could have 
brought him safely through. 

Yes ! Andrews recovered ; and to his 
dying day undoubtedly he will be a be- 
liever in the medicinal qualities of blank- 
ets. 

We know not the source of the above 
most touching narration, but it sounds so 
much like the beautiful and winsome de- 
lineations penned by Mr. Coffin, (" Carle- 
ton,") author of that widely circulated 
work " Days and Nights on the Battle- 
field," — contributed to the Boston Jour- 
nal — that we may safely cite that graphi- 
cally written volume as the repository of 
" more of the same sort." 



Dalliance and Treachery.— Lieutenant H. 
and. Mrs. C. 

While the Federal army ' lay before 
Fredericksburg, in the early part of De- 
cember, the cavalry of the Left Grand 
Division picketed the country from Dum- 
fries toward the Rappahannock. The line 
had been marked out by a staff officer, 



532 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



whose judgment in such matters was very 
questionable, and only the most incessant 
watchfulness could secure the advance 
posts from surprise and capture. A mul- 
titude of woodland roads diverged in 
every direction, so that cavalry forces 
Could easily get into the rear of the 




Dalliance and Treachery. 

posts. The only thing was to be ready 
to take advantage of the same intricacy 
to escape, and give the alarm. Every 
man must be alert to mount and fight and 
retreat at a moment's notice. Weapons 
must be at hand, and girths kept tight 
enough for service. 

Under these circumstances, Lieutenant 
Jacob II — , with sixteen men, was posted 
on the road leading from Stafford to Dum- 
fries ; his Captain, with even a smaller 
party, taking a position to support him. 
Now, there happened to live on that road 
close to picket head-quarters, a certain 
Mrs. C — , the wife of a Captain in the 
rebel artillery. This lady was young, and 
attractive enough to poor fellows in the 
army, cut off from all the charms of femi- 
nine society during most of the time. 
Then she was by necessity " a grass 
widow," and by inclination seemed ready 



to assume all the privileges of actual 
widowhood. 

So, like a spider waiting for prey, she 
dwelt there in her house, "watching the 
movements of the Union soldiers. 

Presently Jacob, who had been loiter- 
ing round, thought that he had better see 
who lived in that house, and went gal- 
lantly up the hill. Mrs. C. was all smirks 
and courtesy. She did not deny that she 
was Southern in heart. Her husband was 
in the Southern army, and she thought he 
Avas right in being there. But it was 
hard for a poor lonely woman ; and the 
soldiers were so rude. She would feel so 
much obliged if Lieutenant II. would pro- 
tect her. She would be very happy if he 
could take his meals at her house, for then 
the men would feel that they must not 
disturb her, and she was sure that a gen- 
theman of Lieutenant H.'s appearance 
and manners would see that no harm was 
done. The poor foolish fly thought the 
spider a very charming creature, and could 
not see the web into which he was blun- 
dering. He accepted the invitation most 
cordially, thinking that he must certainly 
have produced an impression. With 
an air of hospitality, Mrs. C. then ordered 
her horse to be saddled, telling II. that she 
would go at once and provide a pair of 
chickens for dinner, her own having been 
all stolen. IT. had already arrived at that 
point when he could see no objection to 
any thing which she proposed; and, in 
the meantime, he kept up an animated 
conversation, saying many tender things, 
and casting many enamored glances at his 
hostess. Of course he tangled himself 
more and more in the web, letting her 
find out just what she wished to know, — 
she need not be afraid, — she would not 
meet any Federal troops ; his were the only 
ones in that neighborhood, and his pickets 
were placed in such and such directions. 
So she rode off, and he returned to his 
post. While he was thus away, his men, 
as will always be the case when an officer 
is not attentive, had removed their weap- 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PEISON, ETC 



533 



ons, and some had even taken off their 
saddles. H.'s mind was too much engaged 
in thinking about the lady to take notice 
of things relating to his duty, and when 
his Captain rode up to visit the post he 
found every thing in this careless state. 
H. forthwith received a stern reprimand, 
and a peremptory order to see that his 
men kept armed, and their horses were 
saddled. For this time he obeyed the 
order ; but by the time two reliefs had 
gone round all was again in the same con- 
dition. 

What the fascinating Mrs. C. had been 
doing may easily be conjectured. She 
had only to take a short ride to her neigh- 
bors, get the chickens, let fall information 
of the Federal disposition, and return 
home as innocently as could be. The 
chickens had not been picked, however, 
before a clever negro was making his way 
with a note to the advance post of Gen- 
eral Hampton. The chickens were very 
tender, the lady tenderer, the Lieutenant 
tenderest of all. He sat for some time 
after dinner, describing his military career, 
his hopes and disappointments, meeting 
with a delicate sympathy which he had 
never before received. When they part- 
ed it was only to be till tea time, when 
the lady promised him some music. Alas ! 
Jacob, even if he had had brains enough 
to think of his responsibilities, would have 
run the risk of capture in order to enjoy 
the society of a lady who evidently appre- 
ciated his excellent qualities far better 
than the vulgar souls with whom he asso- 
ciated in the regiment. He had met with 
a congenial spirit, and he looked forward 
with delight to his three days of picket 
duty, from which he was generally inclined 
to hang back. He went over in thought 
all that he had said, and all that she had 
replied, and constructed an imaginary 
conversation for the evening which would 
be still more delightful. He wondered 
what songs she would sing, and thought 
of the comments he could subjoin to the 
most sentimental. In short, without know- 



ing it, Jacob was already in love. The 
fly had got fatally entangled in love. 

As he walked up to that supper an old 
colored woman met him at the door. 

" Oh, massa ! " she whispered, " don't go 
in da. Our sodgers come and catch you, 
shu' ! " 

" "What's that silly creature saying ? " 
said her mistress, who had slipped out and 
overheard her speech : " She is always 
fancying the Southern troops are coming 
to light you, ever since she was scared at 
Dumfries some time ago. I have been 
waiting for you, and it is very ungallant 
in you to prefer her conversation to 
mine ! " 

H. hurried in, and was soon sipping 
coffee, and thinking of nectar — though it 
had come from his own haversack origi- 
nally. The piano was then enlisted in 
the service, and Mrs. C. was singing some 
of her sweetest songs with much expres- 
sion. Suddenly she began to play a 
march with the full power of the instru- 
ment ; and it was not until some minutes 
had passed by that H. distinguished 
through the music the sound of the gal- 
loping of horse. Unfortunate Jacob! 
His sword was in the supper room, where 
he had left it as he sat down. He rushed 
for it, and bearing it in his hand made for 
the door. 

" I will trouble you for that ! " said a 
manly voice. 

Poor Jacob had to render his weapon 
up to an officer in Confederate uniform 
who stood upon the threshold. Then, oh 
bitter mortification ! he witnessed the 
charming Mrs. C. rush from the parlor 
into this officer's arms ; and he gnashed 
his teeth as several unmistakable kisses 
were given by those lips which had ut- 
tered such gentle sounds for him but a 
little while before ! Could he believe his 
eyes and ears ? She was actually laugh- 
ing at him, joined by her husband ! 

" Take good care of him, Charlie ! " 
she said : " You don't know how danger- 
ous I found him." 



534 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



And the aforesaid Charlie, bowing very 
low, thanked him in a tone of mock cour- 
tesy for the attention he had paid his 
wife ; assuring him that he would repay 
it by carrying him on a little visit to his 
own camp. Poor Jacob was overwhelmed 
by these unexpected ' courtesies,' and 
could not find a word to reply. He was 
led off like a lamb ; and, escorted by 
three hundred Southern cavalry, made his 
first reconnoissance of his own picket 
line. What was worse, on being ex- 
changed he found that he had been summa- 
rily dismissed from service, with loss of 
all pay and allowances ; and he had 
nothing afterward to do but to murmur at 
the injustice of the Government and the 
treachery of Southern women. 



est care, re-adjusted the cape of his coat 
over his head, and supported him to the 
sidewalk. The last seen of the stranger 
he was conducting the poor soldier down 
that street. God bless him. He was a 
noble specimen of the noble legions in the 
glorious Empire State, who, under the 
lead of that true hearted man, Governor 
Morgan, gave their treasure and blood to 
save the nation's life, and made their 
names memorable in the annals of victo- 
rious warfare. All honor to such a State 
— to her good Samaritans and soldiers — 
to her noble rulers ! 



Samaritanism of the Genuine Type. 
The " good Samaritan " is often heard 
of. He made his appearance one day in 
a Jersey ferry omnibus, New York City, 
under the following circumstances. On 
one side of the vehicle, near the door, 
there was a sick soldier. Very ill, wan, 
and emaciated he looked, with dark circles 
round his eyes, and the cape of his over- 
coat put up over his cap to keep off any 
breath of air, while his thin hands were 
bare to the winter cold. Some one got 
out who sat next him ; immediately the 
place was taken by a man from the oppo- 
site side, who at once pulled off his own 
warm gloves and handed them to the sol- 
dier. The latter feebly attempted to de- 
cline them, but the other insisted, and he 
gratefully put them on, and looked at his 
well covered hands with a sigh of satis- 
faction. The man, (the Samaritan,) was 
a plain, quiet looking person, and did the 
little act of kindness without the slightest 
ostentation, as if it were purely a matter 
of course with him to clothe the naked. 
Nor was this all ; he asked where the sol- 
dier was going. The reply was, Albany.' 
At the corner of Warren street the good 
man got down and deliberately lifted the 
poor fellow out in his arms with the great- 




Gov. E. D Morgan, New York. 



"Ah, Mother— Mother ! I knew you would 
Come ! " 

The condition of the sick and wounded 
in Nashville, Tenn., before the occupation 
of that city by the National troops, was 
wretched in the extreme. The hospitals 
were filled, the surgeons worn out, and 
death everywhere stalked rampant, with 
neither food nor medicine to bar his ap- 
proach. 

On one of the beds there lay a young 
officer, burning with fever. He had evi- 
dently been delicately nurtured, and his 
bright eyes were fixed with a diseased, 
unnatural lustre, upon the miniature of a 
regal-looking woman, which he held in his 
hectic, wasted hands, his hot purple lips 
all the while murmuring, " Mother, moth- 
er!" He was covered with a single 



D03IESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



535 



blanket — enough as long as disease was 
burning in his veins of fire — and his 
head rolled from side to side uneasily with 
the intense pain, vainly trying to find re- 
lief or rest, on the hard, unyielding knap- 
sack, which was his only pillow ; an attend- 
ant knelt by him and bathed his face with 
some water, while one of the gray-robed 
ladies placed a pillow under his head. At 
this the poor fellow said — 

"Ah, mother, mother! I knew you 
would come, — this is the first moment of 
comfort I have known for a week ! " 



Nuptials in Camp: Maine and Maryland. 
When the Seventh Maine regiment 
were encamped in Baltimore, in the sum- 
mer of 1861, one of the soldiers, named 
Clapp, fell in love with a young girl who 
used to peddle apples to the ' boys,' and 
promised to marry her. Her mother con- 
sented, but about the time set for the mar- 
riage the regiment left the place. After 
they had been in their new location, on the 
Potomac, about three weeks, who should 
come into camp one day but Clapp's girl! 
After a week or so the captain of Clapp's 
company gave his consent, and they were 
married and had a tent to themselves. 
But she was a foolish thing, and after a 
while the Colonel and Captain wanted to 
get rid of her. It happened that Clapp, 
was one of the men detached from his reg- 
iment to go on board the "Western gun- 
boats. So his wife packed up and was 
going back to Baltimore. But, as luck 
would have it, when Clapp presented him- 
self at head-quarters, they wouldn't accept 
him, and sent him back to camp. When 
the time came for the regiment to leave 
camp, and it started on the advance, they 
all supposed that was the last they should 
see of the soldier's girl. But one fine day 
who should march into camp at its new 
quarters but Mrs. Clapp, dressed in full 
military suit, with knapsack on her back, 
and canteen and haversack by her side ! 
She was indeed a romantic feminine on a 
' bender.' Her disguise was seen through 
at once, and she was sent to the guard 



house, to be from there sent back to Wash- 
ington. 



Sixth Massachusetts Regiment's Daughter. 

Little Miss Lizzie, the Daughter of the 
Massachusetts Sixth Regiment, looked 
charmingly in her regimental costume, as 
" the child," and was an object of most 
peculiar interest to all who had an oppor- 
tunity of observing her pretty form and 
features amid such novel surroundings. 
She was but ten years old, yet from the 
time of her first appearance in camp, she 
proved a great comfort to the soldiers in 
the hospital, visiting them daily, and dis- 
pensing among the unfortunate many a 
little delicacy, as well as going frequently 
through the streets of the camp with straw- 
berries, cherries, etc. Sometimes she dis- 
tributed as many as sixteen boxes to a 
company — the market-man, of course, 
driving his cart to each tent. 

The presentation speech accompanying 
the gift of the uniform, was made by Ser- 
geant Crowley, of Lowell. The " Daugh- 
ter " took the box containing the dress, 
and, with canteen upon her person, she 
tripped lightly into the ' hospital ' that was 
close at hand, and in a few moments ap- 
peared in her new and beautiful attire. 
Standing upon the green, with the beauti- 
ful silk banners on each side, she addressed 
the regiment as follows : — 

" Comrades — when you took me, a stran- 
ger, and adopted me as your daughter, I 
had but little idea of what you were doing, 
and what my duties were ; but having 
been in camp with you two months, and 
learned to know you all, I have learned 
to love you all, and I feel that you all love 
me, because there are none of you when we 
meet but have a kind word and a pleasant 
smile for me. And now that you have put 
me in uniform, I feel still more that I belong 
to you, and I will try never to forget it. But 
you do not expect me to talk, but, like this 
splendid treasure, which I shall prize as a 
remembrance to the last day of my life — 
which is full to relieve the parched lips, 
of my sick and wounded comrades — so- 



536 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



shall my heart be a canteen full of love and 
sympathy for each and all of you. Com- 
rades, thank you — thank you — thank you." 
The little daughter delivered the speech 
in a very clear and distinct manner, and 
at its conclusion the regiment gave her 
three cheers and a " tiger," and escorted 
her to head-quarters. 



Amours and Fancies of the Camp. 
Shortly after the arrival of a certain 
Union regiment in the suburbs of Martins- 
burg, Va., the squad messing in one of the 
tents near a dwelling, were listeners to 
most beautiful music. The unknown vo- 
calist sang in tones so soft, so pathetic, 
and so melodious, that the volunteers 
strained their ears to drink in every note 
of the air. In daytime they went by 
squads past the dwelling, but saw no soul. 
Once they pursued a sylph-like figure to 
the very gate, but, alas ! she was not the 
lady sought for. And so they lived on, 
each night hearing the music repeated, 




p 




1 ' 'l 




■ 1 




1 


j&T'' 








, ' 






i 



" By jove," said one, " this is agonizing. 
I can't stand it. She must be discovered ! " 

A dozen eager voices took up the re- 
mark, and a certain amorous youth was 
delegated to reconnoiter the place. He 
crept on tiptoe toward the dwelling, leaped 
the garden pales, and finally, undiscovered, 
but very pallid and remorseful, gained the 
casement. 

Softly raising his head, he peeped within. 
The room was full of the music. He 
seemed to grow blind for the moment. 

Lo ! prone upon the kitchen hearth, 
sat the mysterious songstress — an ebony- 
hued negress, scouring the tin kettles ! 

The soldier's limbs sank beneath him, 
and the discovered, looking up, said, " Go 
'way dar, won't ye, or I'll shy de fiyin' 
pan out o' de winder ! " The soldier left 
— but not to dream, perchance ! 




Amours and Fancies of the Camp. 



Contempt for Confederate Lines, Paroles, etc. 
The heroic conduct of Mrs. Ricketts, 
the wife of Captain James B. Ricketts, 
who was severely wounded at the battle 
of Bull Run, became the theme of much 
and deserved praise. Mrs. Ricketts pushed 
through the Confederate lines alone when 
she heard that her husband was captured 
by the enemy, and took her place with him 
in the hospital, remaining there with wo- 
man's patience and constancy. When she 
arrived in Richmond, General Stuart asked 
her to sign a parole of honor. She con- 
temptously refused. He persisted in writ- 
ing it and handed her the document. She 
tore it up instantly, and carried the frag- 
ments to her husband. When Captain 
Ricketts was carried to Richmond, crowds 
flocked to see the brave commander of 
" Sherman's Battery," as they were accus- 
tomed to call it. 



and, when it ceased, ambition and worldly Mrs. Douglas's Noble Resistance to Southern 
interest went out with them so that their ' Persuasion. 



dreams were filled with fancies of the un- 
seen face. 



It could very safely be asserted that 
few persons of the female sex were placed 
One night, gathered together, the voice ' in a more trying political and personal po- 
struck up again. I sition, or sacrificed more in the way of 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



537 



devotion to the Union, than did Mrs. 
Douglas, the widow of the great deceased 
Illinois Senator. She persistently refused 
to entertain the proposition forwarded to 
her by a special messenger under a flag 
of truce from the Governor of North 
Carolina, asking that the two sons of the 
late Senator — by his first marriage — be 
sent South to save their extensive estates 
in Mississippi from confiscation. If she 
refused, a large property would be taken 
from the children, and, in view of her Qwn 
reduced circumstances, they might thus 
eventually be placed in a straitened pe- 
cuniary situation. Here, then, was an 
appeal made directly to her tender regard 
for them, which, in case of her refusal, 
would work disastrously against them in 
afier years. But her answer was worthy 
of herself and of her late distinguished 
husband, viz., ' If the rebels wish to make 
war upon defenceless children, and take 
away the all of little orphan boys, it must 
be so ; but she could not for an instant 
think of surrendering them to the enemies 
of their country and of their father.' His 
last Avords were, ' Tell them to obey the 
Constitution and the laws of the country,' 
and Mrs. Douglas would not make her- 
self the instrument of disobeying his 
dying injunctions. The children, she said, 
belonged to Illinois, and must remain in 
the North. 



Verbal Sharpshooting-. 

"Are you a Massachusetts soldier!" 
said a woman elegantly dressed, in Balti- 
more, to one wearing the Federal uniform. 

" I am, madam," was the courteous an- 
swer of the officer thus addressed. 

" "Well, thank God, my husband is in 
the Southern army, ready to kill such hire- 
lings as you ! " 

" Do you not miss him, madam I " said 
the officer. 

" Oh, yes, I miss him a good deal." 

" Very well, madam, we are going South 
in a few days, and will try to find him and 
bring him back here with his companion-." 



" You are from that miserable Boston," 
was the angry reply, " I suppose, where 
there is nothing but mob law, and they 
burned down the Ursuline Convent — the 
Puritan bigots ! " 

" Some such thing did happen in 
Charlestown, many years ago, when I was 
a boy, — at least I have heard so, and am 
very sorry for it. But can you tell me 
what street that is ? " 

"Pratt street," was the unsuspecting 
reply. 

" What happened there, madam, on the 
\§th of April this very year?" 

He got no answer from the angry seces- 
sionist, but the loud shouts which went up 
from the Union bystanders, who generally, 
though not exclusively, were of the hum- 
ble order, atoned for her silence. The 
same officer, riding in a chaise with a gen- 
tleman who, to his surprise, showed se- 
cession proclivities, but was courteous in 
their demonstration, was told by the gen- 
tleman that the horse which was drawing 
them was called ' JefF Davis,' in honor of 
that distinguished rebel, and asked if he 
' did not object to driving such a horse ? ' 
' Oh, no, sir,' was the instant reply, ' to 
drive JefF. Davis is the very purpose of 
our coming South.' The secession gentle- 
man imitated his political sister in preserv- 
ing a discreet silence. 



The TJnuttered Thought of a Dying Soldier. 

" Bring me my knapsack," said a young 
soldier, who lay sick in one of the hos- 
pitals at Washington, — " Bring me my 
knapsack." 

" What do you want of your knapsack ? " 
inquired the head lady of the band of 
nurses. 

" I want my knapsack," again said the 
dying young man. 

His knapsack was brought to him, and, 
as he took it, his eye gleamed with pleas- 
ure, and his face was covered all over 
with a smile, as he brought out from it his 
hidden treasures. 

" There," said he, " that is a Bible from 



538 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



my mother. And this — Washington's 
Farewell Address — is the gift of my 
father. And this," — his voice failed. 

The nurse looked down to see what it 
was, and there was the face of a beauti- 
ful maiden. 

" Now," said the dying soldier, " I want 
you to put all these under my pillow." 
She did as she was requested, and the poor 
young man laid him down on them to die, 
requesting that they should be sent to his 
parents when he was gone. Calm and 
joyful was he in dying. It was only going 
from night to endless day — from death to 
eternal glory. So the young soldier died. 



Spirit of a Kentucky Girl. 
Captain Claypool, living about ten miles 
from Bowling Green, was commander of a 
company of Home Guards. He had the 
guns of his company at his house, but on 
hearing of the arrival of the Confederate 
General Buckner at Bowling Green, he' 
sent them to Colonel Grider's camp in a 
neighboring county. The next day a squad, 
detached by Buckner, called at his house, 
and, finding only his daughter, demanded 
the guns of her. She answered that they 
were not there, and that, if they were, she 
wouldn't give them up. They handed her 
General Buckner's order for the weapons ; 
this she tore up instantly before their faces. 
They went to the bucket and took each a 
drink of water, whereupon she threw the 
rest of the water out of the bucket and 
commenced scouring the dipper. They con- 
cluded they could do no better than to go 
back and tell their General about their 
adventure and get fresh instructions. 



Laughable Arrest of Colonel H. by Two 

Young- Ladies. 

■ 

While secessionism was so rampant in 
Kentucky, about the first year of the re- 
bellion, the daughter and niece of Colonel 

H , an influential man in that region, 

concluded that the^s would have a little 
fun in the politico-military line. To carry 
out their plan, they dressed themselves in 



men's apparel, procured an old shot gun, 
and proceeded to the field where the Col- 
onel was occupied. One of the girls, shot 
gun in hand, took her position a few paces 
off, while the other stepped up and laid 
her hand on him and said : 

" By the authority and in the name of 
the United States Army, I arrest you as 
guilty of treason." 

" Gentlemen, in the name of God, what 
have I done ? " said the astonished Colonel. 

He however submitted without resist- 
ance, and in reply to his question was told 
that he would learn all about the case, 
and have all things satisfactorily explained 
at Camp Chase, — which caused the Colo- 
nel to turn very white. They all walked 
silently to the house, where the children, 
being well posted in the matter, got into 
a titter. This soon caused a loud burst 
of laughter from all hands except the 
Colonel, who was very belligerent when 
he found that he had actually been arrested 
by two young ladies, his daughter and 

niece. 

♦ 

Hiding- their Infant Moses. 

Riding up to a house one day in Scriven 
county, Georgia, during Sherman's march 
through that State, a Union soldier met an 
old woman and three grown-up daughters 
at the door, uttering frantic appeals for 
help. On inquiring of the old Avoman 
what was wrong, she pointed to a burning 
cotton-gin, and exclaimed, 

" Put it out ! You uns are burnin' me 
child ! " 

On asking where the child was, the 
soldier succeeded in learning that it was in 
the burning gin-house. 

Away he went, with some men, to res- 
cue the innocent, and at the door met a 
ten-year-old boy, who, badly singed, issued 
forth from the fiery furnace. Returning 
to the house, inquiry was made as to how 
and why the boy came there. 

Putting the old pipe between her lips, 
to compose her nerves, the old lady at last 
ventured an explanation :- — 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



539 



" Well," said she, " we uns heered that 
you uns killed all the little hoys, to keep 
them out from growing up to fight ye, and 
we hid 'em." 

Strange as this may seem, among the 
poor, ignorant dupes of the Southern lead- 
ers in rebellion, it was nevertheless a com- 
mon belief that the Yankees made it a 
practice to slay all the male children they 
could lay their hands upon in the South. 
In consequence of this, there were found 
many infant Moseses and Jeffs hid away 
in cellars and corncribs — though none in 
bulrushes. 



Right Word in the Itig-ht Place. 

As a large-hearted Union lady, resi- 
dent in Covington, Kentucky, wife of 
a gentleman of the same character, was 
distributing a lot of fine apples, of which 
she had a half-bushel basket full, to the 
soldiers encamped back of that city, she 
gave an apple to one soldier of a group 
who exhibited peculiar emotion as she 
handed it to him, observing at the same 
time that it was a pleasant thing to receive 
gifts from a lady. At this she asked him 
whether he had a wife, and immediately 
his eyes filled Avith tears, which rolled 
down his cheeks as he replied, 

"Yes, Madam, I have a wife and six 
children." 

Observing his emotion, her own eyes 
rapidly filling at the sight, she quickly re- 
marked to him ; 

" Well, keep up a good heart." 

" Good heart ! yes, Madam, that is my 
name ; Goodheart is my name ! " 

Upon the instant their tears were chang- 
ed to smiles, and Goodheart, the lady, and 
the soldier's companions, broke into a 

hearty laugh. 

* 

"My Son— Has he Come ?" 
There is something most touching in the 
following narration of the intensity of 
maternal sorrow and love, — a grandeur, in- 
deed, in the conduct of this poor lone 
mother, whose affection had made her mad, 



and who thus yearned for one her poor 
faded eyes could never see again. Dur- 
ing the progress of the war, her son, a 
member of one of the Connecticut regi- 
ments, was taken prisoner and confined 
with other Union soldiers at Andersonville, 
Georgia. A short time afterwards sever- 
al were exchanged. His mother, in Con- 
necticut, hearing of it, and believing that 
he was among the number, left her deso- 
late home, and went to Camp P , 

which was situated two miles from An- 
napolis, to seek her treasure among the 
boat loads landed on the Severn. She 
waited, wearily waited, day after day, for 
the coming of her boy ; but though many 
came, he was not among them. " Hope 
deferred maketh the heart sick," and so 
it was with her. Broken-hearted by con- 
stantly recurring disappointments, her 
mind, already shaken by grief, at last gave 
way, and thus months rolled away, and 
with them the events borne on the wings 
and waves of time. 

During all this period she continued to 
visit the office of Dr. Vanderkieft, the 
surgeon in charge, to ascertain whether 
any boat loads of released jirisoners had 
arrived. When, finally, the last detach- 
ment came in, she seemed overjoyed, and 
went, with throbbing heart, from skeleton 
to skeleton, scanning them eagerly, anx- 
iously. But, her son was not there ; and 
each day she went, heavy and weary in 
spirit, back to her home. The good-heart- 
ed surgeon — such he truly was — although 
he knew and had told her many times that 
her son had been officially reported as 
dead, still answered her every day with 
the same monotonous, but very kindly 
spoken, " No ! " 

Thus came this bi-oken-hearted, shatter- 
ed, but loving mother, every day, always 
provided with a shirt, a pair of drawers, 
pantaloons, boots and cap, and when in- 
formed, regularly, that her son had not 
yet arrived she would go down the grav- 
eled path across the lawn to the very end 
of the long wharf. There she stood look- 



510 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



ing over the broad waters of the Chesa- 
peake for fully an hour. Clad ever in the 
same neat dress and closely fitting bonnet, 
she would gaze wistfully, longingly, over 
the blue waste, as if her very eagerness 
would hasten on the bark she imagin- 
ed would bear back to her her child. 
But her tear-swollen eyes at last 'grew 
dim, her strength failed, and with the emp- 
ty void aching in her breast, she slowly 
and finally turned her steps from that long- 
accustomed pathway, never again to re- 
trace them, nor again to ask so piteously, 
" My son — has he come ? " 



"I am proud to Die for my Country." 
The eyes of a youth of tender years, 
by the name of Bullard, belonging to com- 
pany A, Eighth Illinois regiment, were 
closed in death one spring morning, at the 
Marine Hospital in Cincinnati, by the 
kindly hands of that noble-hearted and 
faithful woman, Mrs. Caldwell — unwea- 
ried and ever watchful in her personal at- 
tentions to the sick and wounded since the 
establishment of the " Marine " as a mil- 
itary hospital. Young Bullard was shot 
at Fort Donelson. The ball, a Minie, 
tore his breast open, and lacerated an 
artery. He bled internally as well as ex- 
ternally. At every gasp, as his end drew 
near, the blood spirted from his breast. 
He expired at nine o'clock. Early in the 
day, when he became fully aware that he 
could not live long, he showed that he 
clung to life, and Avas loth to leave it ; but 
he cried : " If I could only see my moth- 
er — if I could only see my mother before 
I die, I would be better satisfied." He 
was conscious to the last moment, almost, 
and after reminding Mrs. Caldwell that 
there were several letters for his mother 
in his portfolio, she breathed words of 
consolation to him : " You die in a glori- 
ous cause — you die for your country." 
" Yes," replied he, " I am proud to die for 
my country." 



Death Scene of a South Carolina Lieutenant. 

Late one afternoon — too late for the 
cars that were taking the Gettysburg 
wounded to the hospitals — a train of am- 
bulances arrived at one of the Lodges of 
the Sanitary Commission with one hun- 
dred rebels, to be cared for through the 
night. Only one among them seemed too 
weak and faint to take anything. He was 
badly hurt, and failing. A nurse went to 
him after his wound was dressed, and 
found him lying on his blanket stretched 
over the straw — a fair-haired, blue-eyed 
young Lieutenant ; a face innocent enough 
for one of New England's boys. He did 
not seem like a rebel against earth's best 
Government ; he was too near heaven for 
such seeming. He wanted nothing — had 
not been willing to eat for days, Ins com- 
rades said ; but the good nurse coaxed 
him to try a little milk gruel, made nicely 
with lemon and brandy, and one of the 
satisfactions of three weeks arduous ser- 
vice to that kind nurse, was the remem- 
brance of the empty cup she took away 
and his perfect enjoyment of that supper. 
He talked about " that good supper " for 
hours, and with boundless thanks ; '• it was 
so good ; the best thing he had had since 
he was wounded." 

Poor fellow ! he had had no care, and 
it was a surprise and pleasure to find him- 
self thought of; so, in a pleased, childlike 
way, he talked about it till midnight — as 
long as he spoke of anything, for at mid- 
night the change came, and from that time 
he only thought of the old days before he 
was a soldier, when he sung hymns in his 
father's church. He sung them now again 
in a clear, sweet voice : " Lord have mer- 
cy upon me ; " and those songs without 
words — a sort of a low intoning. His 
father was a Lutheran clergyman in South 
Carolina, so a comrade said, on the morn- 
ing when the brave but unfortunate youth 
was sliding gently from all earthly care. 

All day long the attendants watched 
him, — sometimes fighting his battles over, 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



541 



after singing his Lutheran chants, till in 
the tent door, close to which he lay, look- 
ed a rebel soldier, just arrived with other 
prisoners. He started when he saw the 
Lieutenant, and quickly kneeling down 
by him, called " Henry ! Henry ! " But 
Henry was looking fixedly at some one a 
great way off, and could not hear him, 
" Do you know this soldier ? " he was ask- 
ed by the nurse. " Oh, yes, ma'am ; and 
his brother is wounded and a prisoner, 
too, in the cars, now.'' Two or three men 
stalled after him, found him, and carried 
him from the cars to the tent. Henry did 
not know him though ; and he threw him- 
self clown by his side on the straw, and 
for the rest of the clay lay in a sort of 
apathy, without speaking, except to assure 
himself that he could stay with his broth- 
er, without the risk of being separated 
from his fellow prisoners. 

Those who would read the most spirit- 
ed narratives portraying Southern bravery, 
will find Mr. Orville J. Victor's ' History 
of the Southern Rebellion,' a work of in- 
comparable value, presenting as it does 
every noteworthy occurrence with the skill 
of an accomplished historian, and in the 
best literary dress, — being accepted also 
as an authoritative work, both North and 
South, in respect to the Southern side of 
the great struggle — its military and politi- 
cal bearings, — by the pen of a Southern 
sympathizer. 



Paducah. Whilst there, three of King's 
robbing band visited the house, demanded 
the gun, and alarmed Mrs. Bassford, who 
ordered a son some fifteen years old, to 
find the gun and deliver it over. The 
boy, after considerable search, found the 
gun ; the robbers then demanded a pistol, 
which they were informed belonged in the 
family, whereupon the above-named 
daughter told them she knew where the 
pistol was, but they could not get it. The 




' Sweet Seventeen " overhauling the Seces- 
sionists. 

A noble and well nigh tragical act was 

perpetrated in the spring of 1862, by a 

young lad)' of Graves County, Kentucky, 

— Miss Anna Bassford, a gentle creature 

of seventeen rosy summers. Her father 

and family were devotedly for the Union. 

The old man having information that the 

notorious H. C. King, expelled from the 

Kentucky legislature for treason, and his 

robber band intended to visit the house 

for the purpose of taking horses, guns, 

etc., hid the gun and carried the horses to 



Sweet Seventeen Overhauling the Secessionists. 

robbers insisted, with loud, vulgar oaths, 
but the girl was determined. Seeing they 
were foiled in this, they ordered the feeble, 
sickly boy, to mount up behind one of their 
clan, as ' they intended to take him to 
Camp Beauregard in place of his — Lincoln- 
ite father.' The boy and mother in teai'S 
protested, but to no effect, and the boy was 
in the act of mounting, when the heroic sister 
stepped between her brother and the rob- 
bers, and drawing, cocking and presenting 
the pistol, ordered her brother back to the 
house, and, with eagle-piercing eye fas- 
tened on the robbers, and death-dealing 
determination in her countenance, dared 
the scoundrels to hinder or touch her 
brother, and she would lay the robber 
dead at her feet ! There was no parley- 
ing after this utterance and attitude — the 
three brigands scampered off and left the 
family without further molestation. 



542 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Fighting 1 for his Country and Deserted by 
his Wife. 

In the pleasant little village of Wyo- 
ming Jones County, Iowa, lived a plain- 
spoken, honest farmer, J B 

hy name, who removed thither from a 
small town in Illinois, not far from the 
city of Galesburg. He had purchased a 
farm in the latter place, but the title 
proving defective he had removed to Wyo- 
ming, where the person of whom he had 
bought the land resided, and there in the 
courts of Jones Comity prosecuted his 
claim to judgment. 

Twelve years before, in the city of New 
York, he had married a blooming Celtic 
damsel and by her had been made the 
happy father of two beautiful children — 
one, a bright, intelligent boy, attained to 
his eleventh year, and another, a girl, in 
her sixth year. When he removed to 
Wyoming he took along with him a young 

man named G M , because his 

evidence was necessary to enable him to 
maintain his suit in the Iowa courts. And 
from this source came his unexpected and 
calamitous troubles. 

During the summer, B and M 



both enlisted in Company H, Fourteenth 
Iowa infantry, Colonel William Shaw 
commanding, and together went to the 

front. Soon after, M deserted, and 

B lost all track of him. After a 

considerable lapse of time, a young man 

named J C received a letter 

which covered one addressed to M , 

This was shown to B , and he and 

C concluded to break it open. Judge 

of poor B 's surprise when he found 

that it was from his own wife, breathing 
the most intense love and devotion for his 
quondam comrade. His resolution was 
soon taken. He obtained a furlough and 
returned to his home and took his wife to 
her friends, who were then in Port Sar- 
nia, Canada West. After the expiration 
of his leave of absence, he returned to 
his regiment, from which he heard from 
her but seldom. 



Just before his discharge and return he 
received a letter from his wife, dated Mar- 
quette, Michigan, in which she announced 
her intention of coming to Chicago to meet 
him. On his reaching that city, he found 
her at the Eagle Hotel, opposite the North- 
western depot. The two children he had 
left in 1861, had become three. Upon 
her bosom slumbered an infant scarcely 
nine months old, the fruit of her liaison 

with M . Mr. B was naturally 

indignant, and threatened to take the chil- 
dren and leave the woman to follow her 
evil inclinations without hindrance. By 
some means she pacified him, and induced 
him to take a glass or two of liquor, and 
he slept. While thus slumbering, the 
woman, he said, entered his chamber and 
robbed him of about three hundred dol- 
lars, the savings of his three years' ser- 
vice. With this and his two children and 
the one whose paternity he ascribed to 
M , she took the cars for Detroit, ac- 
companied by a miner from Marquette, 

named McC , in whose company she 

arrived in Chicago, and who, unknown to 

B , had stopped at the same hotel 

with her, in the assumed relation of her 
brother-in-law. 

The woman had not been long away 
before the eldest child, the lad before men- 
tioned, returned to the hotel, having es- 
caped from the custody of his mother, just 
as the cars were starting. From him the 
father learned all that was necessary to be 
known of his wife's temptation and fall. 
He said that some time after M de- 
serted he came to Wyoming, and while 
there maintained the relations of a hus- 
band with his mother. The citizens of 
that village becoming cognizant of the 
scandal, it was thought best to remove. 
They went to Marquette, Michigan, and 
opened a boarding house. Here the child, 
the fruit of their morganatic union, was 
born. He filled the place of husband to 
the woman, passing well until, tempted by 
the high price of substitutes, he sold him- 
self to a drafted man, and abandoned the 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PEISON, ETC. 



543 



woman he had taught to deviate from the 
paths of rectitude and virtue. She re- 
mained not long inconsolable, but speedily 
formed another connection with the man 
McC , with whom she went to Chi- 
cago, and under whose auspices she robbed 
her husband of his money and his child. 
The guilty pair then went to Detroit, and 
finally to Canada. 

Hare Pagre in Woman's History. 
A gentleman in Ithaca, New York, had 
an idea that women could do more with 
their needles if they did less with their 
tongues, and he therefore promised fifty 
dollars to the Sold- 
iers' aid Society of 
the village, if twelve 
women could be 
found who would sew 
all day without 
speaking. Fifteen 
candidates presented 
themselves, and, mi- 
rabile dictu, fourteen 
of them succeeded in 
keeping quiet. They 
were sorely tempted 
by various lookers 
on, but only one yield- 
ed to " woman's in- 
firmity." Heroic 
f o u r t e e n ! It is 
doubtful whether such 
an instance of female silence, in pro- 
miscuous company, was ever known be- 
fore, and the fact speaks well for the earn- 
estness and sincerity of their regard for 
the soldiers. To no stronger test could 
their patriotism have been subjected. 



ond Lieutenant in the same company ; but 
Jeb was now a Major-General, and Bay- 
ard a Brigadier. During the interview a 
wounded Union soldier lying near was 
groaning and asked for water. 

" Here, Jeb," said Bayard — old time 
recollections making him familiar, as he 
tossed his bridle to the rebel officer — 
" hold my horse a minute, will you, till I 
fetch that poor fellow some water." 

Jeb held the bridle. Bayard went to a 
stream and brought the wounded man 
some water. As Bayard mounted his 
horse, Jeb remarked that he had not for 
some time "played orderly to a Union 




" Jeb " Stuart Playing Orderly to General 
Bayard. 
During the week of battles in front of 
Washington, General Bayard went for- 
ward, under a flag of truce, to meet and 
confer with his old comrade in arms, the 
famous J. E. B. Stuart, of the rebel cav- 
alry. Less than two years previously, 
Jeb was first Lieutenant and Bayard sec- 



Castle Thunder. 

General." The business upon which they 
met was soon arranged, and the old friends 
parted — a fight, which had ceased when 
they were engaged talking, recommencing 
with great fury on both sides the moment 
each got back to his own ranks. Jeb's 
fighting against his country's flag was, 
after all, a small sin compared with his 
complicity in the horrors of Libby Prison 
and Castle Thunder — those modern bas- 
tiles, under the regime of Davis, Lee, Stu- 
art, and their myrmidons. 

Such incidents as the above, however, 
attest the old adage that ' none are so 
bad, some good redeemeth not,' and that 



544 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



even Stuart was no exception. " Miles 
O'Reilly," (the brave Colonel Halpine,) 
has told many of these good things, and 
has promised the public a volume full of 
his fresh and inimitably piquant military 
jottings, than which nothing could be more 
acceptable to the " Universal Yankee Na- 
tion." 



Racy Conversation between Mrs. Polk and 
General MitcheU on "the Situation." 

When passing through Nashville, Gen- 
eral Mitchell, in company with a number 
of other distinguished officers, called upon 
Mrs. Polk, the widow of President James 
K. Polk. The lady made no attempt to 
conceal her strong sympathies with the re- 
bellion, and singling out General Mitchell, 
said to him, 

" General, I trust this war will speedily 
terminate by the acknowledgment of 
Southern independence." 

The remark caused a lull in the conver- 
sation, and all eyes were turned to Gen- 
eral Mitchell, awaiting his response. For 
a moment he stood in silence, his lips 
firmly compressed, and then, in tones of 
deepest earnestness and solemnity, he re- 
plied : 

"Madam, the man whose name you 
bear was once President of the United 
States. He was an honest man and a 
true patriot. Ho administered the laws of 
this Government with equal justice to all. 
We know of no independence of one sec- 
tion of our country which does not belong 
to all others ; and, judging by the past, if 
the mute lips of the honored dead who 
lies so near us could speak, they would ex- 
press the hope that this war might never 
cease, if that cessation were to be pur- 
chased by the dissolution of the Union of 
States over which he once presided." 

The effect of this remark, uttered in a 
calm, yet firm and dignified tone, was 
electrical. But Mrs. Polk, nevertheless, 
on more than one occasion, avowed her- 
self true to the whole country of which 
her husband was once the elected ruler. 



Merriment in the Wrong Place. 

After one of the bloody Virginia en- 
gagements, the wounded among the Con- 
federates received all possible attention on 
the part of -the Union soldiers, though the 
want of suitable accommodations was 
sadly felt. In one of the spots to which 
the sufferers had been removed, a Federal 
soldier came along with a pail of soup to 
fill the canteens and plates, and stopping 
before a fine athletic fellow, who, it turned 
out had been married only three days pre- 
viously, said : 

" Come, pardner ! drink yer sup. Now, 
ould boy, this 'ill warm ye ; sock it down, 
and ye'll see yer sweetheart soon. You 
dead, Allybammy ? Go 'way now ! 
You'll live a hundred years — you wil ; 
that's what you'll do. Won't he, lad ? 
What ! Not any ? Get out ! You'll be 
slap on your legs next week, and have an- 
other shot at me this week a'ter that. 
Yon with the butternut trousers ! Sa-ay ! 
pardner, wake up ! " 




Embalming Building before Richmond. 

He stirred him gently with his foot : he 
bent down to touch his face — a grimness 
came over his mood of merriment; the 
man was stiff and dumb, — ready to be 
buried forever from human sight, or be 
embalmed for conveyance to his once hap- 
py home and kindred. 

^ — 

Miss Captain Taylor, of the First Ten- 
nessee. 

One of the features of the First Ten- 
nessee Regiment, was a brave and accom- 
plished young lady of but eighteen sum- 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



545 



mers, and of prepossessing appearance, 
named Sarah Taylor, of East Tennessee, 
the step-daughter of Captain Dowden, of 
the First Tennessee Regiment. Miss Tay- 
lor was an exile from home, having joined 
the fortunes of her step-father and her 
wandering companions, accompanying 
them in their perilous and dreary flight 
from their hearths and homesteads. She 
formed the determination to share Avith 
her late companions the dangers and fa- 
tigues of a military campaign ; and to 
this end, she donned a neat hlue chapeau, 
beneath which her long hair was fantasti- 
cally arranged, bearing at her side a high- 
ly finished regulation sword, and silver- 
mounted pistols in her belt, all of which 
gave her a very neat appearance. She 
became quite the idol of the Tennessee 
boys, who looked upon her as a second 
Joan of Arc, believing that victory and 
glory would perch upon the standards 
borne in the ranks favored by her pres- 
ence. Miss Captain Taylor was, indeed, 
all courage and skill. Having become an 
adept in the sword exercise, and a sure 
shot with a pistol, she determined to lead 
in the van of the march — to return her 
exiled countrymen to their homes, if it 
cost the sacrifice of her own life's blood. 

When the order was issued to the Ten- 
nesseans to march to reinforce Colonel 
Garrard, the wildest excitement pervaded 
the whole camp, Miss Taylor mounting 
her horse, and, cap in hand, galloping 
along the line like a spirit of flame, cheer- 
ing on the men. She wore a blue blouse, 
and was armed with pistols, sword and 
rifle, and the persecuted Tennesseans 
looked upon the daring girl who followed 
their fortunes through sunshine and shad- 
ow, with the tenderest feeling of venera- 
tion, and each would willingly have offered 
his life in her defence. There was but 
little sleep in the camp on Saturday night, 
so great was the joy of the men at the 
prospect of meeting the foe, and at a very 
early hour in the morning they filed away 
jubilantly, with their Joan of Arc in the 
31 



van. Just before taking up their line of 
march, they all knelt, and lifting up their 
right hands, solemnly swore never to re- 
turn without seeing their homes and 
loved ones. 



Female Loveliness at Fort Henry. 

Not a single atom of Union sentiment 
appeared to present itself when our army 
reached the neighborhood of Fort Henry. 
Even the women were as bitter and un- 
relenting in their hatred of the Yankees, 
as could be the most unregenerated son 
of the ' chivalry.' 

" / shan't run cf my ole man did " — 
screamed one muscular termagant, in a 
highly pitched key, as the scouts made 
up — " shoot if you want to ; I just as 
lieve die now as any time- You think 
you're goin to take the Fort, but you'll 
get fooled — thar's a right smart heap o' 
men thar ! " 

Just then some of the scouts came in 
lugging a butternut native, whom they 
fished out of the bushes, and who proved 
to be her " ole man." 

" I tole you you oughtener done gone 
and took to the bush ! But don't you let 
down an inch — if they shoot you, don't 
let down an inch ! " — and screaming like 
an hyena, she banged the door furiously 
in their face, and was seen no more. 
She was about an average specimen of 
the sex as found in the vicinity of Fort 

Henry. 

< 

Red, "White and Blue,— God's Flag-. 

When the Federal troops first made 
their appearance near Bardstown, Ken- 
tucky, a little boy, who just then discov- 
ered a beautiful rainbow arching the 
heavens, ran to his mother and exclaimed, 
" Mother, God is a Union man." His 
mother questioned him for his reason for 
thinking so, and the little fellow replied 
that he had seen his flag, and it was 
" Red, White, and Blue." Surely, "Out 
of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast 
thou ordained strength because of thine 



546 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Little Overweighted with Cold Lead. 

Those who visited the sick soldiers and 
did good in the hospitals, occasionally got 
a gleam of fun among all the sad scenes, 
for any wag who has been to the war sel- 
dom loses his humor, though he may have 
lost all else save that and honor. Witness 
an illustration from life : 

C , good soul, after taking all the 

little comforts he could afford to the wound- 
ed soldiers, went into the hospitals for the 
fortieth time, again, with his mite, consist- 




Court House, Church, and Hospital, of 2d Corps, Fredericksburg, Va 

ing of several papers of cut chewing to- 
bacco — 'solace for the wounded,' as he 
called it. He came to one bed, where a 
poor fellow lay cheerfully humming a tune, 
and studying out faces on the papered 
wall. " Got a fever ? " asked C. " No," 
answered the soldier. " Got a cold ? " 
"Yes; cold— lead." "Where?" "Well, 
to tell the truth, its pretty well scattered. 
First, there's a bullet in my right arm 
— they hain't dug that out yet. One in my 
right leg — hit the bone — that fellow hurts. 
One through my left hand — that ■ fell out. 
And, I tell you what, friend, with all this 
lead in me, I feel, generally speaking, a 
little heavy all over." 



Faith and its Reward. 
Not far from the Capitol in Washing- 



boy enlisted, in the spring of 1864, in the 
negro regiment organized in that city. 
He took part in the action of July 30th, 
in front of Petersburg, and was one of 
those who fell wounded near the famous 
crater. " Badly wounded and in the hands 
of the rebels," was the word that came to 
his mother. That was in August. The 
autumn months came and went in succes- 
sion, but brought no further Avord of this 
only son of his mother and she a widow 
Her friends and his friends generally be- 
lieved him dead. It did nol 
seem probable that he had 
survived his wounds, yet 
no one had the heart to 
say as much to his poor 
old mother. 

She continually said, "I 
trust in de good Lord." 
She did not appear to even 
think it possible her boy 
would die. J\ I uch effort was 
made in the latter half of 
November and the first half 
of December to get word 
from him, but all to no avail. 
" Some one ought to tell his 
mother," was often remarked among those 
who were interested in the case, yet no 
one spoke discouragingly to her. Who 
could do it ? She wondered why she did 
not hear from him, she never wearied in 
devising crude and simple plans for com- 
municating with him. About the middle 
of December, or a little later, she was 
heard to say, " De Lord he will pervide, 
an' I shall hear from him bime-by." That 
was on a Tuesday. The next Thursday 
afternoon he opened the door of his old 
mother's little house, and walked in and 
threw his arms around her neck ! Wasn't 
that a royal Christmas gift for the trust- 
ful old soul ? Half an hour later she 
burst into the house of friends who had 
aided her, with only "My boy's come! 
my boy's come ! " He had not been 



ton lived an old negro woman, whose only | wounded, but was taken prisoner and sent 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



547 



to the Libby prison, where he acted as 
servant for about three months. One af- 
ternoon, when he was sent out for wood — 
" Oh, golly," says he, " I jus den forgot 
de way back ! " He was near three 
weeks in making his way overland from 
Richmond to Washington, and brought 
through three negro women, five children, 
and two men ! 



Fulfillment of the Sergeant's Prophecy. 

Presentments on the battle-field often 
prove prophetic. Here is an instance : 
While Colonel Osterhaus was gallantly 
attacking the centre of the enemy, on the 
second day of the battle at Pea Ridge, a 
sergeant of the Twelfth Missouri request- 
ed the Captain of his company to send his 




Fulfillment of the Sergeant's Prophecy. 

wife's portrait, which he had taken from 
his bosom, to her address in St. Louis, 
with his dying declaration that he thought 
of her in his last moments. 

" What is that for ? " asked his Captain ; 
" you are not wounded, are you ? " 

" No," answered the sergeant, " but I 
know I shall be killed to-day. I have 
been in battles before, but I never felt as 
I do now. A moment ago I became con- 
vinced my time had come, but, how, I can- 
not tell. Will you gratify my request ? 
Remember I speak to you as a dying 
man." 



" Certainly, my brave fellow ; but you 
will live to a good old age with your wife. 
Do not grow melancholy over a fancy or 
a dream ! " 

" You will see," was the response. 

And so the treasured picture changed 
hands, and the sergeant stepped forward 
to the front of the column, and was soon 
beyond recognition. 

At the camp-fire that evening the offi- 
cers after a while made enquiry for the 
sergeant. He was not present. He had 
been killed three hours before by a grape- 
shot from one of the enemy's batteries. 



Incident in the Battle of Fredericksburg 1 . 
Sergeant Charles H. Stevenson, of 
Henrietta, N. Y., was one of the killed at 
the battle of Fredericksburg. A strange 
incident connected with his death is stated 
to have transpired, and is not unworthy 
of record as one of the incidents of the 
war. On the day of that battle his wife 
was out in the yard, when suddenly she 
was made aware of a presence behind her, 
and turning, felt a warm breath on her 
cheek, and saw her husband, who, how- 




incident in the Battle of Fredericksburg. 

ever, almost immediately vanished. A& 
she turned she cried out, 'Oh ! Charlie, is 
that 



you 



and returned to the house,. 



where she at once told some friendfc that 
she had seen her husband, and that she 



548 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



knew she would never see him alive again. 
As near as could be ascertained, the event 
occurred just at the time of day when 
her husband was killed. 



Chance for a " Lady of Character." 
Among the documents left by the edi- 
tors of the Memphis (Tenn.) " Appeal," 
when they left that city, was the follow- 
ing gentle epistle from a secessionist wo- 
man, who had sent it to that paper for 
publication : 

A Challenge. 

where as the wicked policy of the pres- 
ident — Making war upon the South for 
refusing to submit to wrong too palpable 
for Southerners to do. And where as it 
has become necessary for the young Men 
of our country, My Brother in the num- 
ber To enlist to do the dirty work of 
Driving the Mercenary* from our sunny 
south, whose soil is too holy for such 
Avretches to tramp And whose atmosphere 
is too pure for them to breathe 

For such an indignity offord to Civili- 
zation I Merely Challenge any abolition 
or Black Republican lady of character if 
there can be such a one found among the 
negro equality tribe. To Meet me at Ma- 
sons and dixon line : With a pair of Colt's 
repeaters or any other weapon they May 
Choose. That I may receive satisfaction 
for the insult. 

Victoria E. Goodwin, 
Springdale Miss April 27, 18GL 



young girl at the Fair, to materfamilias, 
one morning. 

" What, my dear ? " 

"Why, those words," said the little 
lady, eyeing the picture frames closely, 
and pointing to " Pro-Patria." 

" Oh ! that," said materfamilias, inspect- 
ing the letters with her eye-glasses, " why, 
I suppose that must be the name of the 
artist who paints the pictures — Prof. Pa- 
tria." 



" Pro-Patria" Pictures at the Soldiers' Pair. 

The more celebrated pictures in the su- 
perb collection that adorned the great 
Soldiers' Fair in New York were left for 
exhibition, through the kindness of their 
owners; but many most admirable works 
were given to it to be sold for its benefit. 
These latter were accordingly distinguish- 
ed from the others by being marked on the 
frame with the very appropriate words, 
•'Pro-Patria." 

"What does that mean, Ma?" said a 



Executive Favor -well Bestowed. 
A postmaster from Illinois having been 
killed in the Union army at Vicksburg, 
Mississippi, there was of course some com- 
petition for his office, but President Lin- 
coln endorsed the application in behalf of 
the deceased soldier's widow, and after- 
wards wrote a note to the Postmaster 
General, in which he thus most nobly put 
in a plea for the right person in the right 
place. Says the President : " Yesterday, 
little endorsements of mine went to you 
in two cases of Postmasterships sought for 
widows whose husbands have fallen in the 
battles of this war. These cases occurring 
on the same day, brought me to reflect 
more attentively then I had before clone, 
as to what is fairly due from us here, in 
the dispensing of patronage toward the 
men who, by fighting our battles, bear the 
chief burden of saving our country. My 
conclusion is that, other claims and qualifi- 
eations being equal, they have the better 
right, and this is especially applicable to 
the disabled soldier and the deceased 
soldier's family." Most worthy and dis- 
criminating consideration on the part of 
the President, in behalf of the brave men 
who fell in defence of their country, — and 
for the dependent ones whom they left be- 
hind them ! 

Childhood's Prayer in the Last Hour. 

It was the evening after a great battle. 

All day long the din of strife had echoed 

far, and thickly strewn lay the shattered 

forms of those so lately erect and exultant 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



549 



in the flush and strength of manhood. 
Among the many who bowed to the con- 
queror Death that night, was a youth in 
the first freshness of mature life. The 
strong limbs lay listless, and the dark hair 
was matted with gore, on the pale, broad 
forehead. His eyes were closed. As one 
who ministered to the sufferer bent over 
him, he at first thought him dead ; but the 
white lips moved, and slowly in weak 
tones he repeated — " Now I lay me down 
to sleep," «fec, going through those five 
sweet and precious lines. 

As he finished, he opened his eyes, and, 
meeting the pitying gaze of a brother 
soldier, he exclaimed, " My mother taught 
me that when I was a little boy, and I 
have said it every night since I can re- 
member. Before the morning dawns, I 
believe that God will take my soul for 
' Jesus' sake,' but before I die, I want to 
send a message to my mother.' - 

He was carried to a temporary hospital, 
and a letter was written to his mother, 
which he dictated, full of Christian faith 
and filial love. He was calm and peace- 
ful. Just as the sun arose, his spirit went 
home. His last articulate words were, — 
" I pray the Lord my soul to take ; And 
this I ask for Jesus' sake." The prayer 
of childhood was thus the prayer of his 
manhood. He learned it at his mother's 
knee in his far distant Northern home, and 
he whispered it in dying, when his young 
life ebbed away on a Southern battle-field. 



Miss Major Cushman among her Captors. 

Some of the experiences of that re- 
markable woman, Miss Major Pauline 
Cushman, the Federal scout and spy, are 
equal to anything found in the pages of 
romance. They are of the most thrilling 
character. Indeed, among the women of 
America who made themselves famous 
during the opening of the rebellion, few 
have suffered more, or rendered more ser- 
vice to the Union cause, than she. 

At the commencement of hostilities, 
Miss Cushman resided in Cleveland, Ohio, 



and was quite well known as a clever 
actress. From Cleveland she went to 
Louisville, where she had an engagement 
in Wood's Theatre. Here, by her intima- 
cy with certain rebel officers, she incurred 
the suspicion of being a secessionist, and 
was arrested by the Federal authorities. 
She indignantly denied that she was dis- 
loyal, although born at the South, and 
having a brother in a secession Mississippi 
regiment. 

In order to test her love for the old 




Miss Pauline Cushman. 

flag, she was asked if she would enter the 
secret service of the government. She 
readily consented, and was at once em- 
ployed to carry letters between Louisville 
and Nashville. She was subsequently 
employed by General Rosecrans, and was 
for many months with the army of the 
Cumberland. She visited the enemy's 
lines time after time, and was thoroughly 
acquainted with all the country and roads 
in Tennessee, Northern Georgia, Alabama 
and Mississippi, in which sections she ren- 
dered the Federal armies invaluable ser- 
vice. 

Twice was she suspected of being a spy, 
and taken prisoner, but managed to escape. 
At last, however, she was not so fortunate. 
After the Union forces had captured 
Nashville, Major Cushman made a scout 
towards Shelbyville, to obtain information 
of the strength and position of the enemy, 
and while returning to Nashville, was 



550 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



captured eleven miles from that city. She 
was placed on a horse, and, in charge of 
two scouts, was being taken to Spring Hill, 
the head-quarters of Forrest. While thus 
on her way to that place, she feigned sick- 
ness and said she could not travel any 
further without falling from her horse. 
Her captors stopped at a house on the 
roadside, when it was ascertained that a 
Federal scouting party had passed the 
place an hour before. Knowing that her 
guards had important papers for General 
Bragg, the quick-witted spy seized the 
fact and schemed to use it to her ad- 
vantage. 

Seeing an old negro, who appeared to 
commiserate her unfortunate plight, she 
watched her opportunity and placed ten 
dollars of Tennessee money in his hand, 
saying,— 

" Run up the road, ' Uncle,' and come 
back in a few minutes, telling us that four 
hundred Federals are coming clown the 
street." 

The faithful negro obeyed the order 
literally, and soon came back in the great- 
est excitement, telling the story. The two 
' rebs ' told him he lied. The old colored 
man got down imploringly upon his knees, 
saying, — 

" O Massa, dey's comin, sure nuff; de 
Lord help us, dey is comin." 

The scouts at this believed his story, 
mounted their horses, and 'skedaddled' 
for the woods. Miss Cushman, seizing a 
pistol belonging to a wounded soldier in 
the house, also mounted her horse and fled 
towards Franklin. She traveled through 
the rain, and, after nightfall, lost her way. 
Soon came the challenge of a picket, 
" Who comes there ? " Thinking she had 
reached the enemy's line she said, " A 
friend of Jeff. Davis." " All right," was 
the reply, " advance and give the counter- 
sign." 

She presented the countersign in the 
shape of a canteen of whiskey. She pass- 
ed five pickets in this way, but the sixth 
and last was obdurate. She pleaded that 



she was going to see a sick uncle at Frank- 
lin, but the sentry ' couldn't see it.' Sick 
and disheartened she turned back. See- 
ing a light at a farm house she sought 
shelter. An old man received her kindly, 
showed her a room, and said he would 
awake her at an early hour in the morn- 
ing, and show her the road to Franklin. 

A loud knock awoke her in the morn- 
ing from lier lethean slumbers, and upon 
arousing, she found her horse saddled and 
the two guards from whom she had escap- 
ed the previous afternoon ! She was 
taken to the head-quarters of Forrest, and, 
after a critical examination, he sent her to 
General Bragg. Nothing could be foimd 
against her, until a secession woman stole 
her gaiters, under the inner sole of which 
were found important documents which 
clearly proved her to be a spy. She was 
tried and condemed to be executed as such, 
but being sick, her execution was post- 
poned. She finally, after lying in prison 
some three months, sent for General 
Bragg, and asked him if he had no mercy. 
She received from him the comforting as- 
surance that he should make an example 
of her, and that he should hang her as 
soon as she got well enough to be hung 
decently. 

While in this state of suspense, the 
grand anny of Rosecrans commenced its 
forward movement, and one fine day the 
secession town where she was imprisoned, 
was surprised and captured, and the hero- 
ine of this tale was to her great joy re- 
leased. 

Family Swords not to be Exempted. 
An order was issued by General But- 
ler, when in New Orleans, for the surren- 
der of certain private arms held by seces- 
sionists. In one house it was said they 
had been secreted and not surrendered. 
It was the house of a lady. She was 
wealthy and in high social position. But 
she was summoned to give account. Her 
story was simple and lady-like, and had a 
touch of sentiment about it which would 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



551 



show her praiseworthy rather, and not to 
be blamed for not presenting arms accord- 
ing to order. She was a gentlewoman, a 
lady in fact of the " uppermost seats," and 
was unused to the ways of men. The 
arms had been hid — but the truth of the 
matter was, there was among them a sword 
— a valuable sword — a family sword. It 
had a great value from its associations — 
and it was really to 
keep that safe, which 
was a household jew- 
el, that the error had 
been committed, and 
not to keep or secrete 
the other arms. 
They were of no ac- 
count and should of 
course be given up. 
This Avas a very pret- 
ty story, but some- 
thing excited that 
wide-awake Gener- 
al's suspicions, and 
he said to her, em- 
phatically, that the 
sword must be pro- 
duce 1, and he should 

retain her until it was done. Whereupon 
her friends, as the only alternative now re- 
maining, interfered, and it soon appeared 
that there was no sword anywhere. It 
was a pure fabrication — an artful lie. But 
it would have been held a good joke if the 
Yankee lawyer, keen-scented and acute, 
had been outwitted by a woman ! 



Dow, a Federal captive. An introduction 
took place, Avhen Morgan observed, with 
one of those inimitable smiles for which he 
was so noted, 

" General Dow, I am very happy to see 
you here ; or rather, I should say, since 
you are here, I am happy to see you look- 
ing so well." 

Dow's natural astuteness and Yankee 




Interview at "the Libby " between Morgan 
the Guerrilla Chieftain and Neal Dow. 

According to the statements in the Con- 
federate journals, General Morgan, the 
guerrilla chieftain, after his escape from 
the Columbus penitentiary, went to Rich- 
mond, Virginia, and visited the Libby 
prison. On arriving up stairs, where the 
Federal prisoners 'most did congregate,' 
he was immediately conducted into the 
presence of the author of the 'Maine 
Liquor Law,' Brigadier General Neal 



Libby Prison, Richmond. 

ingenuity came to his aid, and he quietly 
replied, without apparent embarrassment, 

" General Morgan, I congratulate you 
on your escape ; I cannot say that I am 
glad you did escape ; but since you did, I 
am glad to see you here." 

The conversation then became general 
between the two. 



Instance of Loyalty in Virginia. 
Private Job H. Wells, of Company C, 
was lost in the confusion of the troops at 
the battle of Bull Run. He got into the 
Avoods, and soon after the moon Avas shut 
in by a cloud. He wandered till he came 
to a rye-field, where he encamped for the 
night. Tired and exhausted, he soon fell 
asleep, but aAvoke in the morning cold and 
hungry. He determined to make for a 
house he saAV at a distance, and risk the 
consequences. He dragged his weary, 



552 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



stiffened limbs along, in a terrible uncer- 
tainty as to the reception he should meet 
with. 

Arriving at the house and entering, he 
was heartily welcomed by the lady occu- 
pant, who gave him a sofa to rest upon, 
and in the mean time directed her servants 
to prepare breakfast. The table was lib- 
erally supplied, and the stranger told to 
be seated. The lady was a firm Union- 
ist and declared that the National troops 
were welcome to whatever she had. She 
said that on the march out, some of the 
troops stopped at her place and took sev- 
eral ducks ; these she cared nothing about, 
and if they had taken much more they 




Instance of .Loyalty in Virginia. 

would have been welcome. If they had 
not broken up her sitting hens, she would 
not have said a word. The good lady did 
not like to lose her next year's flock. 

Soon after breakfast, a troop of seces- 
sionists came in sight. The lady put Mr. 
Wells in a rear room, while she conversed 
with some of them. She feigned great 
ignorance of what had been going on, and 
learned from them the route they were 
going. After they had gone, Mr. Wells 
inquired how he was to get away. " That 
is easy enough," replied the matron ; "trust 



to me." She ordered one of her servants 
to saddle a horse and bring it to the door. 
She then brought out a long overcoat, and 
told him to put it on. The pockets were 
liberally supplied with delicacies to serve 
him on the way. The horse was brought 
to the door, when the lady told Mr. Wells 
that the horse Avas at his service, and 
would safely carry him through. Said 
she— ' 

" Take the horse, and go to Washing- 
ton. You may leave him with my son," 
giving his name and residence) " and if a 
secessionist meets you, shoot him ; if there 
is more than one, shoot the first, and trust 
to the horse for the other, for he will soon 
carry you out of danger." 

Mr. Wells mounted the horse, and safe- 
ly reached Washington. He left the horse 
as directed, and Avas Avelcomed by the son 
as he had been by the mother. While 
Mr. Wells Avas Avaiting, a Unionist of the 
vicinity came into the house, and said he 
Avas about to leave for Washington ; that 
he had sent his family over, and had staid 
behind to see if it Avas possible to saA'e 
anything. The lady asked him if he had 
any money. He said he had not. She 
then Avent up stairs, and returning with a 
purse of silver, gave it to the gentleman, 
remarking — 

" Take this ; you may as well have it 
as the secessionists. They have already 
divided my property, and apportioned it 
among themselves ; but the first man that 
makes the attempt to carry that out, I 
shall shoot." 



Amours of a New Orleans Ex-Judge. 

General Butler, in pursuance of his sys- 
tem of redressing the wrongs of Union 
men, seized the large estates of Judge 

C ■, of Louisiana, and held them for 

the future liquidation of a claim held 
against C by Major Robert Ander- 
son, but which C had personally writ- 
ten to Major A. his intention to repudiate 
for political reasons. Noav, justly think 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



ing that New Orleans, under the rule of 
General Butler, was no fit place for him 
to reside in, vanished soon after into the 
congenial shades of Secessia. 

A few days after his departure, a young 
woman sought an interview with Mrs. 
Butler, to whom many women came at 
that time, to relate the story of personal 
Avrongs. So many women, indeed, resort- 
ed to her for that purpose, that at length 
it was found necessary to close that door 
to the commanding general's attention. 
The young woman who came to her on 
this occasion was a perfect blonde, her hair 
of a light shade of brown, her eyes ' clear 
honest gray, 1 her complexion remarkably 
pure and delicate, her bearing modest and 
refined, her language that of an educated 
woman. It has been often remarked that 
the women of the South, Avho have been 
made the victims of a master's brutal lust, 
escape moral contamination. Their souls 
remain chaste. This wpman, so fair to 
look upon, so engaging in her demeanor, 
so refined in her address, was a slave, the 
slave of Judge C . She told her in- 
credible story — incredible until her super- 
abundant testimony compelled the most 
incredulous to believe. 

She said that Judge C was her 

father as well as her master. At an early 
age she had been sent to school in New 
York, the school of the Mechanics' Insti- 
tute, in Broadway. When she was fif- 
teen years of age, her father came to 
New York, took her from school to his 
hotel, and compelled her to live with him 
as his mistress. She became the mother 
of a child, of whom her master was father 
and grandfather. 

" I am now twenty-one," said she, u and 
I am the mother of a boy five years old, 
who is my father's son." 

The Judge took her home wuh him to 
New Orleans, where he continued to live 
with her for awhile ; then ordered her to 
many a favorite protcg°. She refused. 
He had her horsewhipped in the streets, 



and continued a systematic torture till she 
consented. When she had been married 
some time, the protege — a man so nearly 
white, that he was employed as chief 
clerk in a wholesale house — discovered 
the shameless cheat that had been put 
upon him, and abandoned his wife. Then 
the master took her again to his incestu- 
ous bed, and gave her a deed of manu- 
mission, which he afterward took from 
her and destroyed. 

'And now," she added, "he has gone 
off, and left me and my children without 
any means of support." 

Mrs. Butler, amazed and confounded at 
this tale of horror, procured her an inter- 
view with the General, to whom the story 
was repeated. He spoke kindly to her, 
but told her frankly that he could not be- 
lieve the story. 

i4 It is too much," said he, " to believe 
on the testimony of one witness. Does 
any one else know of these things ? " 

" Yes," she replied, " everybody in New 
Orleans knows them." 

"I will have the case investigated," 
said the General ; " come again in three 
days." 

General Shipley undertook the investi- 
gation. He found that the woman's story 
was as true as it was notorious.. The 
facts were completely substantiated. Gen- 
eral Butler gave her her freedom, and as- 
signed her an allowance from her father's 
estate ; and, some time after, Captain 
Puffer, during his short tenure of power 
as deputy provost marshal, gave her one 
of the best of her father's houses to live 
in, by letting apartments in which she ad- 
ded to her income. 

Mr. Parton, in giving the above narra- 
tive says : It is now a year since the out- 
line of this story was first published to 
the world, but no attempt has been made, 
from any quarter, to controvert any part 
of it. And, it may be added, that Mr. 
Parton is not the man to make or repeat 
questionable statements with his pen. 



554 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



Mr. and Mrs. Grant. 

It is one of the misfortunes of great 
personages that they must be talked about, 
and, — in this free country, — not always 
with the reverence paid to the Grand La- 
ma. While General Grant was receiving 
the highest honors which a country grate- 
ful for his accumulated victories could 
shower upon him, Mrs. Grant showed her- 
self to be a plain, sensible, quiet woman, 
who took the world as a matter of course. 
Some friends were talking, in her compa- 
ny, of the great responsibility of General 
Grant's position, and made some remarks 
tending to awaken any expression of am- 
bition dormant in her woman's heart. 
No returns ! She said, 

" Mr. Grant," (so she always called 
him,) " had succeeded below, and when he 
was called to this position, he thought it 
was his duty to try what he could do." 

The hope was then expressed that he 
would succeed, and that he would take 
Richmond. 




" But he is Lieutenant-General." 

" Yes, but when a man can be elected 
President, it must be a strong tempta- 
tion." 

u I don't know. There have never 
been but two Lieutenant- Generals of the 
United States, General "Washington and 
General Scott. There have been a num- 
ber of Presidents, for instance, such men 
as and ." 

Mrs. Grant was pretty unanimously 
chalked down as a sensible woman, and 
Mr. Grant was allowed to be an " obstinate 



Mrs Gen. Grant. 

"Well, I don't know. I think he may 
— Mr. Grant always was a very obstinate 
man." (Nobody learns that trait of char- 
acter sooner than a wife.) 

Some conversation also took place "with 
regard to the ensuing presidential term : 

"If General Grant succeed?, he may 
want to be President." 



Improving- on Acquaintance. 
Some of the soldiers belonging to a 
Rhode Island Regiment in Maryland, 
wandered off one day to a farm-house, 
and commenced conversation with a wo- 
man, who was greatly frightened. They 
tried in vain to quiet her apprehensions. 
They asked for fo xl, and she cried, " Oh, 
take all I have, take every thing, but 
spare my sick husband." " Oh," said one 
of the men, " Ave ain't going to hurt you ; 
we want something to eat." But the wo- 
man persisted in being frightened, in spite 
of all efforts to reassure her, and hurried 
whatever food she had on the table. 
When, however, she saw this company 
stand about the table with bared heads, 
and a tall, gaunt man raise his hand and 
invoke God's blessing on the bounties 
spread before them, the good woman 
broke down with a fit of sobbing and cry- 
ing. She had no longer any fears, but 
bade them wait, and # in a few moments 
had made hot coffee in abundance. She 
then emptied their canteens of the muddy 
water they contained, and filled them with 
coffee. Her astonishment increased when 
they insisted upon paying her. 



Rosecrans' Orderly Sergeant Delivered of a 
Baby in Camp. 

The following order, as unique in its 
way as any that the war gave rise to, can 
he best explained — if any further expla- 



DOMESTIC, "WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



555 



nation be needed — by Major-General Ro- 
secrans : 

" Head-Quarters Department of 
the Cumberland, April 17th, 1863. 

" General : — The general command- 
ing directs me to call your attention to a 
flagrant outrage committed in your com- 
mand, — a person having been admitted 
inside your lines, without a pass and in 
violation of orders. The case is one 
which calls for your personal attention, 
and the general commanding directs that 
you deal with the offending party or par- 
ties according to law. 

The medical director reports that an 
orderly-sergeant in Brigadier- General 

's division was to-day delivered of a 

baby, — which is in violation of all military 
law and of the army regulations. No 
such case has been known since the days 
of Jupiter. 

You will apply the proper punishment 
in this case, and a remedy to prevent a 
repetition of the act." 

For the most complete, brilliant, and 
authentic narrative of the war and its 
scenes, in the above-named department, 
the "Annals of the Army of the Cum- 
berland " must be allowed to be unsur- 
passed. No volume which the war has 
called forth, does greater honor to the 
talents of its author, and no soldier who 
served in its gallant ranks can well de- 
prive himself of such a storehouse of the 
annals so memorable in national and per- 
sonal history. A brave army, a popular 
general, and a magnificent corps of offi- 
cers, well deserve commemoration, such as 
the "Annals, by John Fitch, " gives them. 

Home Scene in the Cradle of Eebellion. 

A member of one of the Charleston, 
(S. C.) companies, on leave of absence in 
the city, received a summons to appear at 
his post on Sullivan's Island, on one of the 
nights when the air was rife with the most 
startling rumors of the coming of an over- 
whelming Federal fleet. With cheerful 
promptitude the brave soldier prepared to 



obey the imperative call. He was a hus- 
band, and the father of a blue-eyed little 
girl, who had just begun to put words to- 
gether. After the preparation for the 
camp had been made, the soldier nerved 
himself for the good-bye. Those present 
thought that the wife felt the parting less 
than the husband. Lively words flowed 
fast, and her fair face was as bright and 
calm as a morning in May. Her heart 
seemed to be full of gladness. 

She cheered him with pleasant earnest- 
ness to show himself a man, and running 
on in a gleeful strain, admonished him not 
to come back if he were shot in the back. 
With incredible fortitude she bade her 
child tell papa good-bye, and to say to 
him that she would not own him her father 
if he proved to be a coward. The echo 
of the soldier's footfall through the corri- 
dor had hardly passed away, when a 
ghastly palor was seen spreading over the 
lady's face. In a voice weak and husky 
she begged a friend to take her child, and 
before she could be supported she fell 
from her chair prostrate on the floor. 

By a tremendous effort the noble wo- 
man — still loyal at heart, perhaps, to the 
glorious flag her husband had been sum- 
moned to outrage — had controlled her 
feelings ; but nature and conscience could 
bear the strain no longer, and she fainted. 
The swoon was deep, and it was some- 
time before consciousness returned. At 
length she opened her eyes languidly, and 
looked around upon the sympathizing 
group, and in a tremulous voice inquired 
if she had fainted before her husband left 
the room. Comment is unnecessary. 



Bread Cast TJpcn the "Waters. 
A Southern fugitive, colored, who 
had, by good fortune, arrived in Boston, 
from Baltimore, was one day passing 
through the Doric Hall, at the State 
House, when he recognized one of the 
Massachusetts soldiers who was wounded 
on the 10th of April, in Baltimore, and at 
once accosted him, inquiring after his 



556 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



health, and asking him if he did not know 
him. The soldier did not at first remem- 
ber his face, when the fugitive asked him 
if he did not remember a colored man 
bringing him water to drink, and rags to 
bind tip his wounds, while he lay wounded 
in the street. He replied that he did, and 
at once recognized his Good Samaritan in 
the person of the fugitive. The peculiar 
circumstances of the case made the inter- 
view deeply touching. It so happened 
that the fugitive had a wife and two chil- 
dren, and when the Massachusetts soldiers 
fell wounded in the streets of Baltimore, 
the fugitive's wife tore up her clothes to 
make rags to stanch the flow of blood. 
These rags she threw out of the window 
in her master's house, when her husband 
gathered them up and carried them to the 
wounded soldier. 



erate army,) the surgeon complaisantiy 
told her, if she made her residence in 
Montgomery, Alabama, to select a house 
suitable for hospital purposes, as he would 
do himself the favor to call upon her 
there. 



Looking out for Hospital Accommodations. 

Before the Federal capture of Atlanta, 
Georgia, some of the inhabitants had the 
idea that no Union army would ever be 
able to take the city. One of these, a 
lady, Mrs. Zimmerman, afterward stated 
that she felt perfectly secure from the 
hands of the Yankees until the night of 
the evacuation, when, perfectly astonished 
at the change of things, she asked the 
Confederate General, Oglesby, how she 
should act in order to be safe from insult. 

He answered, " Keep your mouth shut, 
and they will not harm you." She acted 
upon this advice, until one of the Union 
surgeons politely informed her that her 
large, commodious mansion was needed as 
a hospital, and he would find her a smaller 
one, Avhich would just as well answer her 
purpose. Her pent-up indignation now 
found vent in her answer that she would 
prefer remaining in her own house. But 
she afterward respected the kindness re- 
ceived from the hands of the Union 
Soldiery, and while she took the benefit 
of Sherman's 'depopulating' order, and 
went South, that she might be near her 
husband, (a quartermaster in the Confed- 



Soldiers' Offering- at the Grave of Washing- 
ton Irving - . 

Some Massachusetts soldiers stationed 
at Yonkers, New York, went up the river 
to Tarrytown, and looked at the monu- 
ment to Andre. Thence they visited the 
cemetery where repose the remains of the 
peaceful "Washington Irving. A hedge is 
around the burial-plat. Eleven full length 
graves are in a row — father, mother, 
brothers, and sisters. One of the stones 
is lettered, "Washington, son of Wil- 
liam and Sarah S. Irving, died Nov. 29, 
1859, aged 76 years, 8 months, and 25 
days." The soldiers laid each a bunch of 
roses upon this grave, and a wreath of 
oak leaves, with a written inscription, 
" Offering of Massachusetts volunteers to 
the memory of Washington Irving," signed 
by them all, and bearing the date, was 
placed upon the headstone. One boy re- 
peated the " Memory of the Dead," and 
all plucked a spray of clover from the 
grave. The graceful pen of John S. C. 
Abbott, the justly eminent writer, — to 
which we find this touching anecdote at- 
tributed, — might well weave into extend- 
ed detail of fascinating narration, a war 
incident at once so tender, exquisite, and 
peculiarly American, in its characteristic-. 
Pausing in the preparations for eonflic: 
and blood, to lay upon the tomb of the 
best beloved of American thinkers and 
writers, the sweet, womanly tribute of a 
leaf-bound wreath, and then, shouldering 
again the weapons of loyalty to the Union 
which Irving so much loved, -returning to 
the camp ! 



General Tilghman and his Loyal Mother. 
While General Tilghman was confined 
a prisoner of war at Fort Warren, 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



557 



Boston, in the spring of 1862, Mrs. 
Tilghman, accompanied by her daughter, 
Mrs. Lowry, visited Boston and put up 
at the Revere House, for the purpose of 
obtaining an interview with the General, 
at the Fort. There was some difficulty 
in obtaining the required permission, but 
on Saturday the mother and sister were 
allowed to visit his quarters and enjoy the 
interview which they desired. The first 




. Gen. Tilgl.man. 

exclamation on meeting him was, " 0, my 
rebel son ! " and during their conversation 
the grieved and suffering woman said: 
" When I heard you were taken, I thanked 
God that you were rescued from secession 
influences; and were I to hear there was 
any chance of your being exchanged, I 
would go on my knees to the President to 
prevent you from again joining the rebels, 
for I would rather have you remain here 
during your life than to know you were 
among the traitors of the country." Truly, 
" a foolish son is the heaviness of his 
mother." 



Nashville Ladies "Working the Card. 
The despair which must have overtaken 
the hearts of the secession ladies of Nash- 
ville, when that city was redeemed by 
Federal arms, and the " flag of glory " un- 
furled once more in its streets, may be 
judged by the pertness and contempt with 
which they treated the "political guild of 



blue-coats." Thus, when General Mc- 
Cook, of the Federal army, arrived in the 
city, he sent up his card, with the request 
that he might renew his former acquaint- 
ance with Miss McNairy. The follow- 
ing is the pert rebuff, written on the back 
of the card, which the lady sent the gal- 
lant soldier: 

" Sir, I do not desire to renew my ac- 
quaintance with the invaders of my State." 

Two other officers whose hearts were 
untainted with treason to their country, 
visited the house of Dr. Martin, and sent 
up their cards to his daughter, Miss Bettie 
Martin, requesting the renewal of an old 
acquaintanceship with one whom they 
recalled as an elegant and accomplished 
lady. Repairing to the parlor, with a look 
of ineffable scorn and contempt, she dashed 
the card into their faces, and said — 

" Your absence, sirs, will be much bet- 
ter company to me than your presence." 



G-eneral Lander and the Bible. 

The beautiful illustrations presented 
with such painstaking labor and admirable 
taste by Prof. H. B. Hackett, of the value 
of religion to the soldier, are in keeping 
with his own high character as a Christian 
philanthropist. Everybody will read, with 
pleasure, the incident here narrated by the 
excellent author named : 

One day a staff officer caught General 
Lander with a Bible in his hand, and had 
the curiosity to inquire of him — 

" General, do you ever search the 
Scriptures ? " To this plain interroga- 
tory, General Lander promptly replied : 

My mother gave me a Bible, which I 
have always carried with me. Once in 
the Rocky Mountains I had only fifteen 
pounds of flour. We used to collect 
grasshoppers at four o'clock in the day, 
to catch some fish for our supper at night. 
It was during the Mormon war, and my 
men desired to turn back. I was then 
searching for a route for the wagon road. 
" I will turn back if the Bible says so," 
said I, " and we will take it for an inspira- 



558 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



tion." I opened the book at the following 
passage : 

" Go on, and search the mountain, and 
the gates of the city shall not be shut 
against you." 

All concurred in the definite statement 
of the passage, and the heroic explorer 
once more led his men into the wild coun- 
try of the Indians. 




Gen. Lander and his Bible. 

And yet Lander was not one to boast 
of his devotional practices. That he was 
" caught " by the staff-officer was doubtless 
literally true, — " with a Bible in his hand," 
for he was not one that read his Bible " to 
be seen of men." 

Such 'Memorials of the War' as the 
above, constitute, at this era, the most in- 
teresting and profitable reading for the 
youth of our families and Sabbath schools. 



Commission of "Major" conferred on a Lady. 
Mrs. Major Belle Reynolds, the wife 
of Lieutenant Reynolds, of Company A, 
Seventeenth Illinois regiment, distinguish- 
ed herself as a brave soldier, in the war 
against the great rebellion. Her native 
place was Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. 
The Seventeenth Illinois, to which her 
husband belonged, was one of the most 
popular regiments in the Western army, 



being one of the earliest in the field, and 
continuing almost uninterruptedly in active 
service. They met the enemy in a terri- 
ble encounter, and vanquished him, at 
Fredericktown, Missouri. They early 
took possession of Cape Girardeau ; they 
also bore a prominent part, and were ter- 
ribly cut up, at the battle of Fort Donel- 
son, and were in the thickest of the fight 
at the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Land- 
ing. In these last two battles Lieutenant 
Reynolds was Acting Adjutant. 

During the greater part of the cam- 
paign Mrs. Reynolds shared with her hus- 
band a soldier's fare in camp ; many a 
night, while on long marches, sleeping 
upon the ground in the open air, with no 
covering other than her blanket, and fre- 
quently drenched with rain — and ofttimes 
to the order " Fall in," she would hurriedly 
mount her horse in the darkness of the 
night, and make long marches without rest 
or food, except what she happened to have 
with her. She at all times exhibited a 
degree of heroism that endeared her 
greatly to the brave soldiers of the Sev- 
enteenth and other regiments that were 
associated with them, and to the officers 
of the army whose acquaintance she 
formed. 

Governor Yates, of Illinois, and his staff, 
were at Pittsburg Landing to look after 
the Illinois troops, who suffered so severely 
in that fearful struggle, and learning of 
Mrs. Reynolds's heroic conduct on the 
field, and untiring efforts in behalf of the 
wounded soldiers, by and with the advice 
of his staff, commissioned her Daughter 
of the Regiment, to take rank as a 
Major, " for meritorious conduct on the 
bloody battle-field of Pittsburg Landing." 
Mrs. R. left Pittsburg Landing a few days 
after the battle to attend some wounded 
soldiers on their way to their homes by 
the river, leaving the last one at Peoria — 
Captain Swain, of Illinois, who died as 
the boat touched the wharf at Peoria. On 
hearing of her having been commissioned 
by the Governor, the citizens of Peoria 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



559 



addressed a letter to the latter, thanking 
him " for the honor conferred upon Peoria 
by your voluntary act in commissioning 
Mrs. Belle Reynolds, of this city, to take 
rank of Major of Illinois State Militia, 
showing your appreciation of valuable 
services ?o nobly rendered by a lady on 
the bloody battle-field of Pittsburg Land- 
ing. And we take pleasure in bearing 
testimony to the high moral and Christian 
character of the ' Major,' believing that in 
whatever circumstances she may be placed 
she will ever honor her commission and 
the worthy Executive who gave it." 



"Whisper Good-Night, Love." 
The heart of many a loyal wife and 
mother has been touched by the strains 
of that exquisite little song — " Whisper 
Good-Night, Love " — which was composed 
by a soldier the night before the battle of 
Stone River. Lieutenant H. Millard, of 
the Nineteenth United States Army, and 
aid-de-camp to Major-General Rousseau, 
was the author. On the night of the 29th 
December, when the division bivouacked 
on Stewart's Creek, Lieutenant Millard's 
wife bade him good-bye. They expected 
to go into battle next morning. Lieuten- 
ant Millard reclined on a shock of corn, 
looking into the blue skies, thinking of his 
wife, — for soldiers think of wives and 
little ones at such periods. His comrades 
were speculating on the chances of battle, 
now and then expressing amiable envy 
that Millard could sleep so soundly. Sud- 
denly he sprang from his couch, and, call- 
ing Lieutenant Pirtle, he repeated the 
result of his fancies to him, in verse, which 
he entitled, " Whisper Good-Night, Love." 
Tuesday night, 30th of December, while 
the division was bivouacked in front of 
Murfreesborough, he composed and ar- 
ranged the music for the piano. The 
next day five hundred and eight of Mil- 
lard's comrades "were bleeding on the field 
of battle. Such was the origin of a song 
which touched many a soldier's heart, as 
it also did the heart of many a loved one 
at home. 



Yankee Cavalry against Virginia Chivalry. 

The coolness and courage with which 
some of the Virginia women are endowed 
is a fact which has been too often and too 
brilliantly illustrated to admit of any doubt. 
During the rebellion, a Union cavalry 
straggler, after vainly ransacking the out- 
buildings of a plantation in search of corn, 
approached the door in which a young 
lady was standing, and demanded that 
" some of the grain, which he knew was 
concealed in the house, should be given 
him." " We have none," was the reply. 
" Stand aside until I go in and see for my- 
self," he rudely retorted, at the same time 
whipping out of its sheath a heavy Colt's 
revolver. No sooner done than the fair 
Virginian planted herself firmly in the 
doorway, drew a small repeater from her 
full and throbbing bosom, and deliber- 
ately aiming it at the intruder's head, ex- 
claimed, 

"Approach one step further towards 
this house and you are a dead man ! " 

Baffled in his endeavors by such an ex- 
hibition of bravery, the trooper turned 
on his heel and left, without taking that 
' one step further.' He was not aware, at 
the time, that the maiden who thus placed 
such a check upon his movements was 
the betrothed of George B. Davis, a 
nephew of Jeff's, who discharged her 
pocket pistol with an accuracy which had 
made her famous in that locality. 



" Dick," the Four-Footed Orderly. 
As we were flying about in every direc- 
tion, now here, now there, (says a pleasing 
writer and eye-witness of what is here 
narrated,) with a pad for one, a basin and 
sponge to wet the wounds of another, 
cologne for a third, and milk punch for 
a fourth, I felt Dick (our hospital dog, 
my faithful friend and ally, a four-footed 
Vidocq, in his mode of scenting out griev- 
ances,) seize my dress in his teeth, pull it 
hard, and look eagerly up hi my face. 
" What is it, Dick ? I am too busy to 
attend to you just now." Another hard 
pull and a beseeching look in his eyes. 



560 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



" Presently, my fine fellow ! presently. 
Gettysburg men must come first." 

He wags his tail furiously, and still 
pulls my dress. Does he mean that he 
wants me for one of them ? Perhaps so. 
a Come, Dick, I'll go with you." He starts 
off delighted, leads me to the ward where 
those worst wounded have been placed, 
travels the whole length of it to the upper 
comer, where lies a man apparently badly 
wounded, and crying like a child. I had 
seen him brought in on a stretcher, but in 
the confusion had not noticed where he 
had been taken. Dick halted as we ar- 
rived at the bed, looked at me, as much as 
to say, " There ! isn't that a case requir- 
ing attention ? " and then, as though quite 
satisfied to resign him into my hands, 
trotted quietly off. 

He did not notice my approach ; I there- 
fore stood watching him a little while. 
His arm and hand, from which the band- 
age had partially slipped, were terri- 
bly swollen ; the wound was in the 
wrist, (or rather, as I afterwards found, 
the ball had entered the palm of his hand 
and had come out at his wrist,) and ap- 
peared to be, as it subsequently proved, a 
very severe one. 

My boast that I could make a pretty 
good conjecture what State a man came 
from by looking at him, did not avail me 
here. I was utterly at fault. His fair 
hair, Saxon face, so far as I could judge 
of it, as he lay sobbing on his pillow, had 
something feminine — almost child-like — 
in the innocence and gentleness of its ex- 
pression, and my first thought was one 
which has constantly recurred on closer 
acquaintance, " How utterly unfit for a 
soldier ! " He wanted the quick, nervous 
energy of the New Englander, who, even 
when badly wounded, rarely fails to betray 
his origin ; he had none of the rough, off- 
hand dash of our Western brothers, and 
cotdd never have had it even in health ; 
nor yet the stolidity of our Pennsylvania 
Germans. No! It was clear that I 
must wait until he chose to enlighten me 



as to his home. After a few minutes 
study, I was convinced that his tears were 
not from the pain of his wound ; there 
was no contraction of the brow, no tension 
of the muscles, no quivering of the frame ; 
he seemed simply very weary, very Ian 
guid, like a tired child, and I resolved to 
act accordingly. 

" I have been so busy with our defend- 
ers, this afternoon," said I, " that I have 
had no time to come and thank you." 

He started, raised his tear-stained face, 
and said, with a wondering air, " To thank 
me ? For what ? " 

" For what ? " said I ; " haven't you 
been keeping the rebels away from us ? 
Don't you know that if it hadn't been for 
you and many like you, we might at this 
moment have been flying from our homes, 
and General Lee and his men occupying 
our city ? You don't seem to know how 
grateful we are to you — we feel as though 
we could never do enough for our brave 
Gettysburg men to return what they have 
done for us." 

This seemed quite a novel idea, and the 
tears were stopped to muse upon it. 

" We tried to do our duty, ma'am, I 
know that." 

" I know it too, and I think I could make 
a pretty good guess what corps you belong 
to. Suppose I try. Wasn't it the Second 
corps ? You look to me like one of Gen- 
eral Hancock's men ; you know they were 
praised hi the papers for their bravery. 
Am I right ? " 

The poor tired face brightened instant- 
ly. The random shot had hit the mark. 

"Yes, Second Corps, do you know by 
my cap ? " 

" Your cap ? You don't wear your cap 
in bed, do you ? I haven't seen your cap ; 
I guessed by that wound — it must have 
been made where there- was pretty hard 
fighting, and I knew the Second Corps 
had done their share of that." 

But this was dangerous ground, as I 
felt the moment the allusion to his wound 
was made ; the sympathy was too direct, 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



561 



and his eyes filled at once. Seeing my mis- 
take, I plunged off rapidly on another 
tack. 

" Did you notice my assistant orderly 
who came in with me just now ? He had 
been over to see you before, for he came 
and told me you wanted me." 

" I wanted you ! No, ma'am, that's a 
mistake ; no one's been near me since they 
bathed me, and gave me clean clothes — I 
know there hasn't for I watched them 
running all about ; but none came to me, 
and I want so much to have my arm 
dressed." And the ready tea.s once more 
began to flow. 

" There is no mistake. I told you that 
my assistant orderly came to me in the 
ladies' room, and told me that you needed 
me. Think again — Avho has been here 
since you were brought in ? " 

" Not a single soul, ma'am — indeed, not 
a thing, but a dog, standing looking in my 
face, and wagging his tail, as if he was 
.pitying me." 

" But a dog ! Exactly ; he's my assist- 
ant orderly ; he came over to me, pulled 
my dress, and wouldn't rest till I came to 
see you. I am surprised you speak so 
slightingly of poor Dick." 

Here was at once a safe and fertile 
theme. I entered at large upon Dick's 
merits; his fondness for the men — his 
greater fondness, occasionally, for their 
dinners — his having made way with three 
lunches just prepared for the men who 
were starting — (the result probably of 
having heard the old story that the sur- 
geons eat what is intended for the men,) 
our finding him one day on our table with 
his head in the pitcher of lemonade, and 
how I tried to explain to him that such 
was not the way of proving his regards 
for his friends, the soldiers, but I feared 
without much effect — in short, I made a 
long story out of nothing, till the ward- 
master arrived with his supper, saying that 
the doctor's orders were that the new cases 
should all take something to eat before he 
examined their wounds. My friend had 
35 



quite forgotten his own troubles in listen- 
ing to Dick's varied talents, and allowed 
me to give him his supper very quietly, as 
I found he was really too much exhausted 
even to raise his uninjured arm to his 
mouth. I had the pleasure of seeing him 
smile for good-bye. 



Mistook the Genus. 
A young officer upon the staff of a 
Western General, who was temporarily 
sojourning at head-quarters in the Zolli- 
coffer House, on High Street, Nashville, 
one day shopped before the door of a 
neighboring house to admire and caress a 
beautiful little girl. She was fair, bright, 
and active, her hair was in ringlets, and 




Mistook the Genus. 

she was neatly dressed. Imagine the 
emotions of the kind-hearted officer when 
a young lady remarked to him, with a per- 
ceptible sneer, " You seem to be very fond 
of kissing niggers." " Good gracious ! '* 
was the startled reply, " you don't call that 
child a nigger, do you ? " " Yes, I do ; 
she is nothing else." The young officer 
took another glance at the child, who 
seemed even more fair than the young 
lady. His reflections upon the " pecul- 
iarities of custom " may be easily imagined. 



"Lee's Miserables." 

While the Federal forces were passing 

their winter near Brandy Station, some of 

the officers endeavored to relieve the ennui 

of camp life by frequent visits to the fair 



cm 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



secesh maidens of the surrounding coun- 
try. One of the staff became quite enam- 
ored with a young lady in Culpepper, 
more noted for her secession ideas than for 
her beauty. On one of his visits she re- 
quested the loan of some books, and the 
next day he sent over a parcel containing, 
among other volumes, Victor Hugo's " Les 
Miserables." To his surprise the orderly 
returned with the books, and a message 
from the fair one that she " didn't want 
any of his nasty Yankee trash." Not ex- 




General R. E. Lee, 

actly understanding it, he rode over in the 
evening to enquire what was wrong. The 
young lady's eyes flashed as she demand- 
ed to know how he dared to insult her by 
sending her a book about " Lee's Misera- 
bles." She knew that General Lee's men 
weren't as well dressed as the Yankees, 
but they weren't miserable one bit, and it 
was all a Yankee falsehood to say that 
they were. 

Last Thoug-hts of the Dying Boy-Soldier. 

In one of the large hospitals for the sick 
of the Union army, surrounded by the 
wounded and dying, lay a mere boy. One 
glance at the fever-flush on his fair cheek, 
the unnatural brilliancy of the beautiful 
blue eye, together with the painfully rest- 
less movement that tossed the bright curls 
from his heated forehead, told with mourn- 



ful certainty the tale that his hours were 
numbered. 

Yet only a fellow-soldier sat beside him. 
No fond mother's or sister's hand bathed 
that fevered brow: and tender tones 
whispering words of love and comfort 
were wanting by the bedside of the dying 
lad. The physician approached him, and, 
used as he was to such scenes, said, sadly, 

" What a pity ! yesterday such a fair 
prospect of recovery, and to-day no chance. 
Poor boy ! " he continued, in an under 
tone, '• I wonder where his mother is ! but 
she could never get here in time. Ah, 
well ! it's fretting so much has done it." 

Here the poor lad interrupted, saying, 
with feverish eagerness, and that pretty 
mingling of Scotch and English always so 
interesting, 

"Its na' the fretting; its the vow. Sin 
I canna see her in the body I maun in the 
spirit, and before night — oh, me ! " 

" Delirious," said the doctor, " I feared 
it ; " and, with an injunction to the watch- 
ing soldier to let him talk on as much as 
he pleased, passed on — he had really no 
time to spend by the dying boy. Thus 
encouraged to talk — for the young soldier 
had his senses perfectly — he turned to his 
comrade, saying: 

" Will you hear me tell it, James ? It 
wad mak the time seem shorter to speak 
out what is in my head. Weel, then, I'll 
begin at the time when father, mither, 
Jessie, an I all lived in that sweet wee 
home awa among the Scotch mountains. 
We had na much, to be sure, but enough 
to keep oursels, and some'at to spare for 
our poorer neighbors. Jessie was a very 
bonnie lass, older than mysel by some 
years, and it was na long till she was 
promised to the minister of the place. A 
nice young man was he, and all the coun- 
try round was glad when it was known. 
It cam Jessie's birthday just three months 
before the wedding-day. She was very 
sad, an kep saying how happy she had 
been at home, an how na ither spot could 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



563 



ever be to her what it had been ; an then, 
in the middle of the dancing an fun, she 
up an threw her arms round my mither's 
neck, an vowed that always, on that eve- 
ning, so lang as my mither was alive, she 
would come — whether ' in the body or in 
the spirit,' she would never fail. 'Twas 
a wild word for her to speak, an' many o' 
the neighbors shook their heads as they 
heard, an the talk went round the town 
that Jessie Graeme had bound hersel by 
sich a strange vow." 

Here the boy paused from extreme ex- 
haustion, and, as he rested for a few mo- 
ments, seemed to be looking at something 
very far off ; then, rousing himself, said — 

" I maun be short ; it is near the time. 
Jessie was married, an our hearts were 
just as glad as children ; till one day word 
cam that Jessie an her husband were 
drowned. In crossing a little loch to visit 
some sick folk the boat must 'a overturn- 
ed, for it was found floating ; but we never 
saw them again. Oh ! 'twas a bitter time. 
My mither fretted much ; for, though she 
kenned it true, she could na think of our 
bonnie lassie lying dead an' cold in her 
husband's arms, on the stanes at the bat- 
tom o' the loch. My father fretted too. 
He wad na think that she was dead, but 
kep saying she wad soon be back to glad- 
den our hearts once mair ; but she never 
cam ; an we three, wi' sickening hearts, 
Waited for her birthday ; Ave kenned right 
weel that, dead or alive, her promise wad 
be kep. The night cam, an Ave sat wi' 
open door an curtain draAvn from the Avin- 
doAv (for Avhen they come i' the spirit it's 
only through the AA r indoA\ r they can look). 
We three by the bright fire sat waiting for 
the first sound o' her footstep. I heard it 
first, as, wi' the Avater dripping from her 
clothes, she cam swiftly up the Avalk, an, 
putting aside the rose-bush, looked in — 
only for one moment ; then she Avas gone ; 
but by that Ave kenned she was dead. It 
seemed to comfort my mither ; so that, 
when I left soon after to" come here, I 
made the same vow, ' that so long as my 



mither lived, AAdiether in the body or in 
the spirit, I wad, on the same night, stand 
by Jessie's side ' ; and I maun," he added, 
his eyes brightening, and a cold damp 
gathering on his broAV. " Does no one 
see ? Don't you hear the Avater dripping 
frae her dress ? My mither, wi' her long 
gray hair ! See, she is putting the roses 
awa. How cold an clammy her hand is ! 
It is dark ! " 

With these words, he fell back lifeless 




Bodies laid out 

on the bed. In awe-struck silence his 
eyes Avere closed, and the cheeks of the 
bravest paled at the thought that the spirit 
they had so loved and revered for unfailing 
tenderness and true courage might be, at 
that moment, standing by the sister it had 
so dearly loved, looking through the case- 
ment on the home and parents of their 
childhood, Avhile the beautiful frame it had 
inhabited lay motionless before them. 



Great Day's "Work for a Scout,— the Misses 
Scott. 

The ladies of Virginia and Maryland 
showed themselves to be, as a rule, fiercer 
in their secessionism than the men, and by 
their aid many a disaster Avas brought 
upon the Union cause, and the gallant 
officers and men engaged in its defence. 
In the summer of 1861, tAVO young ladies 
of the name of Scott, residents of Fair- 
fax County, Virginia, Avere the means of 
capturing the Captain of a volunteer regi- 
ment from Connecticut. They were at last 



564 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



taken themselves, in the following man- 
ner, by a scouting party who were ear- 
nestly in pursuit of the two in question. 

After getting out of the woods, the 
party came to a cornfield, and crawling 
through it on their hands and knees, came 
at last to a house, which they visited in 
order to get what information they could. 
They found an old man, and asked him if 
any Federal troops were there. He, in 
return, wanted to know if they were on 
the Southern side. Lieutenant Upton 
told him " Yes ; " when he told them they 
were about a mile from the Union tents, 
and to look out sharp or they would be 
captured. The party of course appeared 
frightened, and posted a man outside to 
keep a keen watch. Lieutenant Upton 
told him he was an officer of a South Caro- 
lina regiment. The old man then told 
him all about the United States camp, the 
names of all the secession neighbors, and 
finally said he had in his house the two 
Miss Scotts who took the Yankee Cap- 
tain, — the old man conducting them into 
the room and introducing them to the 
Miss Scotts. 

That moment was a blessed one indeed to 
the scouting party, for right in their hands 
were those whom the whole brigade had 
been hunting for. But the gallant Fede- 
rals continued to play their part, compli- 
menting the ladies highly for their feat, 
and pumping the old man for more in- 
formation. After learning the most direct 
route to the Union camp, Lieutenant Up- 
ton told them he and his party must go, 
but still he would like to see the whole 
family together to bid them good-bye. 
Accordingly they all came out in the front 
porch — the old man, his wife, three sons, 
and daughter, and the two Miss Scotts. 

The party simply formed a circle around 
the gathered household, when Lieutenant 
Upton, drawing his sword, demanded their 
surrender to the United States. No pen 
could describe the blank and utter astonish- 
ment, wonder and heart-sinkings, exhibited 
at this moment. The two Miss Scotts and 



the young men were all that were taken 
along. The excitement was very great 
when the party went into camp ; and in 
the evening the party was sent for by the 
General in command, who complimented 
them highly for their conduct. 



Conditional Offer of his Autograph by Gen- 
eral Grant. 
The ladies sojourning at Willard's cai'a- 
vansory in Washington beset ■ General 
Grant, in the true style of their sex, on 
one of his rare visits to Washington, that 
they might obtain an autograph from the 
hand which then held the nation's sword. 
Partaking of the enthusiasm of the hour, a 
whole bevy of them congregated in the 
principal suite of parlors in the hotel, and 
signified by a messenger to General Grant, 
who was a guest of the house, that they 
desired an interview with him. The 
General came down from his quarters, 
and a very pleasant levee was held by 
him. Many of the ladies succeeded by 
their dexterous and insinuating modus 
operandi in getting the General's auto- 
graph, — the object which was so eagerly 
sought for. In the course of the inter- 
view, an elderly lady applied to the Gen- 
eral for an autograph, in behalf of a hand- 
some mother of six children who was 
present ; but Avhen his sharp military eye 
fell upon the applicant, he immediately 
stipulated that she should make the re- 
quest in person. She did so, and imme- 
diately received the coveted bit of hand- 
writing. 



Unrequited GaUantry in a New Orleans 
Street Car. 

It was a long time before the dainty 
hauteur of the New Orleans ladies could 
yield with any decent degree of flexibility 
to the rising star of General Butler and 
his Union associates, and many a look and 
act of lofty defiance were the latter made 
the recipients of. One evening, a Feder- 
al officer — a very handsome man, by the 
way, and, therefore, a little vain — happen- 
ed to be in a street railway car, wherein 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



565 



were also two ladies, evidently belonging 
to the first classes of the Crescent city. 
One of them dropped her lace pocket hand- 
kerchief — he, the officer, stooped most gal- 
lantly, and handed it to her. She looked at 
him with unmeasured contempt, and said, 
"Do you suppose I will touch 
anything contaminated by 
your touch ? " That insult re- 
stored his manhood and his 
patriotism, which had fairly 
melted under the bright 
eyes of the Creole beauty ; 
he took up the handker- 
chief with the smallest pos- 
sible touch, as if he felt its 
possession by her had been 
a contamination, opened the 
car window, deliberately 
dropped it in the street, 
and sat down. The lady's 
brusqueness had been more 
than matched. 



guile the few hours of leisure that he had 
by looking up the ambitious youth. He 
made his way, by dint of much inquiry, 
to a small tailor's shop on the outskirts of 
the town, and when he was admitted at 
the door he found a lad sitting cross-legged 




Ilead-quarters of General Bumside, at Roanoke Island. 



Appointment of Bumside as a Cadet. 

About twenty years ago, one of the 
members of President Lincoln's cabinet — 
Secretary Smith, — was a member of 
Congress from a distant Western State. 
He had the usual right of designating a 
single candidate for admission to the West 
Point Military Academy. The applica- 
tions made to him for, a vacancy which 
then existed were not many, but among 
them was a letter from a boy of sixteen 
or seventeen years of age, who, without 
any accompanying recommendations or 
references, asked the appointment for him- 
self. The member dismissed the appeal 
from his mind, with perhaps a passing 
thought of the forwardness and impudence 
of the stripling who coidd aspire to such a 
place on no other grounds than his desire 
to get a good education at the public ex- 
pense. 

But happening a short time afterward 
to be in the little village whence the letter 
was mailed, the incident was recalled to 
his memory, and he thought he would be- 



upon the tailor's bench, mending a rent in 
an old pair of pantaloons. But this lad 
had another occupation besides his manual 
toil. Near by, on a small block of wood, 
rested a book of abstruse science, to which 
he turned his eyes whenever they could 
be transferred from the Avork in his hands. 
The member accosted him by the name 
given in the letter, and the lad replied " I 
am the person." " You wish, then, to be 
appointed a cadet at West Point ? " "I 
do," he rejoined. " Why ? " asked the 
Congressman. " Because," answered the 
tailor youth, " I feel that I was born for 
something better than mending old 
clothes." The member talked further 
with him, and was so well pleased with 
his frankness, his spirit, and the rare in- 
telligence he evinced, that he procured 
him the appointment. 

Name of the member, Caleb Smith. 
Name of the appointee, Ambrose E. 
Burnside. This reminiscence was one 
which Burnside's comrades at head-quar- 
ters (when the cadet had risen to be Gen- 
eral,) not unfrequently recounted with a 



566 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



hearty zest, and it doubtless did not fail 
to cross the memory of the gallant Gener- 
al himself. 

Lizzie's Mark on the Handkerchief. 
In one of the hospitals of the Union 
army in Virginia, there was a young fel- 
low, severely though not painfully wound- 
ed. Seeing some clean linen rag-stuff 
whicli one of the doctors had left on the 
floor a little distance off, he asked an at- 
tendant to tear him off a piece that Avould 
serve for the purpose of a pocket hand- 
kerchief. Thinking the surgeon might 
have set apart the linen for some special 
use, and preferring in any case to give him 
a bona fide handkerchief, if there was one 
left, the attendant felt in his pocket, and 
there at its bottom was the last of his 
small store. It was rather a nice affair ; 
the cambric not of the finest, but with 
quite a stylish border round its edge, and he 
pronounced it " bully," as it was handed 
to him. The outside fold had, as usual, 
the Commission's stamp, but it soon ap- 
peared that there was still another mark 
upon it ; for he had scarcely unfolded it 
and held it out for an admiring inspection, 
before he uttered quite a shriek of de- 
light, and asked the attendant if he knew 
his folks at home, and if they had given 
him the handkerchief to be thus handed. 
It appeared that besides the mark of the 
Commission, there was marked in thread 
the name of the relief society in his na- 
tive place, and the poor fellow gave sun- 
dry reasons for his positive assertion that 
the marking must have been done by none 
other than the hands of his little sister 
Lizzie. Of course such a discovery de- 
lighted him. 
° ♦ 

Birth of Boys and Girls in War Times. 

One of the "strong minded" women of 
New York city — one noted for the aeute- 
ness as well as accuracy of her observa- 
tions of life and society — bore her testi- 
mony to a remarkable physiological fact, 
owing to moral causes, and which is at 



least worthy of being recorded. She 
affirmed, after close investigation, that of 
the births which took place in New York, 
during the war, those which occurred in 
families whose attachment to the Union 
was decided and zealous, were mostly 
boys, while in families in which there was 
a decided sympathy for the secession 
cause, they were mostly girls. Of course, 
every one's observation or knowledge 
would furnish them to instances confirm- 
ing such a statement, or showing it to be 
a mistake. It has often been said that in 
countries wasted by long wars, carrying 
off the male population, there was a large 
predominance of male births. 



Agreeable Reciprocity of Union Sentiment. 

As the ladies in one of the Union Sani- 
tary establishments were one evening at 
their tea, a Confederate prisoner came in 
and stated that a sick comrade wanted 
" something good — some fruit." One of 
the ladies was just about eating a saucer 
of raspberries, and turning to the messen- 
ger she handed them to him, saying : 

" Take these to him, and tell him they 
come from a good Union lady, who de- 
prives herself of them to give them to a 
Confederate soldier." 

In a short while the messenger return' 
ed with the saucer, bearing the following 
message from the recipient of the lady's 
kindness : 

" He wished they were united" 



"Wedding-Table Flag at Pensacola. 
On the night of the arrival of Union 
troops at Pensacola, two or three of the 
private soldiers were taking a stroll, and 
during this walk were met by a very fine- 
looking lady, who immediately grasped 
one of the party by the hand, and seemed 
so overjoyed that for a moment she could 
say nothing. At last she told them how 
happy she was at their arrival, and that 
she had long prayed for the coming of that 
day ; then, taking a small silk American 
flag from her bosom, she presented it to 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



557 



or.e of them, saying, " For nine months I 
have carried this flag hidden on my per- 
son, praying that an opportunity like this 
would present itself, that I might offer it 
to a Union soldier. This flag graced my 
wedding table, and I lore it and every 
soldier that fights for it." The husband 
of this lady was obliged to fly for his life 
on account of his Union principles. 



Girl-Boy Soldier in the Ninetieth Illinois. 
Frances Hook's parents died when she 
was only three years old, and left her, with 
a brother, in Chicago, Illinois. Soon after 
the war commenced, she and her brother 
enlisted in the Sixty-fifth u Home Guards." 
Frances assumed the name of " Frank 
Miller." She served three months and 
was mustered out, without the slightest 
su>p'cion of her sex having arisen. She 
then enlisted in the Ninetieth Illinois, and 
was taken prisoner in a battle near Chat- 
tanooga. She attempted to escape and 
was shot through the calf of one of her 
limbs while said limbs were doing their 
duty in th j attempt. The rebels searched 
her person for papers and discovered her 
sex. The rascals respected her person as 
a woman, and gave her a separate room 
while in prison at Atlanta, Ga. During 
her captivity she received a letter from 
Jeff". Davis, offering her a Lieutenant's 
commission if she would enlist in their 
army. She had no home and no relatives, 
but she said she preferred to fight as a 
private soldier for the stars and stripes 
rather than be honored with a commission 
from the "rebs." At last she was ex- 
changed. The insurgents tried to extort 
from her a promise that she would go 
home, and not enter the service again. 
" Go home ;" she said, " my only brother 
was killed at Pittsburg Landing, and I 
have no home — no friends ! " Frank is 
described as of about medium height, with 
dark hazel eyes, dark brown hair, rounded 
features, and feminine voice and appear- 
ance. 



Independent Southern Girls. 
One of the rebel papers, in publishing 
the marriage of a young lady, took occa- 
sion to give her the recommendation of 
being what might be called, sure enough, 
an independent girl. Her bridal outfit 
was made all with her own hands, from 
her ' beautiful and elegant straw hat, down 
to the handsome gaiters upon her feet. 
Her own delicate hands spun and wove 
the material of which her wedding dress 
and traveling cloak were made, so that 
she had nothing upon her person when she 
was married which w r as not made by her- 
self. Nor was she compelled by poverty 
or necessity to make this exhibition of her 
independence. She did it for the purpose 
of showing to the world how independent 
Southern jrirls are.' 



Special Aid to General Hunter. 
Quite a sensation was created in Jeffer- 
son City, Missouri, one evening, by the 
arrival of Mrs. Colonel Ellis, from Tipton, 
bearer of dispatches from General Hun- 
ter and Colonel Ellis. She was dressed 
in semi-military riding-habit and hat, Avith 
a crimson sash thrown around the left 
shoulder, as an officer of the day, mounted 
on a splendid charger, and attended by 
two orderlies. She had ridden forty-five 
miles since ten o'clock, and, without taking 
a moment's rest, delivered her orders at 
camp, and then waited upon General Price 
with her dispatches, urging forward two 
squadrons of Colonel Ellis's command, to 
join the regiment at Tipton. This mulier 
valiente was attached to the First Missouri 
Cavalry, as special aid to her husband, 
Colonel Ellis. 



Love Greetings to the Soldiers. 
Some of the marks which were fastened 
on the blankets, shirts, etc, which Ave re 
sent to the Sanitary Commission for the sol- 
diers, show the thought and feeling at home. 
Thus, on a home-spun blanket, Avarm, 
and washed as white as siioav, Avas pinned 



568 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



a bit of paper, which said, " This blanket 
was carried by Milly Aldrich (who is 93 
years old) down hill and np hill, one and 
a half miles, to be given to some soldier." 

On a bed-quilt was pinned a card, say- 
ing — " My son is in the army. Whoever 
is made warm by this quilt, which I have 
worked on for six days and most all of 
six nights, let him remember his own 
mother's love." 

On another blanket was this — " This 
blanket was used by a soldier in the war 
of 1812 — may it keep some soldier warm 
in this war against traitors ! " 

On a pillow was written — " This pillow- 
belonged to my little boy, who died resting 
on it : it is a precious treasure to me, but 
I give it for the soldiers." 

On a pair of woolen socks was written — 
" These stockings were knit by a little 
girl rive years old, and she is going to knit 
some more, for mother says it will help 
some poor soldier." 

On a box of beautiful lint was this mark, 
" Made in a sick room, where the sunlight 
has not entered for nine years, but where 
God has entered, and where two sons 
have bid their mother good-bye, as they 
have gone out to the war." 

On a bundle containing bandages was 
written — " This is a poor gift, but it is all 
I had ; I have given my husband and my 
boy, and only wish I had more to give." 

On some eye-shades were marked — 
" Made by one who is blind. Oh, how I 
long to see the dear old flag that you are 
fio;htin<r for ! " 



Mrs. "Wade, the Loyal Bread-Baker at 
Gettysburg-. 

One of the most touching episodes of 
the invasion of Pennsylvania, when Lee 
was met and discomfited at Gettysburg, 
was the following : Before the battle of 
Friday, while our forces awaited assault, 
a woman named Wade was engaged in 
baking bread for our troops in a house 
situated directly in range of the guns of 
both armies. The rebels had repeatedly 



ordered her to quit the premises, but she 
had invariably refused to do so. At length 
the battle opened, and while still engaged 
in her patriotic work a ball pierced her 
loyal breast, and she fell. Curiously 
enough, almost at the same moment a rebel 
officer of high rank fell near the place 
where Mrs. Wade had perished. The 
rebels, obtaining the body of the officer, 
immediately constructed a rude coffin in 
which to inter him ; but it is recorded, 
that hardly was it finished, when, in the 
surging of the conflict, a federal column 
occupied the ground. The woman's body, 
discovered by our troops, was at once 
placed in the coffin awaiting an occupant ; 
and so, as witnesses love still to testify, 
finally was buried, amidst the tears of 
hundreds who knew the story of her valor 
and kindheartedness. No class in the 
world are more appreciating of wonfan's 
good offices to them than soldiers, whether 
in the camp or in the hospital, in health 
or in sickness. Mrs. Wade was one of 
the noblest of her sex. Peace to her 
goodly memory. 



Pointed Rebuke from a Soldier's Death-bed. 

Among the wounded at the battle of 

Stone River, in Tennessee, — a scene wor- 




Monument at Stone RiTer 



thily commemorated by an enduring mon- 
ument, — was a young man. Over the 
mortally wounded son hung the anxious 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



569 



mother, in the deepest sorrow that he gave 
no evidence of fitness for eternal scenes. 
But the words the dying youth uttered, 
severely as they condemned himself, 
showed clearly his dying convictions. To 
an appeal from a religious friend, he re- 
plied, — " If I live to get well, I will be a 
Christian ; but I will not throw the fag- 
end of my life in the face of the Almighty." 
He immediately expired. The poor fel- 
low certainly mistook the gospel mode of 
salvation, for faith in Christ can avail in 
other cases as it did with the dying thief 
in his last moments. The ' fag-end ' of his 
life was distinguished by an act which 
opened to him the gates of Paradise. 
The time may indeed be short, but much 
may be done often in a short time. The 
striking language of the dying soldier, 
however, contains a stinging rebuke, wor- 
thy of pretty general remembrance, and 
especially by those who practically claim 
the best of life for themselves, while they 
venture to put off their Maker with the 
little that remains Avhen they are about to 
sink into the jrrave. 



Solution of a Problem peculiarly Southern. 

A pleasant and not uninstructive inci- 
dent occurred one morning in Vicksburg, 
at the expense of a gallant young soldier. 
He was prospecting around town, when 
his attention was attracted to a stable of 
very fine horses. While admiring their 
nice points, he was surprised by the ap- 
pearance of a very fascinating young lady, 
as she emerged from another apartment 
of the horse-house, and bowed politely, 
and smiled killingly upon him. He stam- 
mered out something like an apology for 
his seeming intrusion, mixing up the words 
" proclamation " and " confiscation," etc., 
and ended by asking who was the owner 
of the place ? 

" Dr. Neely," replied the lady. 

" And you — you are his wife ? " asked 
the soldier doubtfully. 

" No," said the lady. 



" Then his daughter ? " — this was said 
very smilingly. 

" No." 

" His niece, perhaps ? " — endearingly. 

" No ; no relation, that I know of." 

" Then a lady friend, on a visit ? " — 
puzzlingly. 

" No, not that, either." 

" Well, then, may I be permitted to ask 
who you are ? " 

" Certainly," replied the lady, who had 
enjoyed the soldier's discomfiture with a 
piquant relish ; " I am his slave ! " 



Proof against Federal Gallantry. 
One or two rebel victories at Bull Run 
are matters pretty generally known. Of 
any female victories, however, in that re- 
gion, somewhat less has been told. A 




Proof against Federal Gallantry. 

certain Union Colonel, a staff officer of one 
of our Generals, noted for his talent at 
repartee, and for the favorable opinion 
which he entertained of his own good 
looks, stopped at the house of a farmer, 
and discovered there a fine milch cow, and, 
still better, a pretty girl, attired in a neat 
calico dress, cut low in the neck and short 
in the sleeves. After several unsuccess- 
ful attempts to engage the young lady in 
conversation, he proposed to her to have 







THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



the cow milked for his own special benefit. 
This she indignantly refused. The Colo- 
nel, not wishing to compromise his reputa- 
tion for gallantry, remarked that if all the 
young ladies in Virginia were as beautiful 
as the one he had the pleasure of address- 
ing, he had no desire to conquer the Con- 
federacy. With a toss of her pretty head 
and a slight but most expressive elevation 
of her nose, she answered thus : " Well, 
sir, if all the gentlemen in your army are 
as ugly as you are, we ladies have no de- 
sire to conquer them ! " 
How are you, Colonel ? 



Doubtful Loyalty, Political and Matri- 
monial. 
Kansas City is a gay place, and they have 
queer specimens of humanity down there. 
If there should exist any doubt on this 
subject, the following case in point, about 
a woman of doubtful loyalty who was 
brought before the Provost Marshal, will 
help to confirm the assertion. This woman 
gave as an evidence of her loyalty that 
her husband had been killed in the One 
Hundred and Sixth Illinois regiment. 
" When did your husband go to Illinois ? " 
" About three years ago." " That was 
before the war, was it not ? " " Yes." 
" Why did you not go to Illinois with 
him?" "Well, I didn't like to go off so 
far with a man I wasn't much acquainted 
with." " You don't mean to say that your 
own husband was so much of a stranger 
that you did not like to go with him ? " 
" Yes, I do. I had only been married to 
him about a year, and I wasn't going to 
leave my folks and go off to Illinois with 
a man I didn't know more about." What 
could the Marshal do to get such a case 
off his hands but to discharge her, — though, 
estimating her loyalty to her country by 
that to her husband, she was a somewhat 
doubtful patriot. 



Tho Bloody Flag- of Fort Pillow. 
The widow of Major Booth, formerly 
commander at Fort Pillow, and who was 



killed there, having arrived at Fort Pick- 
ering, below Memphis, Colonel Jackson 
of the Sixth United States Heavy Artil- 
lery had his regiment formed into line for 
her reception. In front of its centre stood 
fourteen men, as fine, brave fellows as ever 
trod the earth. They Avere the remnant 
of the First battalion of the regiment now 
drawn up — all who had escaped the fiend- 
ish scenes at Pillow. 

Mrs. Booth came forward. In her hand 
she bore a flag, red and clotted with human 
blood. She took a position in front of the 
fourteen heroes, so lately under her de- 
ceased husband's command. The ranks 
before her observed a silence that was full 
of solemnity. Many a hard face showed 
by twitching lips and humid eyes how the 
sight of the bereaved lady touched bosoms 
that could meet steel almost unmoved, and 
drew on the fountain of tears that had re- 
mained dry even amid the pitiless sights 
of a terrific battle. Turning to the men 
before her, she said : " Boys, I have just 
come from a visit to the hospital at Mound 
City. There I saw your comrades wound- 
ed at the bloody struggle in Fort Pillow. 
There I found this flag — you recognize it ! 
One of your comrades saved it from the 
insulting touch of traitors. I have given 
to my country all I had to give — my hus- 
band — such a gift ! Yet I have freely 
given him for freedom and my couniry. 
Next to my husband's cold remains, the 
dearest object left to me in the world is 
this flag — the flag that waved in proud 
defiance over the works of Fort Pillow ! 
Soldiers ! this flag I give to you, knowing 
that you will ever remember the last words 
of my noble husband, ' Never surrender 
the flag to traitors.'' " 

Colonel Jackson then received from her 
hand — on behalf of his command — the 
blood stained flag. He called upon the 
regiment to receive it as such a gift ought 
to be received. At that call he and every 
man of the regiment fell upon their knees, 
and solemnly appealing to the God of bat- 
tles, each one swore to avenge their brave 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



and fallen conn-cades, and never — ' Never 
surrender tliejing to traitors.' 

Maiden Loveliness at Culpepper. 
Some — but happily not all — of the wo- 
men of Virginia, were positively hideous 
in their tierce secession sentiments. For 
instance, when the Union army was re- 
treating through that hot-bed of rebellion, 
Culpepper, a young girl stood at her 
father's door and gave utterance to her 
feelings jjn this wise : "You're falling back 
again, you Yankee cut-throats and robbers, 
are vou? I noAV shall see my ' Bonnie Blue 
Flag' again" — (here she sang a verse of 
that song in a shrill, hyena key,) — "you 
ought to paint a black wench on your dirty 
Star Draggled Banner, and a Yankee 
horse-thief embracing her." 



the boy go to defend themselves, when he 
took to the Avoods and was soon lost to 
sight. As the main body of troops marched 
by, she fired her pistol at them also, but 
without effect, her door receiving in return 
some half-dozen rine ball perforations, to 
remind her that shooting was a dangerous 
business. 



Southern Female Chivalry. 
As Colonel Lander was riding ahead of 
his troops, down the road and reconnoiter- 
ing, on the way to Phillippi, he came to a 
house by the road-side, where the woman 
wjas up, when, Yankee-like, he began to 
question her about the number of seces- 
sionists in the neighborhood. She wanted 
to know what side he belonged to. He 
replied by asking if she supposed he would 
be in that neighborhood if he did not want 
to join the secessionists. He learned from 
her that the rebels had no artillery. Be- 
fore he returned from his reconnoissance 
of the town of Phillippi the woman had 
discovered her mistake, and had a pis- 
tol in hand for him, which she discharged 
at his person, without any damage, how- 
ever. He took off his hat and bowed to 
her very gallantly, and begged her not to 
shoot at his men, as they would kill her. 
Just then the advance of his reconnoiter- 
ing party came up, when he ordered a 
couple of them to seize the woman's son, 
a lad of about seventeen, to prevent him 
informing the enemy of their approach. 
The boy was immediately seized, when 
the mother came at them with an axe and 
the fury of a savage, and they had to let 



Pine Trap tout no Game. 

Mrs. Mills was a genuine Virginia speci- 
men of her sex, and her husband was ab- 
sent in the Confederate army, of which he 
was an officer. One day she was visited 
by two Federal officers, (Quartermaster S. 
and Commissary B.) who were on a forag- 
ing excursion. Mrs. Mills received them 
in a most bewitchingly friendly manner, 
spread out a glorious dinner, and offered 
to sell them oceans of milk and bushels 
of cherries. "With a pleasant smile she 
invited them into the house, setting chairs 
for their accommodation. Nothing loth, 
the two officials entered, and after some 
pressing consented to unsaddle their horses 
and turn them out to graze. Nothing 
could exceed the politeness of Mrs. Mills. 
She was so glad they had come, and so 
fearful that their long ride, under a scorch- 
ing sun, might have fatigued them. And 
were they not hungry? Wouldn't they 
allow her to set out something for them to 
eat ? She was so sorry their camp was 
so distant, for nothing would delight her 
more than to send them strawberries and 
milk, and cherries, and everything which 
her garden could furnish. She thought 
the Union soldiers were such gentlemen — 
so gallant and brave — and so considerate 
towards the poor Virginians who had lost 
their all in this sorrowful war. And 
couldn't they stay to dinner, and allow her 
to treat them with true Virginia hospi' 
tality ? 

Such a loving reception extended by 
the wife of a secession soldier to two per- 
fect strangers, was so very unlike other 
earthly things, and so very like the con- 
cluding chapters of the " yeller kivered," 



572 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



that it astonished our soldier friends. The 
commissary looked at the quartermaster, 
and the quartermaster, thinking he de- 
tected a wink in B.'s eye, returned it, and 
both together they entered the house. 
With many thanks and protestations that 
nothing was further from their intention 
than to give trouble, they took seats, and 
whilst the lady bustled about to prepare 
dinner, had time to look about them. 

They were in a cleanly, well kept Vir- 
ginia log-house, with old-fashioned furni- 
ture ; and were evidently partaking of the 
hospitalities of a lady of cultivated man- 
ners and excellent understanding. Their 
ride had been a long and troublesome one, 
and their hearts were almost melted in 
gratitude towards their fair benefactress. 
A few moments sufficed for the prepara- 
tion of the meal, and the lady, placing 
chairs at the table, invited them to be 
seated. 

Of course, nothing on that humble board 
could, in her estimation, suit the epicu- 
rean palates of two such gallant officers 
of the Union army. Her bread she was 
afraid was too heavy, and her butter too 
soft. Her milk had soured, and, she was 
almost ashamed to tell it, but the very last 
piece of fresh meat had been eaten that 
very morning, and she had nothing but 
ham to offer the gentlemen, — but then the 
ham had been of her father's own raising, 
aiid she knew they would like it. Perhaps 
they would taste some of her early cher- 
ries and strawberries, and asparagus, too ; 
but no, the cherries v/ere under, and the 
strawberries over ripe, and that good-for- 
nothing wench that did the cooking had 
left the asparagus too long on the fire, and 
it was boiled all to pieces. She knew the 
gentlemen wouldn't like it. And her po- 
tatoes, too, she had taken such pains with 
them, and just to think how sodden they 
were — oh, it was awful ! 
< " My dear madam," broke in the polite 
quartermaster, " pray don't apologise any 
more. The meal is excellent. I haven't 
ever sat down to a better. Have you, B ? " 



" No, indeed," said the commissary ; 
" why, at home, I never had anything like 
it. Salt pork and small potatoes are all 
we get up in our country." 

The lady was terribly afraid that the 
gentlemen were not being suited, and that 
they really thought her dinner a poor one, 
" but then you know," she added with a 
smile, " I am doing my best, and if I could 
do better I would." 

" Of course," said the quartermaster. 

" Of course," echoed the commissary. 

" And if my butter is soft it is not my 
fault, is it ? " 

" Oh, certainly not," exclaimed both in 
concert. 

The lady was so bewitching, that for two 
hours the guests sat at her table, eating 
and talking. The quartermaster made 
the apologies, and the commissary adroitly 
put the questions. The fair rebel no doubt 
thought she had effectually caught the two 
simple hearted gentlemen who sat meekly 
before her, and glorying in the triumph 
which afternoon would bring, were slightly 
unguarded. 

" I believe, madam, that your husband 
is in the Confederate army," said B ; " you 
must be very lonely without him." 

" Oh, no — not with such good company 
as you are, and then, besides, I hear from 
him every two or three days,, and he tells 
me all what is going on. Only a day or 
two ago I had word from him." 

The quartermaster treasured this up, 
and the commissary, looking ten times more 
simple-hearted than previously, ejaculated, 
" How very nice ! " 

" Yes, and he says that Beauregard's 
army, or a good part of it, at least, is at 
Richmond, and that soon the enemy will 
be driven from about here, and then he can 
come and see me whenever he wants to." 

The quartermaster took a mouthful of 
water, and the commissary said, " Indeed ! " 
After a pause, he ventured to ask — 

" But, madam, suppose your husband 
should be shot; how would you take 
it?" 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



573 



" Oh, never you mind her," broke in B., 
" she knows very well that if he's killed, I 
will come down here and marry her." 

" Your northern gentlemen are so kind," 
said the lady, " why, I never did see a 
finer set of fellows, and every one unmar- 
ried, too. How strange ! " 

u Not strange at all," said the quarter- 
master, " because only single men come to 
war, the married ones staying at home to 
take care of their wives." 

The lady thought a moment, and re- 
plied — 

" I wish that was the case with us. I 
was so sorry to lose my husband, and he 
was so sorry to go. Only the other day 
he was here, and some rough men came 
along and forced him to leave." 

" Don't cry about it," said kind-hearted 
B., as the lady's tears began to come, "you 
know very well I'll make it all right for 
you, if he's taken prisoner." 

"Will you?" 

" Oh, yes ; you see my friend here is a 
quartermaster, and his sister knows a 
young man that was present at Gen. Mc- 
Clellan's wedding, and I, too, frequently 
write letters to him, and he will do any- 
thing for me. Why, only the other day, 
I sent him a letter asking him for a barrel 
of whiskey, putting ' commissary ' after my 
name, so that he would know it was me, 
and he sent it to me right away." 

"Did he?" 

" Yes, and there's no end to the boxes 
of crackers and barrels of pork, and bar- 
rels of sugar and coffee, and boxes of can- 
dles and cheese, he sends me, for myself and 
friends, and when his wagons — you know 
he keeps three or four — are doing some- 
thing else, why, my friend, the quarter- 
master, jumps aboard his, and drives over, 
and handing the servant a piece of paper 
from me, comes back with lots of them. 
Why, the General will do anything for 
me." 

The lady appeared as if she thought she 
had found a friend, indeed, and gave him 



her husband's name and regiment. B. 
took it down, and said if the old gentleman 
was taken, he would send him over to her 
" as soon as he could." Just as soon as 
she saw a man coming along the road with 
her husband, she might believe it was he 
coming back. 

They sat talking for a long time, each 
one becoming more interested in the other, 
until the quartermaster espied a Federal 
horseman galloping along the road in front 
of the house. His manner was excited, 
and the lady suddenly turning towards the 
door, muttered, " Have they found out so 
soon what our friends are about ? " Nei- 
ther of the officers changed countenance, 
as they were fully prepared for what was 
coming, and had not rode three miles out- 
side the Federal lines to be gulled by any 
female manoeuvres. The commissary con- 
tinued talking, and after a moment the 
quartermaster went out, and leading the 
horses to a point where the lady could not 
see the movements, briskly saddled them. 
The work was finished, and he re-entered 
the house, joining in the conversation as if 
nothing was suspected. 

" But, Mrs. Mills," said he, after a mo- 
ment's small talk, " haven't you any milk 
or butter you could sell us ? I almost for- 
got it, but we came here to buy something 
for the starving fellows at the camp." 

Had he seen the starving fellows at 
camp about this time, perhaps he would 
not have talked so placidly about them. 
The telegraph line had signalled danger to 
them, and with it came the order to pre- 
pare for a fight. ' Where is the quarter- 
master and commissary?' was heard on 
all sides. They had been gone since early 
morning, and here, at four o'clock, they 
had not returned. ' The enemy advancing 
in force,' had been signalled from the very 
direction in which they had gone, and their 
long absence was a sure indication that 
they had been captured. Heavy bets 
were staked against it. ' I'll bet two and 
a half to one they're taken,' cried a Colo- 



574 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



nel. ' Take it ! ' said a major, ' they've got 
fast horses, and can go a streak.' Every 
one was anxious. 

But, with minds far from anxiety, our 
two officers still staid with Mrs. Mills, pro- 
curing all sorts of dainties, and filling their 
bags and baskets with them. They rose 
finally, however, saying they must be go- 
ing, and the commissary took out his pock- 
et-book to pay for the articles they had 
bought. He flourished its contents very 
considerably, and the lady higgled about 
the change, and couldn't calculate, and had 
no dimes or quarters, and must go up 
stairs for some small money. B. didn't 
object, but winked to the quartermaster, 
who brought up the horses, and they both 
mounted. 

" Mrs. Mills," shouted he, " I have the 
right money — here it is." 

Down stairs came the lady, and sought 
to engage them in conversation again. 
She reluctantly took the money, and, find- 
ing that they would go, was at loss for fur- 
ther means of detention. But hospitality 
came to her aid, and she asked them to 
dinner next day. Of course they consent- 
ed, and, thanking her, arranged what 
dainties were to be provided. Two min- 
utes more settled that point, and as they 
bade her Good-bye, a shadow passed 
over her countenance. They walked their 
horses leisurely to the road, and, looking 
behind them, each one clapped the spur 
deep into his horse's side, and with light- 
ning speed they galloped off. 

Five minutes afterwards a secession troop 
came riding by, some stopping at the house 
to hunt for Unionists ! Mrs. Mills had set 
a fine trap, but lost her game. 

The above spirited sketch, though float- 
ing as a waif upon the tide of newspaper 
reading, sounds so much like the effusions 
of < Sentinel,' of the New York World, 
and Mr. Shanks, of the New York Herald, 
that, even if not due to one or the other 
of the writers named, they may truthful- 
ly be spoken of as having laid the coun- 
try under no slight obligation for the 



vast amount of information which, from 
the various seats of war, they daily com- 
municated to their respective journals. 
Finer specimens of reportorial aptness, 
vivacity, and felicitous narrative, are sel- 
dom met with, whether in newspapers or 
books, in times of war or of peace. "Camp- 
Fire and Cotton-Field," by Mr. Thos. W. 
Knox, one of the reportorial staff of the 
Herald, deserves special commendation, as 
being altogether unsurpassed for its pano- 
ramic views of the Great War and all 
those various side scenes and occurrences 
which constitute the most piquant feature 
in war narratives. 



Old Hannah, and the Restored Sc-dier. 

The hospitals in Jefferson City, Missou- 
ri, were at one time in the most fearful 
condition imaginable. One poor fellow, as 
he stated to a visitor, had lain there'- sick 
on the hard boards, and seen five men car- 
ried away dead, one after the other, from 
his side. He was worn to a skeleton ; 
worn through so that great sores were all 
over his back, and filthy beyond telling. 




Old Hannah. 

One day, old Hannah, a black woman who 
had some washing to do for a doctor, went 
down the ward to hunt him up. She saw, 
on her way, this dying man, and had com- 
passion on him, saying, " O, doctor ! let me 
bring to the man my bed, to keep him off 
the floor." The doctor said, " The man is 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



575 



dying ; he will be dead to-morrow." To- 
morrow came, and old Hannah could not 
rest. She went to see the man, and he 
was still alive. Then she got some help, 
took her bed, put the man on it, and car- 
ried him bodily to her shanty ; then she 
washed him all over, as a woman would 
a baby, and fed him with a spoon, and 



[ wooden boxes, on which different makers 
put their various distinguishing brands. 
'. One day a lot of peculiarly hard arrived 
1 in the camp of the Fifth Excelsior. Sev- 
ei-al of the boys were wondering the mean- 
ing of the brand upon the boxes, which 
was as follows : B. C, G03 ; the figures be- 
ing immediately beneath the initials. Va- 




Familiar Soldier Scenes. 



fought death hand to hand day and night, 
and beat him back and saved the sol- 
dier's life, so that he was soon going on a 
furlough to his home in Indiana. He be- 
sought Hannah to go with him, but she 
could not spare time — there was all that 
washing to do. She went with him to the 
steamboat, got him fixed to her mind, and 
then she kissed him, and the man lifted up 
his voice as she left him and wept like a 
child. 



Hard Tack for the Fifth Excelsior. 
Hard bread, or as it has generally been 
called in camp. ' hard tack,' is the soldier's 
food on a campaign. It comes in square 



rious interpretations were surmised, but all 
rejected, until one individual who was then 
in the act of attempting to masticate a 
piece, declared it was plain enough — 
" couldn't be misunderstood." " Why, how 
so ? " was the. query. " Oh ! " he replied, 
" that is the date Avhen the crackers were 
made — six hundred and three years before 
Christ." (603 B. C.) 



Army Matrimonial Advertisements— Hint to 
Romantic Young- Ladies. 

As to who the matrimonial advertisers 
in the army were — some of them, at least, 
— the' following, which was sent to a Phil- 
adelphia paper, will serve as a sample. If 



576 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



the gallant writer was as hard on the se- 
cessionists as he is upon Noah "Webster 
and Lindley Murray, he was a soldier Avho 
deserved to be rewarded with as good a 
wife as his li advertisement " could scare 
up :— 

Messer Editer : — If you pleas stick an 
advertisement in your paper for me, as I 
have been in the army for a good while, 
and like to have something to cheer up 
with in time of truble, and I am the son 
of a very welthy farmer, and have no bad 
hapit, such as useing profane language and 
drinking and useing tobacco ; and I would 
like to open a correspondince with some 
intelligent young lady, photograph ex- 
changed if desired, and I have went 
through a number of hard battles, and I 
want you to put it up the way you think 
best, and my address is 

E. J. G. 
93d O. V. I., 2d Brig., 3d Div., 4th A. C, 
via Nashville, Tennessee. 

Now I want you to stick in a gay ad- 
vertisement. 



Record of a Loyal Family : Five Martyr 
Sous. 

In November, 1864, the Boston papers 
published a communication from Adjutant 
General Schouler, of Massachusetts, in 
which he mentioned the case of a Boston 
lady, a widow, who had had five sons killed 
in the war, and who was in rather poor 
circumstances. The lady was about sixty 
years of age, residing in Ward Eleven. 
In response to the General's letter a con- 
siderable amount of money was received 
for soldiers' families, and some was sent 
especially for the lady to whom allusion 
was made. General Schouler visited her 
and left the money, and made sure that the 
afflicted woman had everything comforta- 
ble for Thanksgiving. 

The names of the five martyr sons are 
as follows : Sergeant Charles N. Bixby, 
Company D, Massachusetts Twentieth reg- 
iment, killed at Fredericksburg, May 3d, 



18G3 ; Corporal Henry Bixby, Company 
K, Thirty-second regiment, killed at Get- 
tysburg, July 3d, 1863 ; private Edward 
Bixby, Twenty-second regiment, died oi 
wounds in the hospital at Folly Island, 
South Carolina; private Oliver Cromwell 
Bixby, Company E, Fifty-eighth regiment, 
killed before Petersburg, July 30th, 1864 ; 
private George Way Bixby, Company B, 
Fifty-sixth regiment, killed before Peters- 
burg, July 30th, 1864. A sixth son, who 
was wounded in one of the then recent 
battles, and who belonged to a Massachu- 
setts regiment, was lying ill in one of the 
hospitals. 

General Schouler's letter, it seems, at- 
tracted the attention of President Lincoln, 
who, by some means unknown to the Gen- 
eral, ascertained the name of the mother, 
and an early mail brought the following 
letter to the Adjutant General for Mrs. 
Bixby : 

Executive Mansion, 

Washington, 21st Nov., 1864. 

" Dear Madam : I have been shown in 
the files of the War Department a state- 
ment of the Adjutant General of Mas- 
sachusetts that you are the mother of five 
sons who have died gloriously on the field 
of battle. 

I feel how weak and fruitless must be 
any words of mine which should attempt 
to beguile you from the grief of a loss so 
overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from 
tendering to you the consolation that may 
be found in the thanks of the republic they 
died to save. 

I pray that our Heavenly Father may 
assuage the anguish of your bereavement, 
and leave you only the cherished memory 
of the loved and the lost, and the solemn 
pride that must be yours to have laid so 
costly a sacrifice upon the altar of free- 
dom 

Yours, very sincerely and respectful- 

iy. 

A. Lincoln." 
" Mrs. Bixby." 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



577 



Home and the Battlefield. 
In a ramble over the field of battle at 
Gettysburg, after the awful scenes of car- 
nage enacted tbere had ceased, the party 
came across a soldier who, although not 
apparently a severe sufferer, was anxious 




thought of his dear ones at home and their 
dependence upon him, and his possible in- 
ability to care for them in the future. 
Then he answered haltingly: 

" Because, because, Sir, I have use for 
it." 

Yes, poor fellow, doubtless he had use 
for it. No wonder that brave John Burns 
— the only man at Gettysburg who fought 
at the battle in defence of his home — was 
inspired to do such noble deeds, under such 
noble examples ! 



John Burns, the only man in Gettysburg, I'a , who fought 
at the Battle- 



tO rehearse his ills. The surgeon, after 
some cursory examination of his wound, 
remarked : 

" You must have that limb examined, 
my good fellow ; I will send for you to- 
morrow, and have you brought up." 

A look of unutterable longing passed 
over the soldier's face. He knew the 
thought of the surgeon's mind ; that ex- 
amination meant amputation, and he ex- 
claimed, half-savagely, but with a childish 
entreaty mellowing the defiance of his 
voice : 

" I can't lose that leg — I can't, can't ! " 

" But why ? " 

He paused a moment, and a startled look 
passed over his face, as if in a flash he had 
36 



All for her Lover. 
Among the passengers on board the 
steamer Georgiana, plying between For* 
tress Monroe and Baltimore, on the night 
of December 28, 1861, was a lady who 
registered her name as Mrs. Baxley, and 
who had been brought up to the Fortress 
from Norfolk, under a flag of truce. 

Mrs. Baxley appeared gay on the passage, 
and at the breakfast table the next morn- 
ing she made some remarks which attracted 
the attention of Mr. Brigham, who asked 
her jocosely whether she was a secession- 
ist — to which she answered, "Yes." After 
the gang plank was run out, the boat hav- 
ing landed at Baltimore, Mrs. Baxley was 
heard to say that she " thanked God she 
had arrived home safe ; " and when about 
stepping ashore, Mr. Brigham tapped her 
on the shoulder and requested her attend- 
ance in the ladies' cabin. 

As soon as the room was reached, she 
took off her bonnet, between the lining of 
which were found upwards of fifty letters 
sewed in, — she exclaiming that having 
been found out she thought it best to de- 
liver the ' contrabands,' and be allowed to 
proceed on her way. But Mr. Brigham 
insisted upon it that she had others, when 
in her shoes and stockings numerous other 
letters were also found.' The lady was 
closely guarded until the Provost Marshal 
of Baltimore was informed of the case, 
when he sent a lady to examine Mrs. Bax- 
ley with more scrutiny. Almost every 
possible place about her clothing was filled 



578 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



with letters from Secessia for rebel sym- 
pathizers at Baltimore. 

But in her corsets was found a document 
which, when taken by the lady examining 
the smuggler, Mrs. Baxley rushed at her, 
and, getting hold of the paper, tore it in 
two. The lady examiner rushed at Mrs. 
B., at the same time calling assistance. 
Mr. Brigham, who stood outside while the 
operation was going on, rushed into the 
saloon and found Mrs. Baxley vanquished, 
and the document, though torn, in the pos- 
session of the Provost Marshal's aid. This 
document proved to be a commission from 
Jeff. Davis to a Dr. Septimus Brown, of 
Baltimore, also passes and direction for 
him to run the Federal blockade, in order 
to gain the rebel domains. The Dr. was 
immediately arrested and sent to Fort 
McIIenry. 

Madam Baxley was taken to a hotel and 
several police officers placed on guard over 
her. While locked in her room, she 
dropped a note out of her window ad- 
dressed to her lover (the rebel doctor) im- 
ploring him, for God's sake, to fly, as all 
was discovered. She was also quite dis- 
heartened and said that she had braved all 
dangers for the sake of her lover, and, 
when on the point of having accomplished 
all her cherished desires, the cup of happi- 
ness (alas ! such is life and such is love !) 
was dashed from her lips as she was about 
drinking from it. It seemed to be her 
only and darling desire to get her lover 
into the rebel army, and, having succeeded, 
she was only detected in her nefarious 
transactions when about completing her 
mission. 



Supper for AH: "Woman's Goodness. 
One summer night, a lady belonging to 
Fall River, Massachusetts, a passenger on 
the Metropolis, while going from New 
York with some sick and wounded prison- 
ers, seeing they were not cared for as her 
generous nature would dictate, and learn- 
ing from them that the wants of the inner 
man were just then the strongest, called 



the steward of the boat to her; she says — 
" Can these men have supper ? " " No. 
ma'am ; there has been no provision made 
of that kind by the Government, and we 
cannot provide these unless we provide 
all." " Can you get them all supper if I 
will pay for it ? " " Yes." " Very well, 
do so." The supper was accordingly got, 
with all the delicacies on hand. No stint, 
but the best, for which the sum of $150 
was paid. No one was informed of the 
act, no herald or newspaper reporter was 
there to proclaim it. One of the recipients 
of her noble bounty is the narrator of 
this. 



Mose Bryan paying- his Respects to General 
Burnside. 

^Among the contrabands who presented 
themselves to General Burnside were 
Moses and Africa Bryan. The former 
asked, on coming into military quarters, 
for General Burnside. Having his tent 
pointed out, he entered it, and proceeded 




Mose Bryan 

to introduce himself. Bowing to the Gen- 
eral, he says : 

" I took the liberty to call on you — I am 
Moses Bryan." 

" Well," says the General, " I am Gen- 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



579 



eral Burnside. Are you a good Union 
man, Moses ? " 

" I am that," says Mose. 

" Well, then, give me your hand," says 
the great-hearted hero ; and he at once 
clasped the hand of his sable ally : " Have 
you been looking for me ? " he continued. 

" Yes, massa, I and my people have 
watched, and have prayed for you so long 
and so often," was the late bondman's an- 
swer. 

" What, wasn't you afraid we would sell 
you to Cuba ? " the General next asked. 

" No, Sir," said the other, " we know 
you never do that." 

And here, after mutual interchanges of 
good wishes, the visitor, with a native po- 
liteness which would have set well on the 
shoulders of any one, had the good sense 
to see that the interview had continued 
long enough, and withdrew. 



IiCyalty and Abolitionism supposed Syncni- 
mous. 

At one of the leading hotels in New 
Orleans, a party were one day sitting at 
the breakfast table, before Louisiana had 
seceded. The question was asked, " Is 
there any news this morning ? " A south- 
erner, one of the most wealthy men in 
the city, a burly man, accustomed to des- 
potic sway among his negroes, replied 
coolly, " Nothing, except that some of our 
boys went down the river last night, and 
took possession of one of the United States 
forts." A northern lady who was present, 
a lady by birth, by education, and by posi- 
tion, hesitatingly inquired, not provoking- 
ly, but as a question for information, " Is 
it not treason to seize a national fort ? " 
This southern rebel burst out upon her 
with the most intemperate, profane, and 
vulgar abuse, denouncing her as a d — 
Yankee and abolitionist, and declaring 
that if she were a man, he "would wring 
her nose for her, and that, as soon as her 
husband came in, he would hold him ac- 
countable, and wring his nose. No one 
dared to interfei-e, for such men carried 



bowie-knives and revolvers ; and there 
was no power of law to punish one for 
shooting a person accused of abolitionism. 
The lady Avas in a state of indescribable 
teiTor. She expected, every moment, to 
see her husband come in, to be first gross- 
ly insulted, and then to be shot or stabbed 
before her eyes. With a face pallid as 
death, and a voice trembling almost beyond 
control, she looked up to him, and said : 

" Will you accept the apology of a lady, 
when I assure you that I intended no of- 
fense ? I merely wished to ask a ques- 
tion for information." 

" Yes," was the reply, " I will accept the 
apology of a lady ; but you are no lady — 
you are a cursed abolitionist, and I will 
wring your husband's nose for him when I 
meet him," and so on, until the lady left 
the table. The gentleman and lady found 
it expedient to leave New Orleans. 



Heart-rending: Scene. 
As the severely wounded in the Vir- 
ginia battles, in the summer of 18G4, were 
being transferred to the ambulances, a 
lady from Michigan was seen looking anx- 
iously around to ascertain if either of hei 




Soldiers' Graves, Bull Run. 

sons was among the number. Presently 
she recognized her son among the throng. 
He was seated on a coffin, and his arm 
seemed to be shot off, or partly so. " Where 
is Charles ? " said the anxious parent, while 



580 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



her countenance expressed the agony of in- 
tense suspense and her voice could only 
find a choked utterance. " In this, mother," 
said the wounded man, pointing to the cof- 
fin on which he sat. The scene was heart- 
rending. The stricken mother had also 
another son in the army. 



" She Loved a Soldier Xiad." 
The lover of a young Ohio girl had en- 
listed, and she determined to join him. 
She was inspected, accepted, and sworn in 
with the rest «of the company ; marched 
to Camp Jackson, Ohio, drilled there sev- 
eral days, when she was sent with the 
Third Ohio Regiment to Camp Dennison, 
near Cincinnati. Here she assisted in all 
the duties of forming a new camp, hand- 
ling lumber, standing sentry, etc., until 
Saturday, when, ascertaining fur the 
first time that there were two Camp Den- 
nisons, and that while she was in one her 
lover was in the other, in Lancaster, 
Penn., she went to Colonel Morrow, and 
requested to be changed from the company 
she was in, giving as her reason that she 
preferred associating with Americans, and 
her company was composed of Irishmen. 
Her real design was, when her request 
should be granted, to choose a place in 
one of the companies of the Second Regi- 
ment, not knowing that it would be im- 
possible to change her from one regiment 
to another. Col. Morrow discovered the 
secret of her sex. Marshal Thompson 
then supplied her with clothing, having 
enrobed herself in which, she expressed a 
desire to leave, as she had friends in the 
city with whom she could sojourn. She 
was released. 

Very Pleasant Surprise for Two. 
A sprightly young wife appeared one 
day at the office of the Sanitary Commis- 
sion in Louisville, asking to have a dis- 
patch written for a permit to visit her hus- 
band in Nashville. The clerks turned to 
consult the record for his name, which she 



at once pronounced a useless delay — " she 
knew he was in Nashville, and all she 
wanted was a dispatch written, and would 
be obliged for as much haste as possible." 
" But," said the clerk, " are you quite sure 
he is in Nashville ? " " Certainly ; no- 
thing is more certain." " You would have 
no objections to meeting him here ? " the 
clerk inquired again, his eye resting on an 
open page, with his finger at a particular 
name. The woman flushed as if annoy- 
ed. " You are playing with me, Sir. 
Will you give me the dispatch ? " " No ; 
you will not need it. This ' abstract ' 
will please you better. These are direc- 
tions where to find your husband — a few 
blocks off," the clerk rejoined, a smile 
breaking over his face. With one look — 
such as a woman can give — to be sure 
that she was not the victim of a deception, 
the young wife darted away, and a few 
moments afterward found that, after all, 
the one she sought was not in Nashville, 
but right within reach of her loving arms. 
Such is an illustration of the noble Sani- 
tary Commission, to which such men as 
Bellows and others consecrated their time 
and talents during the war, — the noblest 
scheme of military beneficence, and on the 
most gigantic scale, ever undertaken in 
the ajjes of the world. 



Delivered at the Eleventh Hour. 
Major Fullerton, of General Granger's 
staff, developed quite a little romance in 
Shelbyville, Tennessee. Just as the Con- 
federate forces were being driven out of 
the town, the General was on horseback 
galloping through one of the streets, and 
when passing an old dingy brick house 
almost hid from view by the cedar trees 
in the yard, he observed at a window in it 
a young lady in her robe de nuit, beckon- 
ing him toward her. Although advised 
not to stop, he wheeled his horse around 
and entered the yard. A he rebel en- 
deavored to keep him from entering, while 
the lady called out to him that he must 
come. So, pushing Mr. Rebel to one 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



581 



ed in a Southern prison. Among them was 
a young man — young, judging from the 
skeleton-like but still powerful frame — 
but old, from the pinched and ghastly face 
— a dying one, at all events. Somebody 
near by uttered the word, softly, " Starv- 
ing ! " But low as it was uttered, the 
poor boy of whom it was spoken caught 
the word. 

" Yes," he said, feebly, " it is quite use- 



side, the General at once passed into the 
house and entered the room where the 
lady was. She proved to be the beautiful 
Miss Cushman, then quite ill and prostrat- 
ed by a nervous fever, brought on by the 
hardships, indignities and insults she had 
undergone. As he entered the room she 
caught him by the hand and said — 

" Thank God, you all have come at last ; 
I am now safe ! " 

Her story was 
short. Her wrongs 
and sufferings had 
been long. Two or 
three months previ- 
ously, she had occa- 
sion to pass through 
the lines from Nash- 
ville to Shelbyville. 
When she arrived 
there, it was discov- 
ered by the secession 
authorities that she 
was a Unionist. 
These two circum- 
stances taken togeth- 
er were enough to 
convict her as a spy, 
under the arbitrary 

rulings of the Confederate Government. | less, gentlemen — no," turning from the 
She was arrested, tried, and condemned to bread that was offered him, " I loathe it 




Military Prison at" Salisbury, N. C. 



be executed. She tried to make her escape 
to the Federal lines, but could not succeed. 
Before the day fixed for her execution 
she was taken dangerously ill, and was 
then removed to the house in which she was 
discovered. They left Shelbyville in such 
haste that they either forgot her or else 
they had not the transportation to carry 
her, — the only carriage that could be had, 
carried General Bragg and family out of 
town with great speed a few hours before 
the Federals entered. An ambulance was 
fitted up for Miss Cushman, and in it she 
was sent forward by her deliverers. 



Relieved through the Mercy of Death. 

One morning the ambulance brought a load 

of fourteen Federal prisoners to be immur- 



now. For days and days I have been 
mad for it. I have had murder in my 
heart. I thought if one died the rest 
might live. Once we caught a dog and 
roasted him, and quarreled over the bits. 
We had no cover ; we lay on the scorch- 
ing sand, and, when the terrible heats were 
over, came the raw fogs and bitter wind." 

He stopped, seemingly from exhaustion, 
and lay a few moments silent ; then the 
pitiful voice commenced again : 

" We were very brave for a while ; we 
thought help was coming. We never 
dreamed they could go on at home eating, 
lying soft, and making merry, while we 
were dying by inches. I think if my 
brother knew — If ever you get back I 
charge you, before God, find out Robert 



582 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Bence, surgeon of the — Maine. Tell 
him that his brother Jem starved to death, 
and that thousands more are — Ah ! just 
Heaven ! the pain again ! O Christ ! help 
me ! have — " 

The words died away in inarticulate 
ravings. He tossed his arms wildly over 
his head; his whole frame racked with 
the most awful throes. " And this," says 
the narrator, u was my poor boy ; so wast- 
ed, so horribly transformed, that I had not 
known him. His glazing eyes had not 
recognized me. His few remaining hours 
were one long, raving agony. He never 
knew that his brother was by his side. I 
died over and over again, standing there 
in my utter helplessness. I had never so 
thanked God as when his moaning fell 
away into the merciful silence of death." 



Miss Lee and the Yankee Corporal. 
After the battle of Manassas, the Union 
prisoners were conveyed to the Richmond 
prisons, and, as the train was compelled 
to halt at every station from one to three 
hours, the journey occupied two days. 
Corporal AV. H. Merrill, who was one of 
the prisoners, had the honor of a confabu- 

Hi {- 
I 




Miss Lee and the Yankee Corporal 

lation with one of the many bright-witted 
ladies who contributed, by their spirited 
words and acts, to give such eclat to the 
cause of the South. According to the 
Corporal : — 



Arriving at Culpepper, the daughter of 
Major Lee, a young and beautiful damsel, 
came up to the window from which I 
leaned, and asked if she could do anything 
for me ; and added, " What did you come 
down here for ? "• [This had become a ster- 
eotyped query.] I replied, "To protect the 
Stars and Stripes and preserve the Union." 

My questioner then proceeded, after the 
uniform custom, to berate General Scott : 
" That miserable old Scott — a Virginian 
by birth — a traitor to his own State — toe 
all hate him ! " 

Miss Lee wore upon her bonnet a mina- 
ture silken secession flag, which she hand- 
ed me, remarking that she thought I could 
fight as well for the " Stars and Bars" as 
for the Stars and Stripes. I playfully re- 
minded her that she had just denounced 
General Scott as a traitor to his own State 
— and if I should fight for the " Stars and 
Bars," I should be a traitor to the State 
of New York ! This trivial argument 
was evidently a poser. " Oh," responded 
she, " I had not thought of that ! " But 
she insisted upon my acceptance of the 
emblem of disloyalty, and I still retain it 
out of kindly regard for the donor. She 
cut the button from my coat sleeve, and I 
consented to the " formal exchange," 
though not fully recognizing her as a " bel- 
ligerent power." 

Scarcely Seventeen Years, but a Heroine. 

Miss Amelia E. Harmon, a beautiful 
girl of some seventeen summers, played a 
prominent part in the thrilling drama of 
the Gettysburg battles. She occupied 
with her relatives the best dwelling house 
in the country round about, and visible 
from the Seminary Ridge about a mile 
west of Gettysburg. The destruction of 
this building was alluded to by Mr. Eve- 
rett in his celebrated Cemetery Oration. 

Early on the eventful Wednesday 
morning, the signs of the approaching 
tempest were so numerous and unmistaka- 
ble that Miss Harmon was prevented from 
attending the school at Oak Ridge. Dur- 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



58-3 



iiig the charge of Buford's cavalry, which ! of the gentler nature as gave one some 



commenced the battle, the hou.se in ques- 
tion was forcibly occupied by the Federal 
sharpshooters from which to fire upon the 
rebels. On the repulse of the Union cav- 
alry the Confederates announced their in- 
tention of firing the building, in accordance 
with the laws of war ; it having been 
used, they said, as a fort. The family and 
the young lady protested, explaining that 
the occupation was forcible, and not with 
their consent, — the young lady adding 
that ' her mother, who was not now living, 
was a Southern woman, and that she would 
blush for her parentage if Southern men 
could thus fire the house of defenceless 
females, and turn them out in the midst of 
battle ! ' 

One of the Confederates then approach- 
ed her and proposed, in a confidential man- 
ner, that if she would prove that she was 
not a renegade Southerner by hurrahing 
for the Southern Confederacy, he would 
see what could be done. The young he- 
roine indignantly refused the mean pro- 
posal, and, abandoning her burning home 
with her aunt, ran the gauntlet of the fire 
of the two armies. 



Fowr-legrg'ed Pets in the Army. 

The correspondents of the St. Louis 
Republican, Journal, and Democrat, of the 
Chicago Tribune, Times, and Journal, the 
Louisville Journal, and of the Cincinnati 
Gazette, Enquirer, Times, and Commer- 
cial, would do the country a most valuable 
service by embodying in volume form the 
diversified and sparkling contributions, 
through their respective columns, with 
which they favored the public during the 
war. No chronicles were so widely read 
or so greatly praised, especially by those 
peculiarly interested in the Western troops. 
' Bun ' and ' Dot ' are thus delineated by 
the same hand that could portray the storm 
and carnage of battle : 

They had the strangest pets in the army 
— such as nobody would think of taking 
to at home, and yet they were little touches 



such cordial feeling, when seeing them, as 
it is said residents of Bourbon county, Ky., 
habitually experience at so much a gallon. 
One of the army boys carried a red squir- 
rel through "thick and thin" over a thou- 
sand miles, " Bun " eating hard tack like 
a veteran and having the freedom of the 
tent. Another's affections overflowed upon 
a slow-winking, unspeculative little oivl, 
captured in Arkansas, and bearing a name 
with a decidedly classical smack to it — 
Minerva. A third gave his heart to a 
young Cumberland mountain bear. 

But chief among camp-pets were dogs. 
Riding on the saddle-bow, tucked into a 
baggage wagon, mounted on a knapsack, 
growling under a gun, were dogs brought 
to a premature end as to ears and tails, 
and yellow at that ; pug-nosed, square- 
headed brutes, sleek terriers, delicate mor- 
sels of spaniels — Tray, Blanche, Sweet- 
heart, little dogs and all. 

A dog, like a horse, comes to love the 
rattle and crash of musket and cannon. 
There was one in an Illinois regiment — 
and perhaps regarded as belonging to it, 
though his name might not have appeared 
on the muster-roll — that chased half-spent 
shot as a kitten frolics with a ball of worst- 
ed. He was under fire, and twice wound- 
ed, and left the tip of his tail at the battle 
of Stone River. Woe to the man that 
had wantonly killed him ! But there was 
a little white spaniel that messed with one 
of the batteries, and delighted in the name 
of " Dot," who was a special favorite. 
No matter what was up, that fellow's silken 
coat must be washed every day and there 
was need enough of it, for when the bat- 
tery was on the march, they just plunged 
him into the sponge-bucket — not the tidiest 
chamber imaginable — that swings, like its 
more peaceful neighbor, the tar-bucket, 
under the rear axle of the gun-carriage — 
plumped him into that, clapped on the 
cover, and Dot was good for an inside pas- 
sage- One day the battery crossed a 
stream, and the w r ater came well up to the 



;334 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



guns. Nobody thought of Dot, and, when 
all across, a gunner looked into the bucket 
— alas ! it was full of water, and Dot was 
as dead as a little dirty door-mat. 



Mr. Richardson Initiating' his Escape. 

One of the neatest 'sells' was that 
practiced by Mr. Richardson, (the brilliant 
writer for the New York Tribune,) upon 
the prison guard at Salisbury, N. C, when 
he — Mr. R., — made his escape from that 
southern domicil, together Avith some sim- 
ilarly situated comrades. In Mr. Richard- 
son's account of his unique experience in 
this matter, he says : — 

Both " Junius " and our esteemed col- 
laborator, Mr. William E. Davis, of the 
Cincinnati Gazette, had been furnished 
with passes to visit, during the day, a 
rebel hospital, outside the fence and inner 
line of guards, to order in medical sup- 
plies for the prisoners. The inflexible 
rule was, to exact paroles whenever passes 
were granted, but in the confusion attend- 
ant upon the great influx of prisoners, the 
authorities had neglected to require them. 
None of us would have given paroles in 
any event ; but my friends had the good 
fortune not to be asked for them. 

On that Sunday evening, half an hour 
before dark — the latest hour they could 
pass the guard — they both went outside as 
usual to the rebel hospital. A few min- 
utes after, taking in my hand a great box 
full of the bottles in which medicines were 
brought in, I, too, walked rapidly up to 
the gate, while a dozen friends, in the se- 
cret, were looking on to see the result. I 
attempted to pass the sentinel, but he 
halted me and asked : 

" Have you a pass, Sir ? " 

" Certainly I have a pass," I answered. 
" Have you not seen it often enough to re- 
member by this time ? " 

" Very likely," he answered, a little 
nonplussed, " but I was not quite sure, and 
our orders are very strict." 

Thereupon I exhibited to him the gen- 
uine pass belonging to my colleague, whose 



face was so well known to the sentinel — 
though not his name, as the event proved 
— that he had been able to go out without 
showing it. The soldier examined it, read- 
ing slowly and with difficulty, " Guards 
will permit Junius H. Browne, citizen- 
prisoner, to pass the inner gate, to bring in 
medical supplies ; " and then returned it, 
saying : " All right, Sir ; that pass is cor- 
rect, for I know Captain Fuqua's hand- 
writing." * 

Once outside, I hid the medical box be- 
hind a fence, and found refuge in a little 
outbuilding until dark. My two friends 
there joined me ; and we walked through 
the outer gate into the streets in full view 
of the guard, who, seeing us come from 
the rebel hospital, supposed us to be sur- 
geons or their assistants. 

By skillful movements, the escape so in- 
geniously commenced, was carried out to 
complete success, all of which Mr. Rich- 
ardson admirably narrates in his book, — ■ 
" The Field, Dungeon, and Escape." 



Great Act for a Little Girl. 
Mr. Herbert, a kind-hearted farmer in 
Illinois, had a little daughter, who, hear- 
ing her father ask others to give in aid of 
the sick and wounded soldiers, thought of 
what she could do. Of all her playthings 
she had nothing which could be sold for 
any amount and so bring money. But 
she had a very sweet pet lamb, almost as 
dear to her as a brother or a sister. That 
surely Avould bring something. It was of 
the very finest stock. She had taught it 
many cunning tricks and winsome ways. 
The two, child and lamb, had eaten from the 
same dish, and many hours they had played 
together upon the sunny hillside, and the 
lamb, like " little Mary's," knew its name 
as well as that of its mistress. She pro- 
posed, with tears in her eyes, and almost 
heart-broken to think of it, to give her 
dear pet to the sick and Avounded soldiers. 
She gave it, and she and the lamb together 
Avent in the procession, on one of the 
Avagons. The president of the Soldiers' 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



i)8U 



Home gave twenty-five dollars for the 
lamb, and in his speech at the dinner, said 
he should prize it very much, and through 
the incident, teach his own daughter a les- 
son. After they had placed the lamb in a 
large box to be sent to its purchaser's 
countiy residence, its former little mis- 
tress took leave of it, fondling and kissing 
her dear pet. With her eyes full of tears 
she said she was very sorry to part with 
it, because it loved her and she loved it so 
much — but, the soldiers needed the money 
more than she did the lamb, because they 
sometimes lost their limbs, and sometimes 
were killed. Taking all the circumstances 
into consideration, it was a great act for a 
little srirl. 



Escape from Libby Prison through a Young 
Lady's Intervention. 

A Union prisoner who was confined in 
the Libby Prison, Richmond, had the good 
fortune to effect his escape, the means for 
which were furnished by a young lady, 
who had taken his case in hand through 
personal sympathy, and whose plan was as 
ingenious as it was gracious. This young 
lady sent the prisoner a bag of tobacco, 
inclosed in which he found a small Union 
flag, and a note telling him, if he would 
be free, to appoint a time and place of meet- 
ing. To carry out so cherished a purpose, 
he affected death, and, having in this 
feigned condition been carried past the 
guard, lay in the dead house from noon 
until dusk. He then scaled a fence ten 
feet in height, and reached another yard, 
where he met the young lady with a suit 
of clothing made from rebel blankets ; he 
then followed the young lady a long dis- 
tance, safely passing the guards, until he 
reached the house of the young lady's 
father. Here he was concealed and cared 
for in the best manner possible, for nine 
days, while her father obtained passes for 
him, paying three thousand dollars in Con- 
federate money for them ; and then hiring 
a carriage for five hundred dollars in the 
same kind of money, and getting to the 



Rappahannock by going such a round- 
about way as would prevent detection, he 
finally reached the Union lines — thanks to 
his kind-hearted deliverer. 



Charleston Women Under Fire. 
During the shelling of the city of Charles- 
ton, there was a moral sublimity exhibited 
in many cases by the female portion of that 
imperilled community, which could but 
challenge the heart-feeling even of the 
Federals, whose object it was to destroy 
or capture that cradle-city of secession. 
An instance of the calm heroism to which 
women can rise is thus given : A lady, 
dressed in deep mourning, was seated in 
the front verandah of her dwelling, en- 
gaged in sewing, when a Parrott shell 
came screaming up the harbor and burst 
Avith an unearthly sound, just above and in 
front of the position where she was sitting, 
throwing its fragments in every direction. 
But this " Mother of Gracchi," as she may 
be called, remained tranquil in her seat, 
slowly and sadly raising her eyes toward 
the point where the shell had burst. She 
was observed to thoughtfully gaze for an 
instant upon the deadly scattering missile, 
and then as calmly to resume her womanly 
employment, in serene silence. From her 
mourning apparel it was judged she had 
felt before the horrors and desolation of 
war. Perhaps her only son had fallen, in 
strange fatuity of warfare against his coun- 
try, at Wagner, at Sumter, or on James 
Island. Or perhaps the " loved one of her 
bosom " had fallen, and the Angel of Death 
had no more terror for her. 



General Lyon leading: his Charge at Spring- 
field. 

While General Lyon was standing, in 
the battle at Springfield, Missouri, where 
bullets flew thickest, just after his favorite 
horse was shot from under him, some of 
his officers interposed and begged that he 
would retire from the spot and seek one 
less exposed. Scarcely raising his eyes 
from the enemy, he said : 



586 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



" It is well enough that I stand here. I 
am satisfied." 

While the line was forming for the 
charge against the rebels, in which he lost 
his life, General Lyon turned to Major 
Sturgis who stood near him, and re- 
marked : 

" I fear that the day is lost ; if Colonel 
Sigel had been successful he would have 
joined us before this. I think I will lead 
this charge." 

He had been wounded in the leg in an 
early part of the engagement — a flesh 
wound merely — from which the blood 
flowed profusely. Major Sturgis during 
the conversation noticed blood on General 




Brig. Gen. Nathaniel L;, on. 

Lyon's hat, and at fir.-t supposed he had 
been touching it with his hand, which was 
wet with blood from his leg. A moment 
after, perceiving that it was fresh, he re- 
moved the General's hat and asked the 
cause of its appearance. " It is nothing, 
Major ; nothing but a wound in the head," 
said General Lyon, turning away and 
mounting his horse. Without taking the 
hat held out to him by Major Sturgis, he 
addressed the Iowans he was to command 
with — 

" Forward men ! I will lead you ! " 
Two minutes afterward he lay dead on 
the field, killed by a rifle-ball through the 
breast, just above the heart. 



Fatal Fulfillment of a Jest. 

Just before the war broke out, and before 
Lincoln's proclamation was issued, a young 
Virginian, named Summerfield, was visit- 
ing the city of New York, where he made 
the acquaintance of two Misses Holmes, 
from Waterbury, Vermont. He became 
somewhat intimate with the young ladies, 
and the intercourse seemed to be mutually 
agreeable. The proclamation was issued, 
and the whole North thrown into a blaze 
of excitement. Upon visiting the ladies 
one evening, and at the hour of parting, 
they remarked to Summerfield that their 
present meeting would probably be the 
last ; they must hurry home to aid in 
making up the overcoats and clothing for 
the volunteers from their town. 

Summerfield expressed his regret that 
they must leave, but at the same time 
especially requested them to see that the 
overcoats were well made, as it was his 
intention, if he ever met the Vermont 
soldiers in battle, to kill one of them and 
take his coat. 

Now for the sequel : 

Virginia seceded. The Second Ver- 
mont regiment, a portion of which was 
from the town of Waterbury, Avere sent 
to Virginia. The battle of Manassas was 
fought, in which they were engaged, and 
so was Summerfield. During the battle, 
the latter marked his man, not knowing 
to what State he belonged ; the fatal ball 
was sped on its errand of death ; the vic- 
tim fell at the flash of the gun, and upon 
rushing up to secure the dead man's arms, 
Summerfield observed that he had a fine, 
new overcoat strapped to his back, which 
he determined to appropriate to his own 
use. The fight was over, and Summerfield 
had time to examine his prize, when, re- 
markable as it may appear, the coat was 
marked in the lining with the name of 
Thomas Holmes, and in the pockets were 
I found letters, signed with the name of the 
sister whom Summei'field had known in 
New York, and to whom he had made the 
j above quoted remark, in which the now 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



587 



dead man was spoken of as brother. The I there he' had remained for twelve days, 
evidence was conclusive — he had killed | until relieved by the arrival of his mistress, 



the brother of his friend, and the remark 
which he made in jest had, in the melan- 
ancholy fortunes of war, a fatal fulfillment. 



Watch kept by a Dog over Lieutenant 
PfieflTs Grave. 

A remarkable incident is related of the 
manner in which Mrs. Pfieff, the wife of 
Lieutenant Louis Pfieff, at Chicago, who 
was killed at Shiloh, was enabled to find 
her husband's body. No person, when 
she arrived on the field, could inform her 
where her husband's body was buried ; 
and after searching among the thousands 
of graves for half a day, she was about 
to abandon the pursuit. Suddenly she 
saw a large dog coming toward her, which 
she recognized as one that had left Chi- 
cago with her husband. The dog seemed 
delighted to find her, and led her to a dis- 
tant part of the field, where he stopped 



only leaving his post long enough each 
day to procure food in order to sustain 
himself in his faithful service. 




"And a little child shall lead them." 
The Boston Sanitary Fair called forth 
some pleasing illustrations of the sunny 
side of human nature. Said a. pretty girl 
to a gray-haired gentleman : " Oh, Uncle 
James, I want you to take a share in this 
grand piano." "Bless your heart, I've 
just bought a new one, and you have a 
piano, and Emma, and every one else, 
child ! " " But you can give it back to 
the Sanitary." "Bright thought! put me 
down for two shares ; just look in my 
memorandum-book, though, a minute, Liz- 
zie — share in a plough, a buggy, six dolls, 
cannon, piano, oil ( painting, sewing ma- 
chine, four affghans, etchings of Cupid and 
Psyche, flock of sheep, and — there write 
it down — grand piano ! " One of the 
"solid men of Boston," that, doubtless. 
He drew a doll, very likely. 



Watch kept by a Dog. 

before a single grave. She caused it to be 
opened, and found the body of her hus- 
band. It appeared, by the statements 
of the soldiers, that the dog was by the 
side of the Lieutenant when he fell, and 
remained with him till he was buried. 
He then took his station by the grave, and 



Mrs. Belmont's Concert for the Sanitary 
Commission. 

While the New York Sanitary Pair 
was engaging the time and generous de- 
vices of the good people of that metropolis, 
several ladies connected with it called 
upon Mrs. August Belmont, wife of the 
great banker, and requested her to hold a 
concert, for the benefit of the Fair, among 
her friends. She took it under advise- 
ment, and consented to do so, and made 
arrangements accordingly. She found her 
house would accommodate about three 
hundred guests. She issued her tickets 
for that number, at five dollars a ticket. 
She was shortly visited by the same com- 
jmittee, who informed her that the price 
of tickets must not exceed two dollars 
each. They were informed that Mrs. 
Belmont's friends would as soon give five 
or ten dollars as two — that the house was 
small, the expense would be the same, and 



588 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



the receipts to the Fair very much dimin- 
ished. But the lady managers were per- 
sistent — two dollars and no more must be 
the extent, or they would have nothing to 
do with the concert. Mrs. Belmont, hav- 
ing much of the spirit of her heroic father, 
informed the ladies that she was competent 
to manage her own affairs in her own 
house, and that they might consider them- 
selves as discharged from all further duty 
in regard to her concert. Her husband, 
on learning this state of affairs, handed 
his wife fifteen hundred dollars in green- 
backs, took all her tickets and carried 
them down town, sold some and gave the 
rest away to his friends, and made ample 
provision to have the concert a success. 
It came off; the rooms were brilliant and 
crowded ; the beauty and fashion and 
wealth of New York were there in all 
their glory ; Gottschalk and kindred per- 
formers charmed the brilliant audience, 
and Mrs. Belmont had fifteen hundred 
dollars in her hands to contribute to the 
Sanitary Commission 



" That Flag- is Doubly Dear to me this 
Morning'." 

A poor woman from Wisconsin, whose 
husband and son were in the ranks, 
learning that the latter was wounded at 
Lookout, made her way to Louisville, 
whence she was sent by the agents of the 
Sanitary Commission to Nashville. Ow- 
ing to the interruption of railroad commu- 
nication it was impossible to send her 
further front, and the Nashville office 
accordingly telegraphed to the Commission 
agent at Chattanooga for information. 

The next day, which was Thursday, it 
was answered that her son was severely 
wounded, and had been placed in a hospi- 
tal which was subsequently captured by 
the enemy, in whose hands he then was. 
It was sad news, but better than none* 
It was communicated to her as kindly and 
gently as possible ; but it drove her almost 
frantic. Two days passed, with no more 
tidings. The suspense became terrible. 



Was he alive ? were his wounds cared for 
by the rebels ? was he dead ? Such were 
the questions which the poor mother din- 
ned constantly in the ears of the agents. 
" Oh, that I could hear ! " she cried. 
"Even the worst would be better than 
this suspense." At last, late on Sunday 
night, the word so prayed and waited for 
came. It was this only : " Dead." It 
was a terrible blow. A very agony of 
grief settled upon the mother's heart, and 
for hours her sufferings seemed beyond 
all human endurance. After a time, car- 
rying her great sorrow Avith her, she went 
away ; but the next morning she returned 
to the office, still terribly stricken in heart, 
but calmer than before, and said, pointing 
to the flag over the door, with tears in her 
eyes, 

" Tliat flag is doubly dear to me this 
morning. It has cost me something." 



Quite a Safe Place for the Harper's Ferry 
Flag. 

The War Department was made dra- 
matic one day by an Irish woman, of Am- 
azonian size, and heart as loyal as brave, 
who came under the auspices of General 
Schenck, to present to Secretary Stanton 
the American flag pulled down by Colonel 
Miles at Harper's Ferry, when that post 
was surrendered to the rebels. " Hoav 
did you secure this, my excellent woman?" 
"Sure, sir, I just lifted my clothes, and 
wrapped it round me here, just as they 
flocked into the parade." The Secretary, 
after gallantly thanking her as her devo- 
tion deserved, ordered fifty dollars to be 
paid to the brave woman. It would not 
have been safe to have attempted to un- 
wrap that flag. 



Baptism for the Dead. 
Among the relics of the war upon exhi- 
bition at one of the Soldiers' Fairs was a 
mutilated dollar bill, connected with which 
was a touching story. A pastor in an in- 
land town had called upon his congrega- 
tion to contribute to the Sanitary Commis- 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



589 



sion, and had met a liberal response. The 
next day a woman, dependent upon her 
daily work for her own support and that 
of her children, brought him a dollar bill 
to be added as her mite to the collection. 
The pastor declined to take it, telling her 
she ought not to give so much, considering 
her situation; but the woman insisted, ad- 
ding, " We've had it in the house many 
weeks ; we can not spend it." 

Seeing that the bill was much torn, and 
supposing that she had found difficulty in 
passing it, her pastor said, " Oh, I'll give 
you a good bill for it." 

" No, that's not it. It was in brother 
Sam's pocket when he was wounded. 
He's dead now, and we have his torn 
pocket-book, and mother said [the mother 
was a widow, and he her only son] we will 
give that dollar to the Sanitary Commis- 
sion ; we can not spend it." 

The pastor redeemed the bill for two 
dollars, and sent it to be disposed of at 
the Fair. Fifty dollars were at once 
offered for the bill, but the gift from two 
widows, of a ball-marked relic of their 
son and brother, did not stop at that figure, 
but brought an abundant harvest into the 
Sanitary treasury. No necessity would 
have compelled them to spend it ; but the 
cause consecrated it as a holy baptism 
for the dead, — an affecting and precious 
offering;. 



Woman's Tongrue Betraying- the Rebel Tor- 
pedoes at Fort Henry. 

To defeat our attack on Fort Henry, 
the rebels planted torpedoes of the most 
formidable description in the principal 
channels. Their existence and location 
was revealed by that most irrepressible 
of all the forces of nature — a woman's 
tongue. One morning the " Jessie Scouts " 
— -a volatile, daring corps of young men, 
who inevitably turned up wherever a fight 
was expected — went into a farm-house, 
where nearly thirty women had gathered 
for safety. The inmates, greatly alarmed, 
begged them not to injure a party of un- 



protected females. ■ The scouts allayed 
their fears, when the women informed 
them they had frequently heard that South- 
ern wives and daughters had no mercy to 
hope for at the hands of the Lincoln sol- 
diery. In the conversation which ensued, 
one stated that her husband was a captain 
in the rebel army at Fort Henry. 

" By about ro-morrow night, madam," 
remarked one of the scouts, " there will 
be no Fort Henry — our gunboats will dis- 
pose of it." 

" Not a bit of it," was the reply ; " they 
will lie all blown up before they get past 
the island." 

This was said so significantly, that the 
scout questioned her further, but she re- 
fused to explain. He finally told her that 
unless she revealed all she knew he would 
be compelled to take her into the camp 
of " Lincolnites," as a prisoner. This ex- 
cited her terror, and she explained that 
torpedoes had been planted, and described 
their location as well as she was able, 
though bewailing her slip of the tongue. 
The information proved accurate enough 
to enable Lieutenant Phelps to find them ; 
but even had he remained in ignorance, 
they were of such a character as would 
have disappointed their makers and done 
us no harm. 



Sherman's Absence of Mind— the Serg-eant's 
Seg-ar. 

One of the most noted characteristics 
of General Sherman, the hero of Atlanta, 
was absence of mind in respect to things 
not immediately affecting his military oper- 
ations — upon which latter all his thoughts 
seemed concentrated. This peculiarity 
of the General found an interesting illus- 
tration in a circumstance which occurred 
at Lebanon Junction, Kentucky, after the 
following fashion : 

General Sherman, with two regiments 
under Colonel Lovell H. Rousseau — after- 
wards Major- General, and a detachment 
under Lieutenant-Colonel R. W. Johnston 
— afterwards Brigadier, — occupied Leba- 



590 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



non Junction, Ky., on the 17th of Septem- 
ber, 18G1. While walking up and down 
the platform of that place, awaiting the 
repair of the telegraph line, Sherman's 
se^ar gave out. He immediately took 
another from his pocket and asked the 
orderly sergeant of the marine Zouaves for 
a light. The home guard sergeant had 
only a moment before lighted his segar, 
and, with a bow, handed it to the General 
— probably the first Brigadier he had seen 
during the war. Sherman lighted his 
segar carefully, took a puff or two to as- 
sure himself, and abstractedly threw the 




Sherman's Absence of Mind. 

sergeant's segar away. A short time after, 
General Rousseau, who saw this scene, 
mentioned the matter to General Sher- 
man. He could not recollect it, but said — 
" I was thinking of something else. It 
Avon't do to let to-morrow take care of 
itself. Your good merchant don't think 
of the ships that are in, but the ships that 
are to come in. The evil of to-day is 
irreparable. Look ahead to avoid breakers. 
You can't when your ship is on them. 
All you can then do is to save yourself 
and retrieve disaster. I was thinking of 
something else when I threw the sergeant's 
segar aAvay " — and then he added, laugh- 
ing, " Did I do that, really ? " Those who 
would see Sherman's remarkable charac- 



teristics, military and personal, most admi- 
rably portrayed, will find a fund of such 
matter in Captain Conyngham's sparkling 
reminiscences of that great commander, 
drawn from personal observation, and peri- 
lled with the hand of a genius not unwor- 
thy the chieftain at whose side he rode, — 
one of the books with which the reader, 
especially if a soldier, can never tire. 



Ben. McCulloch and Joe Baxter. 
General Ben. McCulloch was in many 
particulars a remarkable man. Though 
a very common looking person, he was 
very vain of his personal appearance and 
proud of his fame. When the General 
was returning from Richmond, not long 
before the fatal battle of Pea Ridge, a 
little incident occurred — such as, perhaps, 
he was more than once the subject of. 
The party consisted of the General, Cap- 
tain Armstrong, his A. A. G., and Colonel 
Snyder, of the Missouri army, with two 
or three black servants, traveling in a 




Gen. Ben MiXulloch. 

four mule ambulance. They stopped for 
lunch by the wayside, about two days 
travel from Fort Smith, in Arkansas, and 
were discussing the prospects of the Con- 
federacy and the contents of a basket and 
a demijohn, when a stranger rode up and 
inquired the way to Colonel Stone's win- 
ter quarters. The stranger was a perfect 
specimen of the genus ' butternut? He 
was dressed in bilious looking jeans, with 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



591 



a home-made hat and coarse boots, and 
wore his hair and beard very long. He 
was mounted on a good horse, and carried 
on his shoulder a long, old-fashioned rifle- 
Before there was any time to answer his 
inquiries he cast his eyes on General 
McCulloch, and seemed to recognize him. 
Dismounting at once, he advanced eagerly 
to the General, with extended hand and 
a hearty " Bless my soul, Joe ! how do 
you do? — what on earth are you doing 
here?" The General saw that the man 
was mistaken, but answered him pleas- 
antly, and invited him to partake of the 
lunch, to which said lunch and demijohn 
the stranger did full and ample justice. 
He told the General ((or to him he ad- 
dressed all his conversation, as to an old 
friend) that he was a volunteer, and had 
joined Colonel Stone's regiment of Texan 
Ranger?, and that he intended to light with 



don't think you know me, and perhaps 
have never seen me before." 

" You be darned ! " said butternut ; " I 
would know you, Joe, if I was to meet 
you in Africa T" 

"Well, now," said the general, getting 
tired of his new friend's familiarity, " who 
do you take me for, any way ? " 

" Take you for ? " retorted Texas, ear- 
nestly ; " I don't take you for anybody ; I 
know you to be Joe Baxter, what staid in 
the Perkins settlement, in Collins county, 
all last summer, a sellm' chain-pumps and 
puttin' 1 up lightnin'-rods / " 

Jerry the Genius, looking: through General 
Palmer's Spy-glass. 
When General Palmer was on the Ten- 
nessee river, there was in Company C, of 
the Forty-second Illinois, a singular genius, 
familiarly known as Jerry, an easy, care- 




Jerry and Gen. Palmer's Spyglass. 



" Old Ben McCulloch until we gained our 
independence." Old Ben enjoyed the 
man's mistake until they were about ready 
to start on, when he said to his Texan co- 
patriot, 

" My friend, I think you are mistaken 



less, jovial fellow, thinking a man a man 
anywhere, and paying no attention to the 
shoulder-strapped gentry any more than 
if they were not about. One day, General 
Palmer was among a company of officers, 
looking; with his glass at the battle-ground 



as to whom you have been talking to ; I ; of Pittsburg Landing. Jerry was near 



592 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



by, and stepping up to the General, slap- 
ped him familiarly on the shoulder, and 
said, " Say, old feller, let me see that thing, 
will yer ? " The officers expected to see 
Jerry sent in on bread and water ; but, 
always ready for fun, Palmer handed 
Jerry his spy-glass. Jerry took it, and 
very deliberately looked it over; and, 
placing it about two feet from his eye, 
looked through it. One such look was 
sufficient, and turning to the General, with 
a look of extreme contempt, he said, 
" Here, take the tarnal thing ; I can see 
through it ! " and retired amidst the shouts 
of the General and his officers. 



Old Abe fixing- the Responsibility. 
Mr. Lincoln was naturally very anxious 
to know who was really responsible 
for the calamitous surrender of Harper's 
Ferry. So he summoned Halleck. The 
General did not know. " Very well," said 
the President, " then I will ask General 
Schenek." That General merely knew 
diat he was not to blame. The President 
sent for Milroy. Milroy averred that he 
was not guilty. Hooker was summoned. 
Fighting Joe hoped it was clear to His Ex- 
cellency that he had nothing to do with it. 
" Perfectly clear," said our Uncle Abraham, 
smiling. So he assembled all the four gen- 
erals in his room. " Gentlemen," said he, 
"Harper's Ferry was surrendered, and none 
of you, it seems, are responsible. I am very 
anxious to discover the man who is." He 
walked up and down the room, Avhile they 
still sat there. Suddenly he stopped. " I 
have it," he said ; " I knoAv who is respon- 
sible." The generals crowded about the 
President, each a little suspicious. " Who 
is it, who is it, Mr. President ? " " Gen- 
tlemen," replied our uncle, with a twinkle 
in his eye, " General Lee is the man." 
Everybody knows that the good President 
was exceedingly fond of those witty 
writers, whose books he was glad to have 
in his library, — Artemus Ward, Petro- 
leum V. Nasby, Major Jack Downing, 
bhillaber, Doesticks, and Orpheus C. Kerr, 



— who helped to keep the nation in good 
humor, even when the clouds hung black 
as night. Query: Would it not be inter- 
esting to know the opinion of those mas- 
ters of wit, concerning the jokes of their 
admirer, " Mr. Linkin ? " 



Marriage Scene in the Army of the Potomac. 
An event calculated to destroy the mo- 
notony of camp life — a marriage — took 
place in the Seventh New Jersey volun- 
teers, one of Hooker's old regiments in the 
Army of the Potomac. The camp was 
very prettily decorated, and being quite 
trimly arranged among the pines, was just 
the camp a visitor would like to see. A 
little before noon the guests began to ar- 
rive in considerable numbers. Among 
them were Generals Hooker, Sickles, Carr, 
Mott, Hobart, Ward, Revere, Bartlett, 
Birney, Berry, Colonel Dickinson, and 
other aids to General Hooker ; Colonels 
Burling, Farnham, Egan, etc. Colonel 
Francine and Lieutenant-Colonel Price, 
of the Seventh, with the rest of the officers 
of that regiment, proceeded to make all 
welcome, and then the ceremony com- 
menced. In a hollow square formed by 
the troops a canopy was erected, with an 
altar of drums, officers grouped on each 
side of this. On General Hooker's arri- 
val the band played ' Hail to the Chief,' 
and on the approach of the bridal party 
the ' Wedding March.' It was rather cold, 
windy, and threatened snow, altogether 
tending to produce a slight pink tinge on 
the noses present, but the ladies bore it 
with courage, and looked, to the unaccus- 
tomed eyes of the soldiers, like real angels 
in their light clothing. To add to the 
dramatic force of the scene, the rest of the 
brigade and other troops were drawn up 
in line of battle not more than a mile 
away to repel an expected attack from 
Fredericksburg. Few persons are wed- 
ded under more romantic circumstances 
than Nellie Lammond and Captain De- 
Hart. He could not get leave of absence, 
so she came down like a brave girl, and 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



;93 



married him in camp. After the wed- 
ding was a dinner, a ball, fire-works, etc. ; 
and on the whole it eclipsed entirely an 
opera at the Academy of Music in dra- 
matic effect and reality. 



" Physical Disability" Exempting from the 
Draft and from Something: Else. 
A young man succeeded in getting a 
certificate of exemption from the draft, 
from the Board of Enrolment, on the 
ground of " physical disability," and hast- 
ened to his betrothed to announce his 
escape. Strangely to him, the good news 
affected her in an unexpected manner, and 
she withdrew from his presence with but 
the shadow of an excuse. The young 
man was confounded, and, visions of rivals 
rising up before him, he sought an expla- 
nation from the lady's father, who always 
treated him graciously, and was favorable 
to the proposed alliance. The father hi 
turn was mistified, and immediately seek- 
ing his daughter, found her in great grief. 
" Oh, father," said the girl, " I have been 
shamefully deceived. Oh, how mortifying 
to be known to be engaged to a man who 
comes shamelessly to me, just before our 
marriage, and rejoices in ' physical disa- 
bilities.' Why did not you tell me that 
the man was imperfect or sickly before 
matters went so far ? I have no ambition 
to turn my future home into a domestic 
hospital, or myself into a perpetual nurse!" 
The father tried to persuade her by 
saying that probably a trifling ailment, 
magnified by the complaint, might have 
obtained his exemption from service, and 
reminded her that her lover was a fine 
rider, a graceful skater, and very expert 
in most manly exercises. 

"And under all this," added the fair 
girl, "he hides some dreadful infirmity. 
Surely, you do not think I would be en- 
gaged to him if I knew him to be con- 
sumptive, scrofulous, or worse ? I thank 
God that the draft has lifted the mask. 
And the man actually delights in being ad- 
vertised as physically disqualified to serve 
37 



his country. Oh, shame ! He shall know," 
said she, rising with proud indignation, 
" that he is physically disqualified to hus- 
band me ! " 

And the father, physiologically consid- 
ering how the seeds of disease are entailed 
from one generation to another, approved 
his daughter's decision, and informed the 
young man that he might henceforth con- 
sider himself " exempt " from the proposed 
marriage, on the ground of acknowledged 
" physical disability." 

Characteristic Lady's Joke. 
A patriotic lady of St. Louis, Missouri, 
took it into her head to prepare for one 
of the Military Fairs a wreath, to be com- 
posed of locks of hair from the heads of 
the prominent Union members of Congress. 
She wrote to the honorable gentlemen, 
delicately stating her purpose, and re- 
questing the favor of capillary specimens. 
Among the many, Thad. Stevens was the 
recipient of a missive on the subject. It 
was rather a joke on the venerable Thad., 
unintentional on the part of the lady, no 
doubt, as the Honorable Chairman of 
Ways and Means hadn't had a lock of hair 
that he could call his own for twenty years, 
but had, during that long period, been a 
patron of the wig-maker. 



Spirited Fig-lit between Two Girls at Church. 
On a Sabbath day in July, while public 
worship was being held about six miles 
north of Albany, Gentry county, Missouri, 
a party of the Union militia force entered 
that place to secure horses with which to 
enter the service under the call of General 
Fi>k. A Union girl promptly came for- 
ward and placed her horse at the service 
of the gallant and patriotic boys, and also 
took the liberty to point out to them an- 
other fine steed, which she archly remarked 
was the property of a secessionist lady 
friend of hers. A Union trooper was 
soon snugly astride of the ' contraband,' 
and was about to leave with him, when 
the lady owner made her appearance, and 



m 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



plumply protested against giving the ani- 
mal up to any such rider, for any such or 
any other purpose whatever. 

The Union girl urged the soldiers to go 
along, — she had voluntarily contributed 
her horse, and insisted that the secesh 
horse should also do duty. At this the 
rebel girl applied all sorts of opprobrious 
epithets to the Union girl, who in turn be- 
came angry and — knocked her opponent, 
by a spirited thwack, flat on the ground, 
then jumped upon her, and dealt her sock- 
dologers at a terrible rate. A spectator 
finally parted the Amazons, but they didn't 
stay pai'ted, and were soon fighting each 
other again, accompanying their blows 
with piercing screams of defiance. Their 
gay Sunday dresses were soon in shreds ; 
long, beautiful tresses of hair were mixed 
with blood from dainty noses, etc. Despair- 
ing of putting an end to the shameful set- 
to, the bystanders were compelled to form 
a circle, and seat themselves to await the 
final result of the she-tiger encounter. The 
combatants fought long and skilfully, until 
Miss Union seized Miss Secesh by the 
throat, when the latter fell to the ground 
and gave up the struggle. The parties 
were then duly cared for by their respect- 
ive friends. 



Robbery by Mistake. 
Two ladies, while General McClellan 
was at dinner at the Massasoit House, 
Springfield, Mass., on his passage through 
that city, ventured to rob a military cap, 
which they supposed to be the General's, 
of both its buttons, tearing them out in a 
very unfeminine manner, to be preserved 
as mementoes of that military chieftain. 
The mortification of their feelings and the 
redness of their faces can only be faintly 
imagined when one of the aids carelessly 
as usual put on the mutilated cap, and the 
General put on his own, which was intact. 
Those buttons were not preserved, but the 
story has been — being told much oftener 
than was agreeable to the eager but disap- 
pointed curiosity-hunters. 



"Meade" and Ale. 
At the time the rebel army was on the 
march from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 
to Gettysburg, several privates stopped at 
the hotel of Mr. John Brown, in Fayette- 
ville, and inquired for ale. 'Mine host' in- 
formed them that he was just out of that 
article. One of the rebs remarked that 
they were going to Baltimore, and there 
they would get plenty. A few days after, 
when the rebs were retreating from Get- 




Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. 

tysburg, Brown happened to meet this 
same man on the South Mountain. He 
asked him if he had got any Baltimore ale. 
" No," replied Johnny Reb ; " Ave only got 
as far as Gettysburg, where the Meade 
was too strong for us, so we had to give 
up the Baltimore Ale." 



Courage of Woman during Battle. 
The millions who never heard the roar 
and crash of a great battle, but especially 
ivome?i, are naturally interested in the feel- 
ings inspired — the sensations evoked, by 
the actual and imminent presence of des- 
perately contending armies. The battle 
of Gettysburg brought " the noise of the 
captains, and the shouting," nearer to the 
people of the Northern States than any 
other great combat of the present century ; 
and of the many personal reminiscences 
of that great struggle, the following, from 
the pen of Miss Carrie Sheades, of the 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



595 



Oak Ridge Seminary, will be found of pe- 
culiar interest. After speaking of the 
courage of the young ladies during the 
battle — their assistance in relieving the 
wounded, when no surgeon could be ob- 
tained — she says : 

When our forces retreated from Semi- 
nary Ridge, many of the prisoners were 
taken here. At the time, (though a coward 
before,) it seemed that I was ready to 
meet the whole rebel army — every vestige 
of fear had vanished. A Colonel rushed 
into the breakfast-room, and a rebel after 
him, demanding him to surrender. The 
Colonel, being a very large man, could 
scarcely breathe, (he was asthmatical,) 
and begged for time to regain his breath ; 
he told them to ' shoot him ' — that ' he 
would not surrender, and if,' said he, ' I 
had my men here you could not take me.' 

I saw that he would be shot if he re- 
sisted any longer, and while the rebels 
were contending with some prisoners in 
another part of the breakfast-room, I 
begged the Colonel to go with him and I 
would save his sword. He consented, and 
1 concealed his sword in the folds of my 
dress, and begged them to grant him five 
minutes, which was granted, and he as- 
sured me that he ' would be back for his 
sword.' It was a sad sight to see them 
take that gray-headed veteran, but it was 
a joyful sight to see him return to reclaim 
his sword, having gone with them as far as 
Monterey Springs and escaped — 'rolled 
away from them,' he said, for he could not 
walk. 



Carving- His Own Head-Board. 
A singular incident is related of Ser- 
geant Major Polley, of the Tenth Massa- 
chusetts regiment. A day or two before 
that regiment left for home, while lying in 
the trenches before Petersburg, he carved 
with his knife upon a wooden head-board, 
similar to those placed at soldiers' graves, 
the words, " Serg. Maj. George F. Polley, 
10th Mass. Vols., killed June — , 1864," 
remarking to the Colonel, "I guess I'll 



leave the day blank." The next day he 
was instantly killed by a shell which struck 
him in the breast, tearing his body to 
pieces, — Colonel Parsons, who was stand- 
ing near by, narrowly escaping. He was 
buried on the field, and the same head- 




Carving his own head-board. 

board that he had lettered was placed over 
his grave. He was not expecting to re- 
turn with the regiment, for he had re-en- 
listed. For some of these most touching, 
as well as brilliant chronicles of the great 
four years' war, few works will compare, 
in point of choice discrimination, with 
" The Bugle Blast," by E. S. S. Rouse, 
an eye-witness and participant. 



Converting' Lady Rebels. 
Uncle Sam's nephews in Arkansas found 
an agreeable and effectual way of crush- 
ing the rebellion. It had come to be an 
axiom, that the women of the South were 
the most rebellious, and that but for them, 
the spirit of rebellion would have died out. 
The Federal boys, therefore, went on the 
very rational principle of striking at the 
root of the evil and of conquering the w r o- 
men. The tactics adopted to this end — 
consisting of wooing and marrying the fair 
ones — proved highly successful. Whether 
it was because their secesh lovers were out 
of sight, and, therefore, out of mind, or 
that they had lost all hopes of seeing them 



m 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



again, or because the blue coats had such 
w innin g ways, was not stated ; but, never- 
theless, marriages of the soldiers and citi- 
zenesses were of daily occurrence. One 
clergyman married as many as five of these 
couples in one clay ; and in the county of 
Conway, all single women under the fasci- 
nating age of sixty were gobbled up as 
fast as the soldiers found them. This was 
certainly one of the most effectual means 
of putting down tlxe rebellion. The fair 
rebels were, of course, turned over, and 
became firm believers in the Union, if not 
unconditional unionists, — a phase of the 
development of Union feeling in Arkansas 
that must have been very agreeable, at 
least to the parties consummating the 
Union. 



you'll be the fourteenth lady as has done 
it this blessed mornin'. 

It was for the want of such judicious 
supervision as characterized that gentle 
and beloved minister of good, Miss Dix, 
that such annoying scenes as the above 
sometimes occurred. Wherever s-hc went, 
her presence was a sweet benediction, but 
her movements were as harmonious and 
systematic as though benevolence was a 
science. 



On the Lord's Side. 
President Lincoln had various inter- 
views with delegations of clergymen from 
different sections of the country, during 
the war of the rebellion. Of one of these 
delegations it is not related that they had 
much to say when they were admitted into 
his presence, but, in taking leave, one of 
them remarked that he " hoped the Lord 
was on our side." "I don't agree with 
you," said the President. Of course they 
looked amazed. " I hope, indeed, that we 
are on the Lord's side ! " he continued. 



Sue Munday, the Female Guerrilla. 
A band of guerrillas, led by a notorious 
character, named Berry, formerly of John 
Morgan's command, attacked the stage 
near Shawneetown, Kentucky, one Friday 
evening, robbing the passengers and rifling 
the mail bag. After this exploit, the 
band moved in the direction of Harrods- 
burg, relieved the toll-gate keeper near 
that place of cash and various articles, 
and then dashed into town. 

The Savings Bank was honored with 
the first call. The managers of the insti- 
tution observed the movement, and hastily 
closed and barred the doors before the 
scoundrels could gain an entrance. The 
robbers fired several shots as the doors 
were being closed, but no injury was clone 
by the same. Finding they could not 
force the doors, the guerrillas proposed to 
fire the building, but before they could put 
the design into execution, the citizens, 
who had armed themselves and collected 
to defend their homes, commenced firing 
on the robber band. The outlaws were 
taken by surprise, and, greatly alarmed, 
fled from the town. 

One of the peculiar characters or per- 
sonages composing this band of cut-throats, 
was the officer second in command, recog- 
nized by the men as Lieutenant Flowers. 
The officer in question was a young wo- 
man, her real name being Sue Munday. 
She dressed herself in male attire, gener- 
ally sporting a full Confederate uniform. 



Rubbing it in— Scene in the Park Barracks, 
New York. 

(Dramatis Personce.) A sick and 
wounded, but good-looking soldier, and an 
anxious lady nurse in search of a sub- 
ject : 

Lady Nurse — My poor fellow, can I do 
anything for you ? 

Soldier (emphatically) — No, ma'am ! 
Nothin' ! 

Lady Nurse — I should like to do some- 
thing for you. Shall I not sponge your 
face and brow for you ? 

Soldier (despairingly) — You may sponge 
my brow if you want to very bad ; but | Upon her head she wore a jaunty plumed 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



>97 



hat, beneath which there escaped a wealth 
of dark brown hair, falling around and 
down her shoulders in luxuriant curls. 
She was possessed of a comely form, had 
a dark, piercing eye, was a bold rider and 
daring leader. Prior to connecting her- 
self with Berry's gang of outlaws, she 
was associated with the band commanded 
by Captain Alexander, who met his doom 
some time previously in Southern Ken- 
tucky. 

Lieutenant Flowers, or Sue Munday, 
was a practiced robber, and many ladies, 
who had been so unfortunate as to meet 
her on the highway, could testify with 
what sangfroid she presented a pistol and 
commanded " Stand and deliver." Her 
name had become widely known, and, to 
the ladies, it was associated with horror. 
On the evening when the outlaws were at 
Harrodsburg, Sue dexterously robbed a 
young lady of her watch and chain ; and 
if the citizens had not so unceremoniously 
expelled the thieving band from the town, 
she would doubtless have paid her respects 
to the jewelry and valuables of all the 
ladies of the place. 



KEy Bold Soldier Boy. 

" What do the women say about us 
boys at home ? " asked a poor battle- 
wrecked soldier in the hospital, himself 
but a lad, of one who sat at his side. 
That brow of his ached for the touch of 
a loving hand. He had walked through 
rough, stony places — temptation, sin, folly 
had beset him on the right hand and on 
the left ; but he felt still a mother's influ- 
ence on his soul, leading him into the June 
paths of old. At the very moment he 
asked the question " What do the women 
say of us at home ? " he Avas turning over 
a little silken needle-book that some laugh- 
ing girl had one day sent to the Sanitary 
Commission, working on its cover the 
words, playfully perhaps, " My bold soldier- 
boy." The friend, sitting by, simply 
pointed to the happy inscription. The re- 



ply struck home to his heart, and he burst 
into tears. They were not bitter tears, 
but tears of joy. His question was an- 
swered ; the evidence of woman's interest 
Was before his eyes, and he was content. 
His eyelids closed down, his breathing 
grew calm, and soon sleep touched him, 
and he was dreaming. 

"No "Wickedness like the Wickedness of a 
Woman." 

The bitter and ferocious spirit of thou- 
sands of rebel women in Virginia, Kentuc- 
ky, Tennessee and other States, as exhibited 
during the war, towards Unionists, is 
scarcely, if at all, surpassed by the female 
monsters that shrieked and howled for 
victims in the French Revolution. 

A wounded soldier, of the Union army, 
fell out from the ranks retreating through 
Winchester, Virginia, and sank down upon 




No Wickedness like the Wickedness of a Woman 

the steps of one of the houses. He had 
not been sitting there long when a woman 
came out and asked him if he were not 
able to walk. He replied that he was not. 
Seeing a revolver in his belt, she asked 
him to let her look at it. Suspecting no- 
thing, he handed it to her. She deliber- 
ately presented it to his head, and ordered 
him immediately to leave the steps. He 
did so; and hobbled along a distance 
of but a few feet, when she fired the pis- 
tol, piercing his side with the bullet. He 
fell on the street and instantly expired. 



598 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



The woman threw clown the revolver and 
coolly walked back into the house. 

Will it be believed that such events oc- 
curred in the heart of Christian civilization, 
in the middle of the nineteenth century ? 
But this was only one of multiplied cases 
of the sort. 



Off-Hand Eloquence of a Rough Cavalry- 
man. 

When General Custer made his raid 
into Virginia, in the spring of 1864, all 
the horses that were valuable which came 
in his way were taken in the name of the 
United States. In one place, a very hand- 
some lady, quite young, expostulated loud- 
ly with a cavalryman for taking the farm- 
horses. " My dear Miss," said the soldier, 
" we do not want to take your horses — 
ours are much better ; and besides it goes 
against our feelings, but military necessity 
requires this step, and we are merely the 
agents of unrelenting destiny." In spite 
of her concern the pretty creature laughed 
at such off-hand eloquence from a rough 
cavalryman. 

4 

Wine and Sentiment for the Hospital 
Soldiers. 

In the Louisville journals of March, 
1862, one of the hospital features of the 
war is thus set forth : — 

Mrs. C. M. Love returns her grateful 
thanks to Miss Breckinridge and other 
kind ladies of Princeton, New Jersey, for 
another liberal donation of hospital stores, 
including a large supply of superior cur- 
rant-wine, made by a lady of Princeton, 
with a beautiful, patriotic, Christian senti- 
ment written upon nearly all the bottles, 
of which the subjoined are specimens : — 

Currant wine from the old battle-fields 
of Princeton, New Jersey. ' Let no 
traitor's feet pollute the glorious emblem 
of our freedom.' 

' Soldiers ! may the stars which float 
over your heads point you to heaven, and 
may you be gathered there in brighter and 
more enduring clusters.' 

'Brave soldiers in Kentucky, fighting 



for us here, we have been, and are now 
watching you with intense interest. We 
grasp the papers to read of your deeds of 
noble daring, and while rejoicing over 
them, our tears flow at the tales of the hard- 
ships, the sufferings, by which they are 
won. We think of you, we pray for you, 
and may our heavenly Father bless and 
save you all.' 

' Currant wine from Princeton, New 
Jersey, may it refresh you brave men from 
Illinois.' 

' Kentucky is almost erect in her strug- 
gles ; New Jersey's arms entwine her 
more closely than ever.' 

' Forget not the invisible hand that 
leads you to victory.' 

' New Jersey extends her hand to you, 
brave Tennesseeans : she has watched you 
with deep interest and warm sympathies ; 
our heavenly Father bless and keep you 
under the dear old Stars and Stripes.' 

1 Let no dark clouds prevent you from 
seeing the bright sunlight beyond.' 

' Forget not, forfeit not, your time-hon- 
ored name, brave Kentuckians.' 

' New Jersey honors the Union soldiers 
in Kentucky, no matter where from.' 

' The ladies of Princeton, New Jersey, 
think and talk of nothing else scarcely, 
but the brave soldiers fighting and suffer- 
ing for our glorious Union.' 

' Remember Washington, the great 
Father of his country, and emulate his 
virtues.' 

' You suffer in a holy cause ; may you 
receive an everlasting reward.' 

' Be patient, be hopeful, the day is 
dawning.' 

' This wine was made on the battle-field 
of Princeton, Mercer county, New Jersey, 
not far from where Washington led his 
army on to victory, and where the gallant 
Mercer fell for this our glorious Union. 
May it bear to you invigorating, refresh- 
ing, and healing virtues, is the prayer of 
the one who made it.' 

' Currant wine for our brave defenders. 
The Lord thy God, he it is that doth go 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



599 



with thee. He will not fail thee nor for- 
sake thee.' 

' The ladies of Princeton, send New 
Jersey's best wishes for your present and 
future welfare.' 



Sweetness of Secession Female Temper. 

The reporter for a New York paper 
accidentally stumbled upon a female secesh 
railer at ' v the Yankees," in Culpepper. 
This woman was the unfortunate possessor 
of considerable property, and failing to 
secure a guard for it in the quarter where 
such little favors were sometimes obtained, 
she vented her indignation by telling all 
who came in her way and would listen, 
how " denied mean " Yankees were. 
Falling into her clutches one day, and 
hearing her tale of woe, reporter most 
meekly suggested that she might display 
the Stars and Stripes over her property, 
and beneath the folds of that banner it 
would not be molested. This was the 
signal for an outburst of furious indigna- 
tion. She would never raise the Stars and 
Stripes over her property — not she ; rather 
die first. Having thus raised the ire of a 
" 200 pounder," and weighing some forty 
pounds less than herself, prudence dictated 
that discretion was the better part of val- 
or, and accordingly he gazed at the crea- 
ture before him in silence. Now, this 
very discretion seemed to annoy her ex- 
ceedingly, and placing her arms akimbo, 
she swelled up like the frog in the fable, 
and finally, doubtless feeling that the Eng- 
lish language was not copious enough to 
do the subject justice, she exclaimed : 

" There, Sir — there's my barn, yonder ; 
hay all stolen ; pigs all killed ; chickens 
gone ; boards off — and I can't get a safe- 
guard from you mean Yankees ! " 

Reporter was transfixed — puzzled — and 
said nothing. 

Her indignation continuing to rise, she 
finally screamed out : 

" I'll come up with ye — I'll come up with 
ye mean Yankees. I'll go intothe barn loft, 
and burn the barn with myself in it." 



Reporter still remained silent, and she 
ended — after taking breath — with the ex- 
plodent : 

" Then where will ye — Yankees get boards 
from ? " 

Having nothing to say, and fearing this 
original secesh might burn by spontaneous 
combustion while on his hands, Reporter 
left. There were many female secesh of 
that sort. 




Bell Boyd. 



Hearts and Swords. 

No one, whether loyalist or secession in 
their political views, will read the follow- 
ing lines penned by one whose cradle was 
rocked in the dawning days of the Revo- 
lution led on by Washington, without the 
warmest emotions : 

Clyde, Ohfo, Aug. 3, 1864. 
To General Grant. 

Dear Sir : I hope you will pardon me 
for troubling you with the perusal of these 
few lines from the trembling hand of the 
aged grandma' of our beloved General 
Jas. B. McPherson, who fell in battle. 
"When it was announced at his funeral, 
from the public print, that when General 
Grant heard of his death, he went into 
his tent and wept like a child, my heart 
went out in thanks to you for the interest 
you manifested in him while he was with 
you. I have watched his progress from 
infancy up. In childhood he was obedi- 



600 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION 



ent and kind ; in manhood interesting, no- 
ble and persevering, looking to tlie wants 
of others. Since he entered the war, 
others can appreciate his worth better than 
I can. 

When it was announced to us by tele- 
graph that our loved one had fallen, our 
hearts were almost rent asunder ; but 
when we heard the commander-in-chief 
could weep with us, too, we felt, Sir, that 
you have been as a father to him, and this 
whole nation is mourning his early death. 
I wish to inform you that his remains were 
conducted by a kind guard to the very 
parlor where he spent a cheerful evening 
in 1861, with his widowed mother, two 
brothers, only sister and his aged grand- 
ma', who is now trying to write. In the 
morning he took his leave at six o'clock, 
little dreaming he should fall by a ball 
from the enemy. 

His funeral services were attended in 
his mother's orchard, where his youthful 
feet had often pressed the soil to gather 
fruit, and his remains are resting in the 
silent grave scarce half a mile from the 
place of his birth. His grave is on an 
eminence but a few rods from where the 
funeral services were attended, and near 
the grave of his father. The grave, no 
doubt, will be marked, so that passers-by 
will often pause to drop a tear over the 
dear departed. And now, dear friend, a 
few lines from you would be gratefully re- 
ceived by the afflicted friends. I pray 
that the God of battles may be with you, 
and go forth with your armies till the re- 
bellion shall cease, the Union be restored, 
and the old flag wave over our entire land. 
With much respect, 

I remain your friend, 

Lydia Sloctjm, 

Aged 87 years and 4 months. 

Gen. Grant's Reply. 

Head-quarters, Armies of .the U. S., 
City Point, Va., August 10. 

Mrs. Lydia Slocum: My Dear 
Madam — Your very welcome letter of 



the 3d instant has reached me. I am glad 
to know the relatives of the lamented 
Major-General McPherson are aware of 
the more than friendship existing between 
him and myself. A nation grieves at the 
loss of one so dear to our nation's cause. 
It is a selfish grief, because the nation 
had more to expect from him than from 
almost any one living. I join in this self- 
ish grief, and add the grief of personal 
love for the departed. He formed for 
some time one of my military family. I 
knew him well. To know him was but to 
love him. It may be some consolation to 
you, his aged grandmother, to know that 
every officer and every soldier who served 
under your grandson, felt the highest rever- 
ence for his patriotism, his zeal, his great, 
almost unequalled ability, his amiability 
and all the manly virtues that can adorn a 
commander. Your bereavement is great, 
but cannot exceed mine. 

Yours truly, 
U. S. Grant, Lieut.-Gen. 



Wooed and "Wedded— "With Embellishments. 

Jolm Kick, of Buffalo, New York, was 
a private in the Second New York Mount- 
ed rifles, which regiment, notwithstanding 
its name, was not mounted, but served as 
infantry " mounted " — on human legs and 
feet. Pushing along, sunned on and dust- 
ed on, during the march from Cold Harbor 
to James River, John was stricken with 
deadly sickness. John could go no further 
— was not simply tired out, exhausted, 
knocked up, played out and done for, but 
he was sick. He fell out of the ranks. 
His comrades thought him now sun-struck. 
A learned surgeon hazarded the expression 
of an opinion that the man was suffering 
from aggravated coup de soliel, induced 
by exhaustion and the climate. 

His comrades bore Jolm to the nearest 
house, — the residence, formerly, of the 
late ex-President John Tyler. There John 
— John Kick — was left, and his fellows 
went marching on. There was a young 
lady in the house, Anna Maria Tyler, 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



(301 



niece of the once President. A month, 
nearly two months, passed, and John was 
not heard from. Was John still sick ? 
Was John lingering in pain and helpless- 
ness ? Had John gone over to the ' John- 
nies ' after recovering ? Or had he kicked 
the inevitable bucket that awaits all mor- 
tals ? Would John ever be heard of 
again ? Would Kick ever again pedes- 
trinate with his fellow mounted rifles ? 
Nobody could answer. Kick was sup- 
posed to have kicked out of the service. 
His enemies hinted that he had gone over 
to the enemy — in fact, been Tylerized. 
They were mistaken. 

Kick had not been Tylerized, but Tyler 
had been Kicked. Anna Maria took ten- 
der care of John. She did pity him like 
another Desdemona. True, he was a 
Yankee, but Othello was a Moor. Per- 
haps Anna loved John for the dangers he 
had seen. At any rate, she loved John 
in spite of the fact that he had done the 
State some service. And John loved 
Anna Maria. As the flush of returning 
health came to John's cheek, Maria grew 
pale ; pale, but interesting, John saw, and 
then John began to feel. And here five 
chapters might be written, and Tennyson 
quoted, by way of describing the fusing 
of their two hearts. But John wasn't 
agoin' to let concealment feed on his cheek. 
John spoke. Anna Maria spoke back. 
She was a rebel, but she did not rebel. 
Both Barkises were 'willin.' A local 
preacher lived in a " hard town small by," 
and the knot was tied. 

Kick (px-enomen John) and Kick (nee' 
Tyler) were happy. " Whoso findeth a 
wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth 
favor of the Lord," is Scripture. Doubt- 
less the converse should be understood. 
They were happy, but — a cloud shadowed 
the honey moon. John must go to his 
regiment and Kick away his other half. 
But still he lingered. Duty called, but 
Anna pleaded. It was kicking against the 
pricks to think of parting. Four weeks 
passed at last ; John wrenched himself 



away. Afoot and alone, 'cross lots, and 
sobbing, Kick left his brided ex-Presi- 
dent's niece, and wended his sorrowful but 
proud way " on this line " till he reached 
the Union pickets, and so presented him- 
self at General Butler's head-quarters. 
He told his tale. He was no deserter. 
On the contrary he was the wedded hus- 
band of — his wife, and he told who his 
wife was and how lie came to have her for 
wife. He produced a letter to the Com- 
manding General, signed "Anna Tyler 
Kick," begging that her spouse might be 
granted furlough for thirty days, and pass 
North for self and wife, " to arrange do- 
mestic affairs." The letter was evidently 
that of a cultivated lady (as she was,) — 
in an exquisite hand, on exquisite paper, 
couched in well-considered, well-phrased 
and touching terms. The regiment, how- 
ever, happening to be in General Burnside's 
corps, it was not in General Butler's power 
to grant the request ; but he gave them a ' 
letter to Gen. Burnside, recommending that 
the request of the other half of Kick, late 
Tyler, be granted, and commending John 
Kick for successful ' Union ' strategy. 
Furlough and pass were obtained. 

Allowance will of course be made for 
' embellishments,' in war and newspaper 
times. 



Florence Nightingale's Contribution. 
A gift from Florence Nightingale to 
the Sanitary Commission in aid of the 
Union soldiers, seemed peculiarly appro- 
priate, in view of her well knoAvn high 
character, and her self-sacrificing sympa- 
thies and efforts in behalf of the soldier's 
hospital welfare. Mrs. Bancroft Davi?, 
of New York, received through Mrs. 
Adams, wife of the United States Minister 
at London, two copies of " Notes on Nurs- 
ing," from Miss Nightingale, as a contri- 
bution to the Sanitary Fair, with her au- 
tograph in each, written "from her sick 
bed," and a copy of " Notes on Nursing 
for the Laboring Classes," which bears the 
inscription in her own hand, " Offered to 



602 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



the sick and suffering by their faithful 
servant, Florence Nightingale." These 
gifts were also accompanied by views of 
Miss Nightingale's "two homes," photo- 
graphed from drawings by her sister, Lady 
Verney. Of course these gifts, from such 
a source, possessed a value far beyond 
their mere material worth. 

Power of the Tender Passion on a Union 
Lieutenant. 

At the breaking out of the rebellion, 
Mr. J. S. Searight enlisted in a company of 
volunteers from the town of Lincoln, Illi- 
nois, and which was attached to the Thir- 
ty-second regiment of that State. At a 
later date, Mr. Searight received a Lieu- 
tenant's commission. He was generally 
esteemed as an excellent officer, and did 
his whole duty in several of the sanguina- 
ry engagements in the Southwest. In an 
unlucky hour he met a young lady of se- 
cession proclivities, but, alas ! extremely 
beautiful in her personal appearance, at 
her home near Nashville, Tennessee. Suf- 
fice it to say that they met and loved. All 
the time the Lieutenant could spare from 
his duties was spent in the society of this 
new-found and charming little syren, and 
she as eagerly returned his burning pas- 
sion. Lieutenant Searight time and again 
offered his resignation — he wished to leave 
the tented field and dwell in the rosy 
bowers of love — but, unlike his love, it 
was not accepted. Love at length con- 
quered all his scruples — he deserted ! and 
succeeded in escaping beyond the federal 
lines with the young lady. The Southern 
belle who thus captivated the young Lieu- 
tenant was enormously wealthy — being 
the possessor of an ample fortune in ster- 
ling gold. They also succeeded in run- 
ning the blockade at Charleston and ar- 
rived at Havana on Christmas day, when 
they were married. Love has seduced 
from the path of duty many wiser men 
than Lieutenant Searight. It is a resist- 
less and overwhelming sentiment, and the 
best of mortals commit follies and extrav- 



agances, and even crimes, when involved 
in its meshes. 



First "Union" Demonstration in Old Vir- 
ginia. 

One of the Federal prisoner?, Corporal 
Merrill, who was conveyed to the city of 
Richmond, found an unexpectedly obliging 
friend in the person of an Irish woman — 
true to the generous traits of her nativity. 
The train of cars arrived at the Confeder- 
ate capital about nine o'clock in the even- 
ing. After the cars had halted, the Cor- 
poral heard a low voice at his window, 
which was partly raised. It was quite 
dark, and he could not distinguish the 
speaker, who was an Irish woman. 

" Whisht, whisht ! " said she ; " are ye 
hungry?" 

Corporal M. replied that he w r as not, but 
that some of the boys probably were. 

" Wait till I go to the house," she con- 
tinued, and in a moment afterward she 
was again heard at the window. She 
handed him a loaf of bread, some meat, 
and about a dozen bakers' cakes, saying, 
" That was all I had in the house, but I 
had a shillin', and I bought the cakes wid 
it ; and if I had more, ye should have it, 
and welcome! Take it, and God bless 
ye!" 

He thanked her, and said, " You are 
very kind to enemies." 

"Whisht," said she, " and ain't I from 
New York meself? " 

This was the first Union demonstration 
that the Corporal had witnessed in Old 
Virginia. He thanked God for the con- 
solation which the reflection afforded him, 
as for the third night he lay sleeplessly in 
the cars, with clothing still saturated and 
body thoroughly chilled from the effects 
of the deluge of rain which fell at Manas- 
sas, whither he had come. But the Cor- 
poral said he could have desired no sweet- 
er morsel than the good woman's homely 
loaf, and, proud of the loyal giver, said the 
Corporal, " I rejoiced that ' I was from New 
York meself ! ' " 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



603 



Looking- After a Soldier's Wife. 

The frailty of human nature and the 
bad policy of trusting too much to human 
friendships were exemplified in their sad- 
dest line, in a ca-e which happened in the 
city of Detroit, Michigan, and in which 
patriotism was made to suffer somewhat 
severely. A gentleman of that city hav- 
ing become deeply imbued with loyal sen- 
timents, and feeling that he might as well 
make sacrifices for his country as any one, 
enlisted in the army. The sacrifice was 
probably much greater than at first im- 
pulse he anticipated. It amounted, in- 
deed, to no less than the ruin of his home 
and the loss of all hope of future earthly 
happiness. 

He left behind him a lovely and accom- 
plished wife and a family of two interest- 
ing children. He made ample provision 
for their support, and set aside a certain 
portion of his wages, to be transmitted to 
.them regularly, whenever his regiment 
was paid. To still further ensure their 
comfort, he left them in charge of a friend 
living near, in whom, after a long ac- 
quaintance and daily intercourse and friend- 
ship, he had gained the utmost confidence, 
with the injunction to see that they wanted 
for nothing. Feeling sure, therefore, that 
his wife and family were in good hands 
and not likely to suffer under any circum- 
stances, he went cheerfully forth to the 
hardships and perils of the field. 

But, alas for the falsity of human faith. 
His friend — who, by the way, had always 
been considered a man of good standing 
in society and an estimable citizen — obey- 
ing the injunction to see that the soldier's 
family wanted for nothing, paid them al- 
most daily visits. During these visits an 
intimacy sprang up, which ripened into 
impropriety, and thus continued through a 
series of weeks, if not months. In a 
short time, the soldier-husband, who had 
gained honor in several campaigns, wrote 
back to his wife the — to him — -joyful intel- 
ligence that he had obtained a furlough, 
and was about to visit his home and fami- 



ly. To the guilty wife this news brought 
with stunning weight the consciousness of 
her guilt. Ashamed to meet her husband, 
she yielded to the suggestions of her se- 
ducer, and a few clays before the expected 
return of the soldier, they fled for parts 
unknown. 

The heartless villain left a wife and fam- 
ily behind, who became overwhelmed with 
grief at the shame and disgrace thus 
brought upon their good name. The feel- 
ings of the soldier on learning the faith- 
lessness of his wife and friend can, of 
course, be better imagined than described. 
Finding a suitable home for his children, 
he returned to the field wiser in many 
respects, and older and sadder in experi- 
ence. 



Southern " War Widows." 
Quite a noticeable institution at Vicks- 
burg and the region thereabout, on its fall- 
ing into the hands of the Federal powers, 
was the Southern widow — an article of 
which there appeared to be an abundance, 
of all sorts and ages. A partnership, 
friendship, fellowship, with one of them, 
proved sometimes profitable, if not pleas- 
ant, to the northern newcomers. Gunhoat 
officers, newsmen, merchants and Jews 
would quit their legitimate spheres to ply 
these ' 'lorn women ' with their seductive 
arts, for the sake of the cotton which they 
were found to have and hold. In one 
case a penniless adventurer was enriched 
by his share in a few hundred bales — of 
course of great value. Another married 
a scrawny dame, and turned Southern 
planter, body and soul, quietly softening 
down from a northern radical to a conser- 
vative, meet for " the manor born." A 
third became encumbered with no less than 
three women, whom he was anxious to 
marry off, but found his compensation in 
the farming of two thousand acres of land. 
In fact, the rage for turning planter be- 
came very great, for the sake of the gold- 
en gains of the cotton, exclusive of the 
innate attractions which the rich southern 



604 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



women possessed for the needy bachelors 
of Yankee land. 



Leave-taking at the Station. 
A squad of ' soldier boys ' was about to 
set off for the seat of war. At the sta- 
tion a large crowd of friends had gathered, 
and there was the usual amount of kissing, 
weeping, embracing, and leave-taking. A 
loud-voiced man was entertaining a group 
of ladies with his conversation, and he re- 
marked, as one of the soldiers' sweet little 
wives was passing, " If I was going to the 
war, and any of my friends should come 
down to the station to see me off, I would 
shoot them." The little woman looked up, 
and very quietly said, " Oh, don't fret ; 
you wouldn't have a chance to fire once ! " 
If one ever saw a man fished out of the 
raging canal alive — this fellow looked the 

like. 

$. 

" My Mary Ann." 

For some time the post commander at 
Cairo was a certain West Point Colonel 
of a Northwestern regiment, noted for his 
soldierly * qualities and rigid discipline. 
One day he passed by the barracks and 
heard a group of soldiers singing the well 
known street piece, " My Mary Ann." 
An angry shade crossed his brow, and he 
forthwith ordered the men placed in the 
guard-house, where they remained all 
night. The next morning he visited them, 
when one ventured to ask the cause of their 
confinement. 

" Cause enough," said the rigid Colonel ; 
" you were singing a song in derision of 
Mrs. Col. B ." 

The men replied by roars of laughter, 
and it was some time before the choler of 
the Colonel could be sufficiently subdued 
to understand that the song was an old 
one, and sung by half the school boys in 
the land, or the risibles of the men be 
calmed down to learn that the Colonel's 
wife rejoiced in the name of "Mary 
Am." 

That Colonel became a Brigadier-Gen- 
eral. 



Bright Girls in Missouri. 
About fifteen miles northwest from 
Springfield, Missouri, lived a Union farmer 
named R. In the spring of 1862, as he 
was plowing in his field near his little log 
cabin, a party of a dozen secession marau- 
ders, or jayhawkers, as they were there 
called, rode up. Ten of them hid them- 
selves in the brush ; the other two went 
forward and said, 

" We have been here before, at night, 
and could not get what we wanted, because 
your stable was locked. We have come 
now in the daytime and we think we can 
get them." 

" Well," said Mr. R., " you are armed 
and I am not. It is hard, but I suppose 
I shall have to give them up." 

" And that's not all," replied one of the 
two, " we mean to take your horses, and 
we mean to take you, too." 

" That's what you can't do," replied the 
sturdy old farmer ; " you've got ai'ms, ami 
you can kill me, but you can't take me 
alive." 

Here one of the men stepped back a 
few paces, cocked his gun and took delib- 
erate aim at the farmer's head. At the 
same instant Mr. R. heard footsteps in the 
direction of his house, and saw his daugh- 
ter coming — a girl nearly grown, with a 
quiet face, but a look of bright intelligence 
beaming from her eyes. She had one 
hand under her apron, in which she car- 
ried his revolver — and, what was more to 
the purpose, she, like many a Missouri 
girl, knew how to use it. Ah ! there were 
what a Cockney would call "stunning 
nirls " in that neigborhood ; one of them had 
not long since, on coming out of church, 
horsewhipped a young man in the presence 
of the congregation, and taken away his 
horse from him, without the least diffidence 
or difficulty. This brave daughter never 
did the like of that ; but when near enough 
to her father, she cast upon him a look of 
inquiry, which said — 

" Shall I shoot that man ? " 

Her father shook his head. Then she 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



605 



spoke in a fearless, ordinary tone of voice, 
and said : 

" Father, did you see those Federals 
come to our house just now? " 

" No," said he. 

" There were ten of them," she added. 

The jayhawker who Avas threatening 
her father's life, put up his gun and said : 

" Oh, they were just our men who were 
in the brush. I saw them going that way 
myself." 

" I don't think that they were your men," 
she turned to him and said ; " anyway they 
have got short jackets on," (cavalry). 

Hereupon the horsethieves turned, re- 
mounted their steeds, and incontinently 
4 vamoused the ranche.' 

Meanwhile, the old farmer and his in- 
geniously bright and bold girl returned to 
the house ; when, without waiting to put 
on the saddle, he jumped upon his fastest 
horse, and rode to town to tell his story 
and seek protection. That there are some 
bright girls in Missouri no one will doubt 
who has read Mr. C. C. Coffin's (" Carle- 
ton,") admirable sketches of the war in 
that and other regions. 



Falling- Back at the "Wrong- Moment. 
Two old ladies were one time convers- 
ing on the battle of Chickamauga. Said 
one (quoth the Columbia ' South Caroli- 
nian ') : 



Young- Feminine Spoiling- for Fig-ht. 
Lizzie Compton, a smart young Miss of 
sixteen, presented herself one day at Lou- 
isville, for the purpose of being mustered 
out of the service, she having been for 
some months a member of the Eleventh 
Kentucky cavalry. She had served in seven 
different regiments, and participated in 
several battles. At Fredericksburg she 
was seriously wounded, but recovered and 
followed the fortunes of war, which cast her 
from the Army of the Potomac to the Army 
of the Cumberland. She fought in the bat- 
tles of Green River bridge, on the 4th of 
July, receiving a wound which disabled her 
for a short time. Seven or eight times she 
was discovered and mustered out of ser- 
vice, but immediately re-enlisted in another 
regiment. She stated that her home was 
in London, Canada West, that being the 
place of her parents' residence. 




Two old Ladies conversing about Gen. Bragg 

" I wish, as General Bragg is a Chris- 
tian man, that he were dead and in heaven ; 
I think it would be a God-send to the Con- 
federacy." 

" Why, my dear," said the other, " if the 
General were near the gates of heaven, 
and invited in, at that moment he would 
fall back." 



Captain 's Trade for a Kiss. 

One evening, at the Bazaar held for the 
soldiers, at Columbus, Ohio, a pretty Indian 
girl was observed exerting her persuasive 
powers to their utmost tension, to induce 
a certain military gent, who ranked as a 
captain, to buy of her. a bead basket, or 
some other ornament which she had in her 
possession, for disposal on that occasion. 
As the gallant Captain had been gouged 
an unlimited number of times during the 
evening, he didn't quite yield to the soft 
and bland appeal ; but thinking to startle 
the maiden a bit, said jokingly — 

" Don't want to buy your trinkets, but 
I'll give you five dollars for a kiss ! " 

The maid reflected but a moment — she 
was laboring in a noble cause, for the sol- 
diers, good — " surely in such a case there's 
no harm ; " so, in a twinkling of the eye, 



606 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



she said, "Done, sir," and, as she expressed 
it, gave him a whapper right on his cheek. 
Military drew back, abashed. The 
crowd saw it and laughed. There was 
but one way of escape — he pulled out his 
somewhat depleted wallet and forked over 
a V. He then rushed frantically up stairs 
and drowned his sorrow in a flowing bowl 
of oyster soup. The maiden, in the mean- 
time, maintained her accustomed tran- 
quility. 

_ ♦ 

Became a Soldier After All. 
Mrs. Crissey, of Decatur, Illinois, whose 
husband was chaplain in an Illinois regi- 
ment, related to a visitor that many years 
ago her little baby, while playing in the 
street, fell down, and began to cry. A 
very tall young man, who was just then 
passing by with a yoke of oxen, picked 
the child up, and handing him inside the 
gate, said, cheerily, "You will never 
make a soldier it' you cry for that." The 
little fellow at once banished his grief. 
The tall young man was Abraham Lincoln, 
and Mrs. Crissey introduced to the visitor 
a young Captain, home on furlough, as her 
son, who had become a soldier after all. 
Such are the odds and ends which turn up 
with the whirligig of old Father Time. 



In and Out of the Vicksburg: Caves. 

The wife of one of the Confederate 
officers, who was confined within the " wall 
of fire " which surrounded Vicksburg dur- 
ing the memorable days of April and June, 
wrote an entertaining volume on the scenes 
and incidents which there transpired. Like 
most of her companions, she was com- 
pelled to seek shelter from the deluge of 
iron hail in the caves — these being the 
fashion — the rage — over besieged Vicks- 
burg. Negroes, who understood their 
business, hired themselves out to dig them, 
at from thirty to forty dollars, according 
to the size. Many persons, considering 
different localities unsafe, would sell them 
to others, who had been less fortunate, or 



less provident ; and so great was the de- 
mand for cave workmen, that a new 
branch of industry sprang up and became 
popular — particularly as the personal safe- 
ty of the workmen was secure, and money 
to be made withal. 

Finally, the surrender of Vicksburg 
came, and the husband of the lady entered 
her cave retreat and informed her of the 
fact. 

" It's all over ! the white flag floats from 
our forts ! Vicksburg has surrendered ! " 

He put on his uniform coat, silently 
buckled on his sword, and prepared to 
take out the men, to deliver up their arms 
in front of the fortification. The lady 
said of this change of circumstances : " I 
felt a strange unrest, the quiet of the day 
was so unnatural. I walked up and down 

the cave until M returned. The day 

was extremely warm ; and he came with 
a violent headache. He told me that the 
Federal troops had acted splendidly ; they 
were stationed opposite the place where 
the Confederate troops marched up and 
stacked their arms ; and they seemed to 
feel sorry for the poor fellows who had 
defended the place for so long a time. 
Far different from what he had expected, 
not a jeer or taunt came from any one of 
the Federal soldiers. Occasionally a cheer 
w-ould be heard, but the majority seemed 
to regard the poor unsuccessful soldiers 
with a generous sympathy. After the sur- 
render, the old gray-headed soldier, in 
passing on the hill near the cave, stopped, 
and touching his hat, said : " It's a sad day, 
this, madam ; I little thought we'd come 
to it, when we first stepped into the en- 
trenchments. I hope you'll yet be happy, 
madam, after the trouble you've seen ;" 
to which I mentally responded, ' Amen." 
The poor hunchback soldier, who had been 
sick, and who, at home in Southern Mis- 
souri, is worth a million of dollars, I have 
been told, yet within Vicksburg has been 
nearly starved, walked out to-day in the 
pleasant air, for the first time in many 
days." 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



GOT 



General Butler as a Young Lawyer. 
The shrewd dodge resorted to by But- 
ler, when a young lawyer, in the acquittal 
of a counterfeiter, and the strange figure 
cut by Ben on the street, in wresting him 
from the hands of a constable, are among 
the memorabilia of the General's former 
days. It so happened that one of the ed- 
itors of the Lowell Courier was present 
and witnessed both scenes of the farce. 




Gcu Butler as a Young Lawyer. 

The same evening, therefore, a column 
was devoted to Butler, describing in hu- 
morous and sarcastic language his exploits 
of the forenoon at the court-house. The 
next morning, Butler appeared in the 
sanctum of the Courier, armed with a for- 
midable raw-hide, and demanded of Colo- 
nel Schouler, the senior editor of the 
paper — afterwards Adjutant- General of 
Massachusetts — the name of the author 
of the offensive article. 

" I'm not accustomed to reveal the au- 
thorship of any portion of the original 
matter which appears in my paper," replied 
the Colonel : " I hold myself, however, 
personally responsible for the whole of it." 

" If you wish to know so very much the 
author of that article, I wrote it, Mr. But- 
ler," meekly interposed the youthful assist- 
ant editor, turning around from his desk 
at the opposite side of the room. 

" I suppose you did, you scoun- 
drel," screamed Butler, brandishing his 
raw-hide, " and I've come up here to 
thrash you within an inch of your life, 



unless you promise to publish in this 
evening's paper a humble apology for it." 

" I shall do no such thing," replied the 
assistant editor : " I have nothing to retract 
— nothing to apologize for." 

"Then take that!" shouted the irate 
attorney, bringing down his raw-hide a la 
Brooks. 

The assistant editor, dodging the badly 
aimed blow, seized the just filled ink-stand 
from the desk and let fly. He proved a 
better marksman than his antagonist. It 
struck Ben flat as a flounder on the breast, 
bespattering his bosom and face to a de- 
gree his opponent could hardly have hoped 
for. Just then the door of the printing 
office opened, and Ben was smartly seized 
by half a dozen stout printers, hustled 
down stairs in a most informal kind of gait, 
and with tattered hat, face smeared witli 
ink, and torn coat, ejected into the street. 
Whoever saw him, just then, was in no 
doubt that somebody had got into a scrape! 
The contrast in " plucky Ben's " appear- 
ance then and when he afterwards donned 
his epaulettes and stars, was, to say the 
least, quite suggestive. 



Conversation with an Atlanta Young- Lady. 

The order of General Sherman, after 
the capture of Atlanta, expatriating all 
the inhabitants of that city, in view of mak- 
ing it a great military depot, or point d'ap- 
pui, was the occasion of many a startling 
domestic scene. The spirit which it bred 
is well illustrated in the conversation given 
below, between a young Southern lady, of 
refinement, and a Union gentleman, just as 
the former was starting on her tour of exile. 

Young Lady — It is very hard to be ob- 
liged to leave our home. We have not 
felt the war before, except in the cost of 
the luxuries of life. AVe did not believe 
that your army would ever penetrate so far 
south, but I suppose our removal is one 
of the necessities of the situation, and we 
would much rather give up our homes than 
live near the Yankees. We will get far 
enough away this time. 



608 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



Unionist — May I ask where you intend 
to go ? 

Young Lady — To Augusta, where your 
army can't come. 

Unionist — I would not be sure of that. 
It is a long way from Nashville to Atlanta, 
— yet we are here. 

Young Lady (with ineffable scorn) — Oh, 
yes, you will '•flank ' us, I suppose. 

Unionist — Possibly, madam. 

Young L,ady — Look here, sir ; there are 
not two nations on the face of the earth, 
whose language, customs and habits are 
different, and who are geographically sepa- 




Railroad Depot at Atlanta, Ga. 

rated as wide as the poles, but what are 
nearer to each other than the North and 
the South. There are no two peoples in 
the world who hate each other more. 

Unionist — I hardly think there is the 
difference you describe, miss. It seems to 
me just as if you and I were Americans, 
with no vital points of difference between 
us which may not be settled some day. 
And then, I protest against the idea that 
we ' hate you.' I understand public feel- 
ing at the North pretty well, and such a 
sentiment does not exist there generally. 

Young Lady — Well, sir, we hate you ; 
we will never live with you again. If 
you whip us, and any of these mean poli- 
ticians in the South (and there are thou- 
sands of them who will be only too glad 
to do it) offer terms of reconstruction, Ave 



will throw ourselves into the arms of 
France, which only w r ait the chance to 
embrace us. 

Unionist — Reconstruction will undoubt- 
edly come about in time, miss. But we 
shall not permit France or any other for- 
eign power to interfere. France would 
embrace you, without doubt, if she gets a 
chance, but it will be the hug of an ana- 
conda, who will swallow you whole, with- 
out mastication. 

Young Lady — Anything rather than 
become subject to the North. We will 
not submit to that degradation. 

Unionist — If you are de- 

~ — — -^^ feated you will ; and then you 



will have thoroughly learned 
what your people have never, 
before the war, in the slight- 
est degree understood — how 
to respect tis. I assure you, 
friendship follows very close 
upon the heels of mutual 
respect. 

Young Lady — There is 

i: much truth in that, sir, and 

we are willing to confess that 

Ave never even believed the 

North Avovdd fight; and AA'hile 

there is a certain feeling of 

respect which has been forced upon us, 

Ave hate you all the more iioav, because Ave 



despised you before. 



Alas ! the Poor Soldier. 
Shortly after one of the terrible battles 
on the soil of Virginia, which sent thou- 
sands of brave soldiei'S to their last home, 
and mangled and mutilated thousands more 
for life, a wounded soldier was observed 
Avearily making his Avay along Main street, 
Worcester, Mass., among the hurrying 
croAvds Avhich thronged the walk. One 
empty coat sieeA T e shoA\ T ed that the aim 
of one rebel musket at least had not been 
faulty. As he Avas jostled rudely along, 
the blood trickled sloAvly doAvn to the pave- 
ment, proving that the A\ r ound was far 
from healed. Presently two young AA-omen 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



G09 



— hardly worthy the name of 'ladies,' 
although attired as such, — approached. 
They, too, saw the maimed and bleeding 
soldier, and daintily drawing closer their 
flowing robes, with their delicate noses ele- 
vated in disgust, they shrunk away with 
sundry little feminine exclamations of dis- 
gust and aversion. As the unfortunate 
soldier stepped within the shadow of a 
doorway, and leaned his head upon his 




Alas, poor Soldier ! 

remaining arm, to hide the tears which 
their deeds and words toward one of a 
sensitive nature had caused to moisten his 
eyes, a spectacle of lonely desolation, 
caused by such heartless ingratitude, was 
presented, which brought pity from more 
than one passer by. 

Senor B- 



• and the Confederate Brigadier's 
Daughter. 

In the summer of 1860, Senor B , 



the son of a wealthy Cuban planter, was 
staying at Saratoga. While there he be- 
came acquainted with Miss Eugenie F., 
daughter of a well known Mobile banker. 
The parties became enamored of each 
other, and all things being satisfactory, 
they became betrothed with the consent 
of the old folks, and the marriage was ap- 
pointed to take place on the 1 6th of Au- 
gust, 1861. The lady returned to her home, j 
38 



while the gentleman went back to Cuba 
to arrange and settle his private affairs, 
with a view of permanently residing in 
the United States. About one month be- 
fore the time appointed for the nuptials to 
take place, the Mobile banker received 
and accepted a commission as Brigadier- 
General in the Confederate service, and 
in his first battle, a few weeks after, re- 
ceived a mortal wound. His sudden death 
involved the family 
in unexpected embar- 
rassment, and from a 
state of wealth they 
were plunged into 
comparative obscuri- 
ty and poverty. Upon 
this state of affairs 
being made known 
to the father of Senor 
B., he broke off the 
match between the 
r latter and Miss Eu- 
J" genie, and interdicted 
even the slight cor- 
respondence afforded 
through the medium 
of blockade runners. 
Thus matters remained for a considerable 
time, until finally the old man died, leav- 
ing the son free, of course, to wed the 
maiden of his choice. He immediately 
took passage for, and after several days 
reached, Mobile. He there found that his 
intended mother-in-law, overcome with 
grief at her husband's falling in battle, had 
succumbed to the fell destroyer, and fol- 
lowed her partner to the grave, while 
Eugenie was conducting a seminary for 
young ladies. The meeting between the 
young couple need not be described — it 
will suffice to say, that the school was 
given up, the parties married, and in a 
few days embarking from Wilmington, 
North Carolina, they arrived in safety at 
Nassau. From thence they went to New 
York, and " all went merry as a marriage 
bell." 



610 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION. 



Private W. in Love and Luck. 

At the first battle of Bull Run there 

was a soldier by the name of W , who, 

like many others on that memorable occa- 
sion, straggled away from his command. 
After walking, or rather running, for sev- 
eral hours, he became very much fatigued, 
and after taking good precaution that there 
were no rebels either within sound or 
sight, he lay down to sleep by the side of 
a fence, and slept sweetly and soundly 
during the night. Late in the morning, 
when the sun was indeed near midnoon, 
he woke to find himself in a strange land, 
and perhaps among the bitterest enemies 
of the country. y 

But the demand of hunger soon silenced 
the voice of prudence and caution. See- 
ing a mansion on a hill in the distance, 
surrounded by parks and meadows, orch- 
ards and evergreens, artificial fountains 
and natural streams of clear running wa- 
ter, in fact everything tending to show 
that it was one of the first-class old Virgi- 
nia plantations, the home of courtly ele- 
gance and refinement, our soldier, tired 
with a weary step, and a fainting, famish- 
ing heart, knocked at the door of the man- 
sion. He was cordially received, for the 
old Virginia planter was faithful among 
the faithful few. He remained long enough 
to recruit his wasted energies and get in- 
formation as to the most direct route to 
Washington. But the name of the young 
soldier was not forgotten by the planter, 
nor his manly bearing and genial tempera- 
ment. 

W re-enlisted in another regiment, 

and at the second battle of Bull Run was 
severely though not dangerously wounded. 
He was taken to the hospital at Washing- 
ton. His old Virginia friend, who had so 
highly appreciated his character, learned 
of his illness. He sent to the hospital and 
obtained an order for permission to take 
him to his own home. He was removed, 
when through the kindness of the planter 
and the attentions of his daughter, the 



young man gradually recovered from the 
effects of his wound, and was himself aga'.n. 
A tender regard had in the meantime 
sprung up between the young lady and the 
young soldier, and, to cut very short the 
turn the story in such cases made and 
provided usually takes, they were betroth- 
ed. The soldier returned to his northern 
home on furlough. But while there he 
learned of the sudden and severe indispo- 
sition of her who was soon to become his 
bride. Shocked at the unexpected intel- 
ligence, he hastened on his journey back 
to her side, but, as the sad result showed, 
only to bury her loved form in the cold em- 
brace of the grave. The old man, however, 
still true to the attachment he had formed 
for the young soldier, told him that he in- 
tended to make him his heir, — that he had 
no children left, and no relatives, except 
those in rebellion, and that he should now 
share with him his estate. He at once 
gave him a deed to a considerable prop- 
erty in Chicago. The young man, a few 
weeks after, visited that modern miracle 
and Babylon combined, and found that his 
little Chicago fortune would realize the 
handsome sum of two hundred thousand 
dollars, being offered sixty thousand dol- 
lars for a single block to which he had 
fallen heir. But this is not all of the 
strange and eventful story. The old man 
soon after died, leaving all his fortune — 
more than eight hundred thousand dollars 
- — to the young Union soldier. 



Pictures of Mrs. Major G and her 

"Boy." 

Mrs. G , wife of a slain officer, was 

promoted by the President of the United 
States to the position of Major in the 
army, in recognition of her bravery in the 
field and services in the hospital to the 
Union soldiers. The female Major after- 
wards sojourned in Cleveland for some 
days, and finally was married there to a 
private in the Forty-ninth New York regi- 
ment — a mere boy. The happy couple 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



611 



subsequently visited an artist's studio for 
the purpose of having their likenesses 
taken. The lady Major, after inquiring 
the price of several eases — and failing to 
be suited thereat — exclaimed : " If you 
knew who I am, perhaps you would give 
me a picture!" She then exhibited to 
the operator several badges, etc., and made 
known her name and position. " I can 
see no reason why you should not pay for 
a picture, and a good round price at that, 
for you are getting a pretty plump salary," 
said Mr. Operator. " That may be," archly 
replied the bright woman, " but do you see 
that 'ere boy ? " pointing to her husband : 
" In all probability, besides having him to 
take care of, I shall have his dad and 
mammy on my hands soon ! " Matters 
were finally " adjusted," and Mrs. Major 

G did not leave without a picture of 

herself and " boy." 



Northern Schoolma'ams in Georgia. 
A body of Federal prisoners had reached 
Rome, Georgia, en route for Richmond. 
Weary, famished, thirsting, they were 
herded like cattle in the street, under the 
burning sun, — a public show. It Avas a 
gala day in that modern Rome. The 
women, magnificently arrayed, came out 
and pelted them with balls of cotton, and 
with such characteristic feminine sneers 
and taunts as, " So you have come to 
Rome, have you, you Yankees ? How do 
you like your Avelcome ? " — and then more 
cotton and more words. The crowds and 
the hours came and went, but the mockery 
did not intermit, and the poor fellows were 
half out of heart. Major P., of an Ohio 
regiment, faint and ill, had stepped back a 
pace or two and leaned against a post, 
when he was lightly touched upon the 
arm. As he looked around, mentally 
nerving himself for some more ingenious 
insult, a fine looking, well dressed boy of 
twelve stood at his elbow, his frank face 
turned up to the Major's. With a furtive 
glance at a rebel guard who stood with 
his back to them, the lad, pulling the Ma- 



jor's shirt, and catching his breath, boy- 
fashion, said, 

" Are you from New England ? " 

" I was born in Massachusetts," was the 
reply. 

" So was my mother," returned the boy, 
brightening up ; " She was a New England 
girl, and she was what you call a ' school- 
ma'am,' up north ; she married my father, 
and I'm their boy, but how she does love 
New England and the Yankees, and the 
old United States, and so do I." 

The Major was touched, as well he 
might be, and his heart warmed to the 
boy as to a young brother ; and he took 
out his knife, severed a button from his 
coat and handed to him for a remembrance. 

"Oh, I've got half a dozen just like it. 
See here ! " and he took from his pocket 
a little string of them, gifts of other boys 
in blue. " My mother would like to see 
you," he added, " and I'll go and tell her." 

" What are you doing there ! " growled 
the guard, suddenly wheeling around upon 
him, and the boy slipped away into the 
crowd and was gone. Not more than half 
an hour elapsed before a lovely lady, ac- 
companied by the little patriot, passed 
slowly down the sidewalk next to- the curb- 
stone. She did not pause, she did not 




Gov. Andrew, of Mass. 



speak ; if she smiled at all it was faintly ; 
but she handed to one and another of the 
prisoners bank notes as she went. As 
they neared the Major, the boy gave him 



612 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



a significant look, as much as to say, 
" That's my New England mother." The 
eyes of the elegant lady and the poor, 
weary officer met, for an instant, and she 
passed away like a vision out of sight. 
"Who would not join in fervently breath- 
ing two beautitudes *: God bless the young 
Georgian, and blessed forever be the north- 
ern school-ma'am ! 

Yes, she was one of those Massachu- 
setts ministers of wisdom and good- 
ness, so many of whom, under the inspi- 
ration of that great-hearted man, Gover- 
nor Andrew, have left the Old Bay State, 
and all its attractions of piety, literature, 
thrift and refinement, to instruct and ele- 
vate the children of the South, and reclaim 
its vast moral wastes. 



"Hopeless Cases." 
When the wounded were being brought 
into the churches at Leesburg, after the 
battle, friend and foe were accommodated 
alike with whatever the Confederates had, 
and the ladies were busy in their various 
offices of mercy and kindness. Outside 
one of the churches a tent was raised for 
the reception of the dead. Lieutenant 
Small, of the Confederate service, was 
searching for a poor friend of his among 
the many bodies, and found two Yankees, 
thrown in among the others. They were 
sighing, and he immediately pulled them 
out, placed a body under their heads for 
a pillow, and examined their hurts. One 
had received a shot in the left eye ; being 
a common round musket ball, it had passed 
round the skull and came out at the left 
ear. In the second case, the ball had 
passed in a direction exactly opposite to 
this. They were not dead, but they had 
been thrown aside to die, while many of 
their comrades Avere comfortably provided 
for in churches and schools. The doctors 
in attendance were busy, and treated 
Lieutenant S. like a Union sympathizer, 
and to all his appeals in behalf of suffer- 
ing humanity, swore roundly that they 
had something more important to attend 



to, particularly as the two Yankees were 
pronounced by all the physicians as ' hope- 
less cases.' But the Lieutenant's appeal 
to the ladies was answered by instant 
kindness. They proceeded to the ' dead 
tent,' and stated that the two sufferers had 
been there all day, and were considered 
dead. Lieutenant S. procured some ex- 
cellent whiskey for them, their faces were 
washed, more spirit was administered at 
proper intervals, food was given, and to 
the astonishment of all the doctors, those 
two fellows were walking about the streets 
of Leesburg in less than three days, com- 
fortably smoking their pipes, or fighting 
their battles over again, around the fire 
of the mess-rooms. 



Yankee Pris'ner 'Scaped from Bichmon'. 

" John Bray," of the First New Jersey 
cavalry, was captured by a band of Mos- 
by's rough-riders, at Warrenton, Va., and 
duly escorted as a prisoner to Richmond. 
From this imprisonment he, by great dex- 
terity, managed to escape, one Sabbath — 
a holy day which blessed his deed. At 
eleven o'clock that night he was within 
nine miles of New Kent Court House, 
having traveled a distance of twenty-one 
miles since noon. He passed that night 
in a swamp, asleep, exhausted, chilled, and 
sore, and had lost Ins way. The next 
morning, while pursuing again his devious 
path, a negro suddenly confronted him. 
Says " John : " — "Whence he came I knew 
not ; I only knew that he stood before me 
with a look of inquiry in his eyes, as much 
as to say, "Who are you, sir? I was, of 
course, startled ; but I remembered that I 
wore a rebel uniform, and met him accord- 
ingly. But he was not to be deceived. 

" Yer can't come dat game on dis cluT," 
he said with a sparkle in his eye ; " I 
knows you, sar ; you'se a Yankee pris'ner 
'scaped from Richmon'." Then, as if to 
reassure me, he hurriedly added, "But 
Lor' bless yer, massa, I won't tell on yer ; 
I'se real glad yer's got away." 

I saw in a moment the fellow could be 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



CIS 



trusted — I have never seen a negro yet, 
in this war, who could not be trusted by 
the Union soldier ; and so I unbosomed 
myself to him at once, telling him the 



pushed on, keeping the road as nearly as 
I could. 

At eleven o'clock, Tuesday night, " John 
Bray " reached the suburbs of Williams- 




Enjoying the Negro's Hospitality. 



whole story of my escape, that I had lost 
my way, that I had not eaten a morsel of 
food in twenty-four hours, and that if he 
could help me in any way I would be more 
indebted than I could describe. 

" Dis chiP glad to help yer," he replied, 
in a tone of real pleasure, and with a 
bright look in his eyes, and at once started 
off at a rapid pace, leading me across the 
fields, a distance of four miles, to the 
house of another negro, to whom he ex- 
plained my situation and wishes. Here I 
was given something to eat, both the 
man and woman treating me with the 
greatest kindness ; and after a short rest 
again set out, this time with my host 
as guide, for the main road, from which 
I had wandered. This was soon reached, 
and parting with my black friend, I 



burg, the goal of all his wanderings, but 
not without passing through many and 
perilous adventures. 



FranMe Bragg, the Boy Patriot at Don- 
elson. 

In one of the Union hospitals at Padn- 
cah was one of Birges's sharpshooters, 
who did such excellent service at Fort 
Donelson. He was a brave and noble 
boy. There were several kind ladies 
taking care of the sick. Their presence 
was like sunshine. Wherever they walk- 
ed the eyes of the sufferers followed them. 
One of these ladies thus spoke of little 
Frankie Bragg : — Many will remember 
him ; the boy of fifteen, who fought val- 
iantly at Donelson, — one of the bravest 
of Birges's sharpshooters, and who.e an- 



614 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



swer to my questioning in regard to join- 
ing the army was — 

" I joined because I was so young and 
strong, and because life would be worth 
nothing to me unless I offered it for my 
country ! " 

I saw him die. I can never forget the 
pleading gaze of his violet eyes, the brow 
from which ringlets of light-brown hair 
were swept by strange fingers bathed in 
the death-dew, the desire for some one to 
care for him, some one to love him, in his 
last hours. I came to his side, and he 
clasped my hand in his own, fast growing 
cold and stiff. He said : 

" O, I am going to die, and there is no 
one to love me. I did not think I was going 
to die till now ; but it can't last long. If 




Frankie Bragg. 

my sisters were only here ; but I have no 
friends near me now, and it is so hard ! " 

" Frankie, I know it is hard to be away 
from your relatives, but you are not friend- 
less ; I am your friend. Mrs. S and 

the kind doctor are your friends, and Ave 
will all take care of you. More than this, 
God is your friend, and he is nearer to 
you now than either of us can get. Trust 
him, my boy. He will help you." 

A faint smile passed over the pale suf- 
ferer's features, as he asked — 

" Oli, do you think he will ? " 

Then, as he held my hands closer, he 
turned his face more fully toward me, and 
said : 

" My mother taught me to pray when 



I was a very little boy, and I never forgot 
it. I have always said my prayers every 
day, and tried not to be bad. Do you 
think God heard me always ? " 

" Yes, most assuredly. Did he not 
promise, in his good Book, from which 
your mother taught you, that he would 
always hear the prayers of his children ? 
Ask, and ye shall receive. Don't you re- 
member this? One of the worst things 
we can do is to doubt Gocfs truth. He 
has promised, and he will fulfil it. Don't 
you feel so, Frankie ? " 

He hesitated a moment, and then an- 
swered, slowly : " Yes, I do believe it. 
I am not afraid to die, but I want some- 
body to love me." 

The old cry for love, the strong yearn- 
ing for sympathy of kindred hearts — it 
would not be put down. 

" Frankie, I love you. Poor boy ! you 
shall not be left alone. Is not this some 
comfort to you ? " 

" Do you love me ? Will you stay with 
me, and not leave me ? " 

"I will not leave you. Be comforted, 
I will stay as long as you wish." 

I kissed the pale forehead as if it had 
been that of my own child. A glad light 
Hashed over his face. 

" Oh, kiss me again ; that was given 

like my sister. Mrs. S , won't you 

kiss me, too ? I don't think it will be so 
hard to die; if you will both love me." 

It did not last long. With his face 
nestled against mine, and his large blue 
eyes fixed in perfect composure upon me 
to the last moment, he breathed out his 
life. So he died for his country, and rests 
on the banks of the beautiful Ohio. 



All for Nothing-. 

The kind of work which was accom- 
plished by the noble women of the North 
and West, through the agency of the 
Sanitary Commission, during the Avar, is 
Avell known. Here is an incident in 
point : — 

A Scotch woman, after nursing her 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



615 



Wounded son until he was almost well, found 
her money so nearly gone that she could 
not remain with him ; yet she could not 
bear to leave him dependent only on the 
ordinary hospital supplies, lest, as she 
said, " he shouldn't be so well." A kind 
friend took her to a storehouse, to procure 
a few luxuries for her boy. He ordered 
a supply of sugar, tea, soft crackers, and 
canned fruit, then chicken and oysters, 
then jelly and wine, brandy, milk, and 
under-clothing, until the basket was full. 
As the earlier articles nestled under its 
lids, her face was glowing with satisfaction ; 
but, as the latter lots were being added, 
she would draw him aside to whisper, that 
it was too much — really, she hadn't enough 
money ; and when the more expensive 
items came from the shelves, the shadow 
of earnestness which gloomed her counte- 
nance, grew into one of perplexity, her 



was purchased with gold from California ; 
and it is all for sick soldiers — your son, as 
much as for any one else. This is the 
kind of work done by the United States 
Sanitary Commission." This work, in- 
deed, was a peculiar bond of union be- 
tween the loyal and true-hearted women 
of our country, enlisting, as it did, the act- 
ive efforts of such ladies as Mrs. Lincoln, 
Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Halleck, &c, and reach- 
ing to every family, however humble, 
North and West. 



How to Take the Oath. 
A former belle and well known young 
lady of Louisville, Ky., — though not too 
young to marry, was too rebellious to vow 
the allegiance and fidelity of her heart to 
the flag of the Union. Hymen held out his 
hand filled with tempting greenbacks ; but 
military law is very severe and exacting, 



soul vibrated between motherly yearning I making no discrimination in favor of the 



for the lad on his bed, and the scant purse 
in her pocket, until, slowly and with great 
reluctance, she began to return the costli- 
est of the tempting assortment. 

" Hadn't you better ask the price ? " 
asked the guide. 

" How much is it ? " 

" Nothing," replied the storekeeper. 

" Sir ! " queried she, in the utmost 
amazement ; " nothing for all this ? " 

"My good woman," asked the guide, 
" have you a Soldiers' Aid Society in your 
neighborhood ? " 

Yes, they had ; she belonged to it her- 
self. 

" "Well, what do you suppose becomes of 
the garments you make, and the fruits you 
put up ? " 

She hadn't thought ; she supposed they 
went to the army ; but she was evidently 
bothered to know what connection there 
should be between their Aid Society and 
the basket. 

"These garments that you see, come 
from your society, or other societies just 
like yours ; so did these boxes and bar- 
rels ; those fruits from Boston ; that wine 



softer sex. The God of domestic bliss 
had to evacuate his position until the God 
of war was appeased, and this could only 
be done by the belle aforesaid taking an 
oath to support the Union. While the 
lady was modest enough to look for a 
union of hearts, she cared nothing for that 
political Union which a non-clerical law 
exacted. Rather than forego the joys and 
delights of married life, however, and 
waste her sweetness in single solitude, the 
little rebel beauty took the oath of alle- 
giance to the United States Government, 
and married — " a Yankee invader ! " The 
joke was considered a good one, especially 
on the part of the bride ; and could the 
bridegroom be otherwise than a happy 
man in the companionship of such a loyal 
Avoman for a wife ? 



General Rice to his Mother. 
The following is an extract from the 
last letter written by General James C. 
Rice, just before the battles in the Vir- 
ginia Wilderness, in one of which the 
noble General lost his life. It was to his 
aged mother, living in Worthington : — 



616 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



We are about to commence the cam- 
paign, the greatest in magnitude, strength 
and importance since the beginning of the 
war. God grant that victory may crown 
our arms ; that this wicked rebellion may 
be crushed, our Union preserved, and 
peace and prosperity again be restored to 
our beloved country. My faith and hope 
and confidence are in God alone, and I know 
that you feel the same. I trust that God 
may again graciously spare my life, as He 
has in the past, and yet one cannot fall too 
early if, loving Christ, he dies for his 
country. My entire hope is in the cross 
of my Saviour. In this hope I am al- 
ways happy. We pray here in the army, 
mother, just the same as at home. The 
same God who watches over you, also 
guards me. I always remember you, 
mother, in my prayers, and I know you 
never forget me in yours. All that I am, 
under God, I owe to you, my dear mother. 
Do you recollect this passage in the Bible : 
" Thou shalt keep therefore the statutes, 
that it may go well with thee, and thy 
children after thee." How true this is in 
respect to your children, mother. I hope 
you will read the Bible and trust the 
promises to the last. There is no book 
like the Bible for comfort. It is a guide 
to the steps of the young — a staff to the 
aged. 

Well, my dear mother, good bye. We 
are going again to do our duty, to bravely 
offer up our life for that of the country, 
and " through God we shall do valiantly." 

With much love, and many prayers, 
that, whatever may betide us, we may 
meet in Heaven at last, I am your very 
affectionate son, James. 



Superfluities in War Times among- the Fair 
Sex. 

The Provost Marshal of ' Memphis, 
Tennessee, one day took several ladies in 
custody, some of whom were of apparent 
respectability, suspected of having been 
engaged in smuggling goods into the Con- 
federacy. As is usual in all such cases 



of dealing with the fair sex, some strange 
and curious developements were made, 
after a little manipulation by a female ex- 
aminer — " for such cases provided and 
prepared." One had on a whole bolt of 
the finest of linen — sufficient for a village 
haberdasher's stock — adjusted to answer 
the purpose of a. bustle (an article rather 
out of date in a modern woman's ward- 
robe). Her corset was filled Avith tempt- 
ing pieces of gold coin, quilted in, and 
amounting to twelve hundred dollars. 
Another had her form winsomly rounded 
out Avith padding, made up of the best 
dress silks, worth five dollars and upward 
per yard — decidedly extravagant even for 
so choice a place and purpose. Her hose 
were found to conceal, besides nature's 
pedal supports, a quantity of gentlemen's 
cravats — these being swathed carefully 
and ingeniously about her rebellious little 
legs. The third lady's ample hoops were 
found to cover a number of yards of 
broadcloth — by no conceivable hypothesis 
necessary in such a climate : and her bust 
was filled out to the largest possible ma- 
ternal fullness with a museum of articles, 
consisting mainly of jewelry, silk thread, 
needles and medicines. The fair captives 
were worth a good deal " as they stood," 
and were well taken care of. 



Woman as a Dernier Resort. 

Women have always been employed to 
persuade information out of unsuspecting, 
but not unsuspected persons, and they 
bring a degree of tact and shrewdness into 
play that hirsute humanity can never hope 
to equal. Many a wasp has been caught 
with their honey of hypocrisy. 

Here is an illustration : A subordinate 
Federal officer in a certain city had long 
been suspected of disloyalty, but no proof 
to warrant his arrest could be obtained, 
and so as a dernier resort a woman was 
set at him. She smiled her way into his 
confidence, and became his " next best 
friend," but, finding that ears were of no 
US e 5 — for he could not be induced to say 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



617 



one word of matters pertaining to his of- 
fice, — she changed her plan of attack, and 
turned a couple of curious, and, it is said, 
beautiful eyes upon him. Not unfrequent- 
ly he would ride out of town into the coun- 
try, and be absent three or four hours and 
return. 

For all the hours of the twenty-four 
but just these she could account. Within 
them, then, lay the mischief, if mischief 
there was, and she began to watch if he 
made any preparation for these excursions. 
None. He loaded his old-fashioned pis- 
tol, drew on his gloves, lighted a cigar, 
bade her a loving good-bye — " only that, 
and nothing more." Was he deep and 
she dull ? Time would show. At last, 
she observed that he put an unusual charge 
into the pistol, one day, and all at once 
she grew curious in pistols. Would he 
show her some day how to charge a pistol, 
how to fire a pistol, how to be a dead shot ? 
And just at that minute she was athirst, 
and would he bring her a lemonade ? She 
was toying with the weapon, and he went. 

The instant the door closed behind him 
she drew the charge, for she knew quite 
as much of pistols as he, and substituted 
another. She Was not a minute too soon, 
for back he came, took the pistol, and rode 
away. No sooner had he gone than she 
set about an examination of the charge, 
and it proved to be plans and details of 
Federal forces and movements, snugly 
rolled together. The mischief was in the 
pistol, then, though none but a woman 
would have thought of it, and so it was 
that he carried information to his rebel 
friends with rural proclivities. The wo- 
man's purpose was gained, and when the 
officer returned, his " next best friend " 
had vanished like an Arab, or a vision, 
and he had hardly time to turn about be- 
fore he was under arrest. 



A Young: "Woman Shoots a Guerrilla to 
Aveng-e the Murder of Her Lover. 

The following simple and unvarnished 
story has hardly a parallel in the page of 



fiction. Its strict truth is beyond ques- 
tion : 

Murfreesboro', June 28, 1864. 
To the Editor of The Times : 

The original of the following letter is in 
my possession. The events so graphically 
narrated, transpired in Overton county, 
Tenn. I knew Dr. Sadler from a small 
boy. The men who murdered him were 
noted guerrillas, and killed him for no per- 
sonal grudge, but on account of his senti- 
ments. I have no personal acquaintance 
with the young lady, but have the highest 




A Young Woman Shoots a Guerrilla. 

authority for stating that she is a pure, 
high-minded girl, the daughter of a plain 
farmer in moderate circumstances. It only 
remains to state that Peteet was killed 
January 30, and Gordenhire February 4, 
1864, so that the vengeance they invoked 
has overtaken all three of the murderers 
of M. G. Sadler. 

John W. Bowen. 

Martin's Creek, April 30, 1864. 

Major Cliff : According to promise, 
I now attempt to give you a statement of 
the reasons why I killed Turner, and a 
brief history of the affair. Dr. Sadler 
had, for two years previous to his death, 
seemed equally as near and dear to me as 
a brother, and for several months nearer 
than any person — my parents not except- 
ed- If he had not, I never would have 
done what I did — promise to be his. 

The men who killed him had threatened 



618 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



his life often, because he was a Union man ; 
they said he should not live, and after he 
had taken the oath they arrested him, but 
Lieut. Oakly released him at Pa's gate. 
He staid at Pa's till bed-time, and I warned 
him of the danger he was in ; told him I 
had heard his life threatened that day, and 
that I felt confident he would be killed if 
he did not leave the neighborhood, and 
stay off* until these men became recon- 
ciled. He promised to go ; said he had 
some business at Carthage, and would 
leave. He promised us he would leave 
the neighborhood that night or by daylight 
next morning, and we felt assured he had 
gone. But for some unaccountable rea- 
son he did not leave. 

About 3 o'clock, p. m., next day, neAvs 
came to me at Mr. Johnson's, where I had 
gone with my brother, that Dr. Sadler was 
killed. I had met Peteet, Gordenhire, 
and Turner on the road,' and told my 
brother that they were searching for Dr. 
Sadler to kill him. Sure enough they 
went to the house where' he was, and, 
strange to me after his warning, he per- 
mitted them to come in. They met him 
perfectly friendly, and said they had come 
to get some brandy from Mr. Yelton, which 
they obtained, and immediately after drink- 
ing they all three drew their pistols and 
commenced firing at Sadler. He drew 
his, but it was snatched away from him ; 
he then drew his knife, which was also 
taken away from him. He then ran 
round the house and up a stairway, escap- 
ing out of their sight. They followed, 
however, and searched till they found him, 
and brought him down and laid him on a 
bed, mortally wounded. He requested 
some of his people to send for Dr. Dillin 
to dress his wounds. It is strange to me 
why, but Sadler's friends had all left the 
room, when Turner went up and put his 
pistol against the temple, and shot him 
through the head. They all rejoiced like 
demons, and stood by till he made his last 
struggle. They then pulled his eyes open 
and asked in a loud voice if he were dead. 



They then took his horse and saddle and 
pistols, and robbed him of all his money, 
and otherwise insulted and abused his re- 
mains. 

Now, for this, I resolved to have re- 
venge. Peteet and Gordenhire being 
dead, I determined to kill Turner, and to 
seek an early opportunity of doing it. 
But I kept that resolution to myself, 
knowing that I would be prevented. I 
went prepared, but never could get to see 
him. 

On the Thursday before I killed him, I 
learned he was preparing to leave for 
Louisiana, and' I determined he should not 
escape if I could prevent it. I arose that 
morning and fixed my pistols, so that they 
would be sure fire, and determined to hunt 
him all that day. Then sitting down I 
wrote a* few lines, so that if I fell my 
friends might know where to look for my 
remains. I took my knitting, as if I w r ere 
going to spend the day with a neighbor 
living' on the road toward Turner's. It 
rained very severely, making the roads 
muddy, so that I became fatigued, and 
concluded to go back and ride next day, or 
Saturday. But Ma rode my horse on 
Saturday, and left me to keep house. 

We had company Sunday a. m., so that 
I could not leave, but the company left 
about noon, and I started again in search 
of Turner. I went to his house about two 
and a half miles from Pa's. I found no 
one at home and therefore sat down to 
await his return. After waiting perhaps 
one and a half hours, a man came to see 
Turner, and not finding him he said he 
supposed that he and his wife had gone to 
Mrs. Christian's, his sister-in-law, who 
lived about one-half mile distant. 

I concluded to go there and see, fearing 
the man would tell him I was waiting for 
him and he would escape me. I found 
him there, and a number of other persons, 
including his wife and her father and 
mother. Most of them left when I en- 
tered the house. I asked Mrs. Christian 
if Turner was gone. She pointed to him 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



619 



at the gate just leaving. I looked at the 
clock, and it was halt-past four o'clock, 
p. m. 

I then walked out into the yard, and as 
Turner was starting, called to him to stop. 
He turned and saw I was preparing to 
shoot him ; he started to run. I fired at 
the distance of about twelve paces, and 
missed. I fired again as quick as possi- 
ble, and hit him in the back of the head, 
and he fell on his face and knees. I fired 
again and hit him in the back, and he fell 
on his right side. I fired twice more, only 
one of these shots taking effect. By this 
time I was within five steps of him, and 
stood and watched him till he was dead. 
I then turned round and walked toward 
the house, and met Mrs. Christian and her 
sister, his wife, coming out. They asked 
me what I did that for? My response 
was : 

" You know what that man did on the 
13th of December last — murdered a dear 
friend of mine. I have been determined 
to do this deed ever since, and I never 
shall regret it." 

They said no more to me, but commenced 
hallooing and blowing a' horn. I got my 
horse out and started home, where I shall 
stay or leave when I please, and say what 
I please. 

L. J. W. 



Bushwhackers Kept at Bay by a Brave 
Girl. 

While Brigadier- General Brown was in 
command of the Federal forces at Jeffer- 
son City, Missouri, an attempt was made 
by three bushwhackers to enter the house 
of Mr. Schwartz, twelve miles distant, but 
who, being resolutely resisted by a young 
lady of only fifteen years, undertook to 
break down the door. It appears that on 
being thwarted in their purpose to enter 
the house, they declared they would come 
in, at the same time trying to break down 
the door. While this was going on, the 
other inmates of the house, viz., Mr. 
Schwartz, John Wise, Captain Golden, 



government horse dealer, and a young man 
in his employ, all left, taking with them — 
as they supposed — all the arms and am- 
munition. In their hasty retreat they left 
behind a revolver, which Miss Schwartz 
appropriated to her own use. She went 
to the door, and on opening it, presented 
the pistol at the leader of the gang, telling 
them to " come on if they wanted to, and 
that some of them should fall, or she 
would." They threatened to kill her if she 
did not leave the door. She replied : 

" The first man who takes one step to- 
ward this door dies, for this is the home 
of my parents, and my brothers and sis- 
ters, and I am able to, and shall defend 
it." 

Seeing that she was determined in her 
purpose, and after holding a consultation 
together, they left. 

Here is one of the many instances of 
true and brave-hearted courage ; — a young 
girl of but fifteen fresh and tender sum- 
mers, after all the inmates of the house, 
even her father, had fled, leaving her 
alone to her fate, — with the courage wor- 
thy a Joan of Arc, boldly defending her 
native home against three blood-thirsty 
and cowardly ruffians, and by her coolness 
and heroic daring, succeeding in turning 
them at their peril, from their hellish de- 
signs. All honor to the heroism of that 
truly American girl ! 



Skull-Bone Memento Kept by a Lady. 

Information was one day communicated 
to the Provost-Marshal of St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, that the wife of a well known Con- 
federate officer, Warrack Hugh, — Captain 
and Assistant-Inspector-General on Gen- 
eral Leonidas Polk's staff, was in that city 
and preparing to go to Jefferson City. 
Orders were immediately issued for her 
arrest, and carried out. In her possession 
were found a number of secession articles, 
a package of letters, and a piece of the 
skull of a Union soldier, about two inches . 
square, and so thick that it must have been 
a portion of the occipital bone, on which 



620 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION- 



was the inscription, " "Wilson's Creek, 
Dec. 21st, 1861," and then some obscure 
chirography, half rubbed out, that looked 
like ' Found on the spot.' In answer to a 
question where she obtained it, she replied 
by telling when she got it. In answer to 
another, as to whether she knew what it 
was, she answered in the affirmative, — 
that she knew it to be a portion of the 
skull of a Union soldier. When inquired 
of why she kept it, she replied, " For a 
■memento" — an unaccountable and pervert- 
ed taste for a lady. She was committed 
to the female department of the prison, 
after an examination, and the pleasant 
souvenirs were retained by the officials* 



Clever Dogs, but both sucked Eggs. 
During General Barney's raid through 
Florida, a ba'ight little girl was found alone 
in oaie of the houses, her parents having 
' skedaddled.' She was rather noai-com- 
mittal, lor she did aiot kaaow whether the 
troops were Union or rebel. Two fine 
dogs made their appeaa^ance, while a con- 
versation was beiaig held with the child, 
and she informed one of her questioners 
that their naaaies were Gilhnore and Beau- 
regard. " Which is the best dog ? " asked 
a bystander. " I doia't know," said she, 
" they're both aaaighty smart dogs ; but 
they'll either of 'em suck eggs if you don't 
watch 'em." The ta'oops left withoaat as- 
certainhag whether the faiaaily, of which 
the girl was a hopeful scion, was Uaaion or 
rebel. 



Rather be a Soldier's "Widow than a Coward's 
Wife. 
Oaie day a poor wounded soldier on 
crutches entered one of the New York 
city railway cars, which on this occasioai 
happened to be occupied mainly by wo- 
men. One of them considea'ately arose 
and gave the wounded man her place. 
Her neighbor, seemiaig to be scandalized 
by this abdication of feminine privilege, 
asked her if it wea*e possible that she had 
voluntarily assigned her seat to ' that 



man.' She replied she had ; that she had 
a husband who was a soldier in the Union 
army, and- that she had done only what 
she would wish othea-s should do for him 
iaa a shaailar situatioia. The other replied 
that she had aio husband iaa the aa-my, aaad 
was glad of it. " Well," o-etorted the time 
Americaaa wife, " I would rather be a sol- 
dier's widow than a coward's wife" 



Interesting Contribution to a Sanitary Fair. 

One of the coaitributions to the Ciaaciaa- 
nati Sanitary Fair consisted of a letter 
from Thomas Clay to his father. When 
the great statesman, Henry Clay, was liv- 
ing, he pua'chased a farm for his son Thom- 
as, and stocked and prepaa'ed it thoa'oughly 
for his use. After a few years' i*esidenee 
on the farm, Thomas wrote to his father 
for more money, — that his faa*m needed 
important impa-oveaaaents, and he had aaot 
the wherewith to pa-ocure what he needed. 
Mr. Clay replied to the effect that as he 
(Thoaaaas) had squandered the oaaeans he 
had given hiaaa iaa preparing the faa-m for 
his use, he might now go to — . Thoaaaas 
applied iaa a ba'ief letter to his father, as 
follows : 

" My Dear Father: Your kind letter 
of — instaaat is befoa'e me. I have perused 
and digested its cooatents, and am obliged 
to retaarn you my warmest gratitude for 
the kindly admonitioia it contains. The 
destinatioaa you direct me to go will be 
sti'ange to aaae, aaad I have deemed it the 
part of a dutiful soaa to i - equest of yoaa a 
letter of iaata-ochaction. 

Hoping to hear from you, I reaaaain your 
most obedient and dutiful son, 

Thomas Clay 



Confederate Brooches not to General Viele's 
Taste. 
General Viele's method of dealing with 
secessioaa and its abettors was that of the 
suaviter in modo, fortitur in re. For in- 
stance, a lady went into his office to con- 
saalt him or demaaad some favor. He re- 
ceived her with his usual politeness, but 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



621 



suddenly noticing that she wore the Con- 
federate colors prominently, in the shape 
of a brooch, he mildly suggested that it 
would, perhaps, have been better taste to 
come to his office without such a decoration. 

" I have a right, Sir, to consult my own 
wishes as to what I shall wear." 

" Then, Madam," replied the General, 
" permit me to claim an equal right in 
choosing with whom I shall converse." 

The dignified lady thought it best to 
make a speedy exit from his presence. 

Whoever would read more of these 
sparkling morceaux, will find a rich feast 
in Dawley's admirable series — the " Camp 
and Fireside Library." 



Annie Lillybridg-e and Lieutenant W . 

Annie Lillyb ridge, of Detroit, was for 
' Union,' and in favor of the hardships and 
dangers of war, if need be, to secure that 
end. She courted, rather than shrank 
from, those hardships, and bared her breast 
to rebel bullets. 

According to Annie's account, her pa- 
rents resided in Hamilton, Canada "West. 
In the spring of 1862, she was employed 
in a dry goods store in Detroit, where she 
became acquainted with Lieutenant W — , 
of one of the Michigan regiments, and an 
intimacy immediately sprang up between 
them. They corresponded for some time, 
and became much attached to each other. 
But during the ensuing summer season, 
Lieutenant W. was appointed to a position 
in the Twenty-first Michigan Infantry, 
then rendezvousing in Ionia county. 

The thought of parting from the gay 
Lieutenant nearly drove Annie mad, and 
she resolved to share his dangers and be 
near him. No sooner had she resolved 
upon this course than she proceeded to 
act. Purchasing male attire she visited 
Ionia, and enlisted in Captain Kavanagh's 
Company, Twenty-first regiment. While 
in camp she managed to keep her secret 
from all ; not even the object of her at- 
tachment, who met her every day, was 
aware of her presence so near him. 



Annie left with her regiment for Ken- 
tucky, passed through all the dangers and 
temptations of a camp-life, endured long 
marches, and slept on the cold ground — 
all without a murmur. At last, before the 
battle of Pea Ridge, in which her regi- 
ment took part, her sex was curiously dis- 
covered by a member of her company, 
upon whom she laid the injunction of se- 
cresy, after relating to him her previous 
history. 

On the following day she was under fire, 
and from a letter in her possession, it ap- 
pears she behaved with marked gallantry, 
and by her own hand shot a rebel Captain 
Avho was in the act of firing upon Lieu- 
tenant W. But the fear of revealing her 
sex continually haunted her. 

After the battle, she was sent out with 
others, to collect the wounded, and one of 
the first corpses found by her was the sol- 
dier who had discovered her sex. Days 
and weeks passed on, and she became a 
universal favorite with the regiment ; so 
much so, that her Colonel, Stephens, fre- 
quently detailed her as regimental clerk — 
a position that brought her in close con- 
tact with her lover, who, at this time, was 
Major, or Adjutant, of the regiment. 

A few weeks subsequently she was out 
on picket duty, when she received a shot 
in the arm that disabled her, and notwith- 
standing the efforts of the surgeon, her 
wound grew worse from day to day. She 
was sent to the hospital at Louisville, 
where she remained several months, when 
she was discharged by the post surgeon, as 
her arm was stiffened and useless. 

Annie implored to be permitted to re- 
turn to her regiment, but the surgeon was 
unyielding, and discharged her. Annie 
immediately hurried toward home. At 
Cincinnati she told her secret to a benevo- 
lent lady, and was supplied with female, 
attire. She declared she would enlist in 
her old regiment again, if there was a re- 
cruiting officer for the Twenty-first in 
Michigan. She still clung to the Lieuten- 
ant — said she must be near him if he fell, 



622 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION. 



or was taken down sick — that where he 
went she would go — and when he died, 
she would end her life by her own hands. 



Frank, the Pretty Female Bugler of the 
Eighth Michigan. 
In the spring of 18G3, a Union Captain, 
accompanied by a young soldier apparent- 
ly about seventeen years of age, arrived 
in Louisville, Ky., in charge of some rebel 
prisoners. 

During their stay in Louisville, the 
young soldier alluded to had occasion to 
visit head-quarters, and at once attracted 
the attention of Colonel Mundy as being 
exceedingly sprightly, and possessed of 
more than ordinary intelligence. Being 
in need of such a young man at Barracks 
No.. 1, the Colonel detailed him for ser- 
vice in that institution. 

A few days subsequently, however, the 
startling secret was disclosed, that the sup- 
posed young man was a young lady, and 
the fact was established beyond doubt by 
a soldier who was raised in the same town 
with her, and knew her parents. She ' ac- 
knowledged the corn,' and begged to be 
retained in the position to which she had 
been assigned ; having been in the service 
ten months, she desired to serve during the 
war. Her wish was accordingly granted, 
and she remained at her post. 

Frank was born near Bristol, Penn., 
and she was raised in Alleghany City, 
the place of her parents' residence, — 
highly respectable people, and in good cir- 
cumstances. She was sent to a convent in 
Wheeling, Virginia, at twelve years of age, 
where she remained until the breaking out 
of the war, having acquired a military ed- 
ucation, and all the accomplishments of 
modern usage. 

She visited home after leaving the con- 
vent, and, after taking leave of her pa- 
rents, proceeded to Louisville in July, 
1862, with the design of enlisting in the 
Second East Tennessee Cavalry, which 
she accomplished, and accompanied the 
Army of the Cumberland to Nashville. 



She was in the thickest of the fight at 
Murfreesboro,' and was severely wounded 
in the shoulder, but fought gallantly, and 
waded Stone river into Murfreesboro', on 
the memorable Sunday on which our forces 
were driven back. She had her wound 
dressed, and here her sex was disclosed, 
General Rosecrans being made acquaint- 
ed with the fact. 

Frank was accordingly mustered out of 
service, notwithstanding her earnest en- 
treaty to be allowed to serve the cause she 
loved so well. The General was very 
favorably impressed with her daring bra- 
very, and superintended the arrangements 
for her transmission to her parents. She 
left the Army of the Cumberland, resolved 
to enlist again in the very first regiment 
she met. When she arrived at Bowling 
Green, therefore, she found the Eighth 
Michigan there, and enlisted, and continued 
to share its fortunes, being honored with 
the position of regimental bugler. She 
was an excellent horseman ; saw and brave- 
ly endured all the privations and hard- 
ships incident to the life of a soldier ; and 
gained an enviable reputation as a scout, 
having made several remarkable expedi- 
tions, which were attended with signal 
success. 

Of only eighteen years of age, quite 
small, and a beautiful figure, Frank was a 
decided attraction. She had auburn hair, 
which she Avore quite short, and large blue 
eyes, beaming with intelligence. Her 
complexion, naturally very fair, became 
somewhat bronzed from exposure. In 
fine, she was exceedingly pretty and ami- 
able. Her conversation denoted more 
than ordinary accomplishment, and, what 
was stranger than all, she appeared very 
refined in her manners, giving no evidence 
whatever of the rudeness which might 
naturally be expected from her camp and 
field contacts. 

The pretty bugler stated that she had 
discovered a great many females in the 
army, and was intimately acquainted with 
one such — a young lady holding a commis- 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC 



623 



sion as Lieutenant in the army. She had 
assisted in burying three female soldiers 
at different times, whose sex was unknown 
to any but herself. 



Eating- up the Stars and Bars. 
Notwithstanding General Butler's vigi- 
lance in terrifying secessionism in the Cres- 
cent City, there was revived, in March, 
18G3, the novelty of an openly avowed 
secesh lady in the streets. Miss , de- 
fying the celebrated order " No. 28," made 
her appearance on the pavement with a 
handkerchief round her neck, on the comer 
of which was contemptuously displayed, 
in conspicuously wrought colors, a rebel 
flag. It is not probable that any particu- 
lar notice would have been taken of the 
circumstance if the fair owner had not 
defiantly flouted said offensive symbol in 
the face of a naval officer, who then very 
promptly escorted the lady before General 
Bowen. While the examination of the 
case was going on, the young lady, in her 
indignation and rancor, absolutely tore the 
material of the symbolized flag out of the 
handkerchief with her teeth, and ate it up, 
so she literally put the blessed " Stars and 
Bars " very near her heart. The hand- 
kerchief was confiscated and the young 
lady was ordered to report once a day, for 
one month, to Captain Kilborn, Deputy 
Provost Marshal, — during which time, it 
is innocently intimated, the Captain had 
several applications for positions of head 
clerks. 

Hostage Wanted for his Wife and Family. 
When the so-called Provisional Gov- 
ernment of Kentucky was on its hegira 
southward, they stopped and made a po- 
litical and social call at the house of 
Colonel Wm. H. Polk, the party being 
under the convoy of George N. Sanders. 
Just before leaving, and after receiving 
the most hospitable treatment at the hands 
of the Colonel, the latter addressed San- 
ders, and said that he had a particular 
favor to ask. 



" Bill," said George to his host, speak- 
I ing out of a full heart and a full chest, 
" Bill, you are a boy after my own heart ; 
whatever request you make I grant." 

"It is only a trifle," said Mr. Polk, 
" which you can easily grant, and which 
will please you." 

" It is granted," interrupted the grateful 
Sanders. 

u I may be arrested," continued Mr. 
Polk, " within a few minutes, for disagree- 
ing with some measures which Gov. Har- 
ris has urged upon the people." 

" Never mind that," said the impetuous 
Sanders, " I'll stand by you." 

" All I want," continued Mr. Polk, " is 
for you to return to Nashville as a hostage 
for my wife and family ." 

" Bill Polk," said George, gravely but 
firmly, " you are a man I love ; I love 
you, and I love your' wife and family ; 
but if ever I go back to Nashville may I 
be—!" 

Of course there was no reply to this, 
and the redoubtable and wife-and-family- 
loving George, with the Provisional Gov- 
ernment, were soon on their way to the 
dixiest part of Dixie. 



Major B , en route with the Spanish 

Widow. 

Some of the domestic and extra-person- 
al experiences of the war will, at no dis- 
tant day, furnish the staple of many a fine- 
ly-wrought novellette — such, for instance, 
as the following, narrated by an officer of 
the Twenty-seventh Corps of the Union 
Army. Hear him: — 

We had (says the narrator,) a very 
pleasant trip down to the Crescent City, 
with some political prisoners from the De- 
partment of the Missouri, and persons who 
were allowed to pass into the Confederate 
lines to see their relations, look after their 
property, &c. 

Among the exiles was Ashton P. John- 
ston of St. Louis, Marmaduke, late of the 
Convention, Rev. Father Donnelly, of Si- 
Joseph, and others of less import. 



G24 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION, 



Among the ' voluntaries ' were young 
maids and old maids, wives and widows. 
Among the young maids was one who con- 
fidentially told me she was going to Mo- 
bile to be married. It looked to me very 
much like sending supplies to the enemy ; 
but I couldn't help it, so let it go. They 
nearly all came to this place in charge 
of Captain Dwight, Assistant-Inspector 
General of the Department of the Mis- 
souri. 

In the party was a young widow. 
' Pretty ! ' In my judgment she was in- 
teresting — when was a young and pretty 
widow not ? Being young, pretty, and a 
widow, is it strange that a young officer, 
to whose care she was entrusted, should 
extend to her all the courtesies and atten- 




Mnjor B- 



-, en route with the Spanish Widow. 



tion proper and consistent with his official 
position ? It was not strange ; nor was it 
strange that in return for his kindness, 
and at his solicitation, she should confide 
to him the tale of her woes. 

She was from Mexico ; her husband 
had been conscripted in Texas, into the 
rebel army ; had died, leaving her the sole 
proprietress of numerous droves of mus- 
tangs, and the mother of two small ehil- 
.dren, (mostly boys and girls.) 

Her spirits and her person, draped in 
the habiliments of mourning, for the length 



of time deemed proper, she resolved to 
qu'.t the place where each familiar object 
reminded her of the time spent in conju- 
gal felicity with the dear departed one ; 
that one ' gone to a ranch from which 
there was no return ; ' so all the personal 
property, with the exception of some un- 
ruly mustangs, who refused to be ' cotch- 
ed,' and some colored individual, who, 
having heard of the Proclamation, refused 
to be considered personal property, and 
wouldn't be ' cotched neither,' was convert- 
ed into Confederate tr — cash, and the 
ranch vacated. 

At Matamoras the Confederate money 
was exchanged for gold, and passage secur- 
ed on a Spanish vessel to Havana, which was 
soon bounding across the Gulf. Tears 
were shed, as on leaving one's native land 
they will always be ; but it was all for the 
best — a residence upon the beautiful island 
of Cuba, a place in the affections and 
family of the dear relations who anticipat- 
ed her coming — quiet walks beneath fra- 
grant orange groves, — the air of that de- 
lightful and salubrious climate — would go 
far toward dispelling the gloom which 
shrouded her young and ardent soul. 

But, alas ! for the orange groves and 
ambrosial atmosphere, a storm arose, the 
ship was driven into an inlet off the coast 
of Florida, was taken by our blockading 
squadron off Key "West, for a blockade 
runner, and sent to New York, where, 
after an examination, she was released, 
and sent away. 

The fair widow, having escaped the 
dangers of the sea, resolved not to venture 
again, till her nerves had regained their 
wonted firmness. Having friends at St. 
Louis, she resolved to visit that city. Ar- 
riving there — there she remained until 
the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, 
and the consequent opening of the Missis- 
sippi river, when she resolved to attempt 
Havana, this time via New Orleans. Ma- 
jor B. was on the boat. The Major, you 
must know, is a very gallant man. The 
ladies, dear creatures, would fall in love 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC, 



625 



with him. In fact, the citadel of their af- 
fections invariably capitulated when he 
laid siege. 

The Major was introduced to the fair 
widow by the Captain in charge, and he 
had a soul to sympathize with her in her 
affliction, so to his special care was she 
assigned. It was soon a mutual discovery 
that their tastes and sympathies were sim- 
ilar. Did he admire any particular scenery 
along the shores ? — ditto, she. Together 
they would pass hours in some retired 
place upon the guards of the boat, in 
sweet interchange of thought and senti- 
ment. 

He had never met one before for whom 
he had formed an attachment so sincere, 
and she, from the moment when first in- 
troduced, felt that she saw in him the re- 
alization of her hopes. In him she saw 
the only one who should ever catch the 
untamed mustangs, and again bring joy 
to the ranch. 

Thus did this enamored pair pass the 
long hours of the journey. Arrived in 
New Orleans. Would the Major be so 
kind as to secure her rooms at the hotel, 
and to make some inquiry after her uncle, 
who resided somewhere in the city ? Of 
course he would. Mine host of the St. 
Charles provided the proper apartments, 
and, the widow duly domiciled therein, 
the Major sallied forth to make inquiries 
after " our uncle," in which he was entire- 
ly unsuccessful, not being able to find any 
gentleman of that name. The widow felt 
sad — was disappointed. 

Her uncle was formerly a man of wealth 
and influence, and she had not calculated 
upon having any difficulty in finding him ; 
but this cruel war , had changed every- 
thing ; and then the beautiful eyes of the 
fair and fascinating widow filled with tears. 

It grew rather embarrassing to the Ma- 
jor. He was expecting to meet his wife, 
who was waiting in the city for him, hav- 
ing come around via the Gulf. But the 
fair creature whose head was reclining 
39 



upon his shoulder, and whose heaving bo- 
som was beating against his own, knew 
nothing of that — she only knew, as she 
said, that in that great city, among stran- 
gers, without the Major her heart would 
break. 

How benevolent the Major's intentions 
may have been can only be conjectured, 
for unlooked-for events will sometimes 
play the deuce with one's arrangements. 
At least it was so in this case. The fact 
was, the wife of the Major learning of his 
arrival made inquiries, and ascertaining 
that he had taken No. — , resolved upon 
a pleasant surprise for him, so with two 
of the little majors in tow she proceeded 
to No. — . Passing an adjoining room 
she overheard the voice of the one sought 
for, and thinking there must be some mis- 
take in the number of the room, and that 
where that familiar voice was heard must 
be the right one, she pushed open the 
door and entered. 

Whether the scene which met her eye 
was calculated to increase her faith in the 
constancy of her spouse, or otherwise, 
those who are able to judge must decide. 
It is known, however, that the Major's 
baggage was removed to another part of 
the house before many hours had expired, 
and that he was the recipient of a note, 
through the clerk of the house, to the fol- 
lowing effect : 

' Dear Major : — Having unexpectedly 
found my uncle, I will relieve you and 
yours from any further care upon my part, 
if you will be so kind as to settle the bill 
which the clerk will present to you. 

Adios. L. 

P. S. Not having sold my gold yet, 
it is inconvenient for me to refund you the 

dollars which you so kindly loaned 

to me. L.' 

The Major is a wiser man : he looks 
meek, but will fire up upon any allusion 
being made to mustangs or Spanish widows. 



626 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE EEBELLION 



Grim "War and the Innocents. 
Eev. Dr. Maginnis stated at the session 
of the Christian Commission in Saratoga, 
that he was at Easton, attending a Synod, 
when Harrisburg was in danger, and the 
people came rushing down to meet the 
common enemy. There he saw a compa- 
ny marching resolutely along the street, 
and among the multitudes who gazed upon 
them as they passed was a little girl whose 
tender eye rested upon the forms of those 
noble men with a strange earnestness. 
He watched her. As the company came 
by she clasped her little hands, and then 
began to shake and quiver, as she scanned 
closely every soldier's face. Suddenly 
she wrung her hands, and her childish 
voice broke out in faint agony — " That's 
him ! that's him ! That's papa ! Papa ! 
He's going ! he's going ! " and she bowed 
her head upon her bosom and wept. 

Three Noble Union Girls. 
During the advance of Colonel Streight's 
ill-fated raid in the spring, a portion of his 
command had a heavy skirmish on the last 
day of April, near a place called Day's 
Gap. A Union soldier was killed in this 
skirmish, and as a matter of necessity, his 
body was left in possession of the foe. 
The latter, after stripping the corpse, bu- 
ried it beside the road on the spot where 
he fell. They then drove a stake into the 
ground, evidently intending to have it 
pierce the body, and attached to it a pla- 
card, the blasphemy of which was most 
barbarous, and totally unfit to be recited. 
The Union people suppressed their indig- 
nation, for it would have been death to in- 
terfere. They did not, however, forget 
where the patriot was buried, and three 
young ladies, with their own hands, some 
time after, built a fence around the grave, 
removed the stake, and planted evergreens 
and flowers in attractive taste, to bloom 
and shed their fragrance over the resting 
place of the defender of his country. 
Honor to those noble girls ! 



Letter of Sympathy from a Union Soldier to 
a Confederate Officer's Betrothed. 

It was in one of the skirmishes be- 
tween the Fourteenth Army Corps under 
General Sherman, and the Confederate 
forces, that Lieutenant Ross, of Georgia, 
was wounded and captured. His wound 
soon proved fatal, but he was carefully 
nursed to the last by Major Fitzgibbons, 
of the Fourteenth Michigan regiment. 
At the request of the dying man, Major 
Fitzgibbons undertook to forward the per- 
sonal effects of Ross to a young lady in 
Oxford, Georgia, to whom he was engaged 
to be married ; and accompanied them by 
the following letter : — 

Camp 14th Mich. Vet. Vol. Inf., 
Near Atlanta, G a., Aug. 8, 1864. 
Miss Emma Jane Kennon, Oxford, Ga.: 
Bereaved Girl : With melancholy pleas- 
ure I herewith send to you the valuables 
and personal effects of the late Lieutenant 
Ross, Sixty-sixth Georgia. From his dy- 
ing lips he told me he loved you above all 
else in the world, and committing these 
effects to my charge, his last sigh was 
turned into a prayer that I would, if pos- 
sible, send you your likeness, which he 
carried next to and in his heart. 

The asperities that demagogues engender 
in the minds of those separated from the 
field of battle and the scenes of death — 
the unnatural bitterness of feeling that has 
seemingly soured the better natures of our 
countrymen and women in both extreme 
sections of our common country — finds 
neither home nor resting-place in the hearts 
of this army of ours, and I assure you that 
I took as tender and respectful hold and 
care of your betrothed as if he were my 
own comrade or brother. The innocence 
depicted in his fair and beautiful face — his 
heroic efforts at staying the retreat of his 
fleeing comrades, won my heart and as- 
sured him its sympathies and respect. 

With this also find his purse and papers, 
which, < Vandal ' though I am, I feel will 
be of greater value to you to get than sat- 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



627 



isfaction to me to withhold. He was con- 
scious to the last, as I learned from the 
officer who cared for him, and seemed only 
to deplore his death in parting from that 
heaven he left in you. Two other Confed- 
erate officers lay dead near him, but the 
necessities of the moment prevented the 
possibility of my delaying to find out any- 
thing in relation to them. 

Praying that God will put it into the 
hearts of*your people to return to the alle- 
giance of your fathers flag, under which 
all sections prospered, and which only will 
prevent the further effusion of blood, and 
sincerely and from my heart condoling 
with you and his family in your bereave- 
ment, 

I am, sad girl, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 

Thomas C. Fitzgibbons, 
Major 14th Mich. Vet. Vol. Inf., U. S. A. 



My Mother's Hand! 
In one of those fierce engagements 
which took place near Mechanicsville be- 
tween the Confederate and Federal forces 
in the eventful month of May, a young 
Lieutenant of a Rhode Island battery had 
his right foot so shattered by a fragment 
of a shell that, on reaching Washington 
after one of those horrible ambulance 
rides, and a journey of a week's duration, 
he was obliged to undergo amputation 
of the leg. He telegraphed home, hun- 
dreds of miles away, that all was going 
well, and with a soldier's fortitude, com- 
posed himself to bear his sufferings alone. 
Unknown to him, however, his mother, 
one of those dear reserves of the army, 
hastened up to join the main force. She 
reached the city at midnight, and the 
nurses would have kept her from him un- 
til morning. One sat by his side fanning 
him as he slept, her hand on the feeble, 
fluctuating pulsations which foreboded sad 
results. But what woman's heart could 
resist the pleading of a mother then ? In 
the darkness, she was finally allowed to 
glide in and take the place at his side. 



She touched his pulse as the nurse had 
done. Not a word had been spoken ; but 
the sleeping boy opened his eyes and 
said : 

" Tliat feels like my mother's hand! Who 
is this beside me ? It is my mother ; turn 
up the gas and let me see my mother ! " 

The two dear faces met in one long joy- 
ful sobbing embrace, and the fondness pent 
up in each heart sobbed and panted and 
wept forth its expression. The tender- 
loving but gallant fellow, just twenty-one, 
his leg amputated on the last day of his 
three years' service, underwent operation 
after operation, and at last, when death 
drew nigh, and he was told by tearful 
friends that it only remained to make him 
comfortable, said, " he had looked death in 
the face too many times to be afraid now," 
and died as heroically as did the noble men 
of the famed Cumberland. 



Affecting: Mementoes of Gettysburg. 
Among the many sad relics of the bat- 
tlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Avas 

one which a soldier engaged in that dread- 
er o 

fill fight picked up, namely, — a small pa- 
per, which contained two separate locks 
of hair attached thereto, directed to " Mr. 
Wellerford," from Louisiana, by his wife, 
in a beautiful handwriting. Below one 
lock was " Fanny Wellerford," below the 
other was " Richard Wellerford," — and be- 
low both Avas " Our Darlings ! " These 
tender mementoes of his name and chil- 
dren had been sent on to him by his at- 
tached wife, to cheer his heai't in the far 
distant land to which the fortunes of war 
had brought him ; and probably he wore 
the tender testimonials near his heart, 
when the fatal missile separated him from 
those he loved in his far-off Southern 
home. The tender relic of domestic love 
went into the possession of strangers, 
while the husband and father rested be- 
neath the silent clods of a Northern val- 
ley, — his grave probably unmarked and 
undistinguished from the hundreds around 
him, Avho met their death on the bloody 



628 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



field of Gettysburg. His wife and chil- 
dren looked in vain for the return of that 
loved husband and father ! But for the 
bravery of Meade on that wide field of 
blood, and the untiring energy of Governor 




Governor Ourtiu 

Curtin, who, in the chair of state, gathered 
together the mighty resources of his peo- 
ple, to beat back that vast tide of southern- 
soldiery, how many more battlefields might 
have been numbered on the soil of the 
North ! 



As the last words faltered upon his 
tongue, his voice hushed in death. By the 
dim light of the stars I hastily scooped a 
sliallow grave and buried him with his 
sister's picture lying upon his breast. 



Buried with his Sister's Picture. 

The following incident was related by a 
Confederate prisoner to an attendant, who 
by many acts of kindness had won his 
confidence : — 

I was searching for spoils among the 
dead and dying upon a deserted battlefield, 
when I discovered a small gold locket upon 
the person of a dying boy, apparently 
about fifteen years of age. As I endeav- 
ored to loose it from his grasp, he opened 
his languid eyes and implored me, by all 
that was good and pure, by the memory of 
my own mother, not to rob him of his sis- 
ter's picture : 

" Oh," said he, " it was her last gift. I 
promised her, when she kissed my cheek 
at parting, that I would always wear it 
near my heart, in life or deatli ! " (then, as 
if throwing his whole soul into a plea, he 
exclaimed :) " Oh, touch not my sister's 
picture ! " 



Pretty Widows and Imprisoned Lovers. 
A good looking young widow who 
" bossed " a sewing machine in Wheeling, 
Virginia, was in love with a notorious rebel 
bu.-hwhacker who had committed several 
murders of Unionists, and was confined in 
the Wheeling jail. His name was George 

D , a son of the notorious Dan D , 

and the widow's name Mary B . Ma- 
ry was allowed to carry delicacies to 
George, until she w r as detected in attempt- 
ing to pass something of a contraband na- 
ture through the bars of his cell, after 
which she was debarred by the jailor from 
the premises. 

One night, about ten o'clock, the jailor 
heard a noise on the outside of the south- 
ern wall of the prison, and going round 
there with a lantern, he discovered a par- 
cel on the ground. While in the act of 
picking up the mysterious package, the 
widow B. alighted sock upon his back 
from the wall, which was twelve or fifteen 
feet high, and disputed his possession of 
the property. In the fall her riglu leg 
was broken just above the ankle, but she 
struggled manfully, and in the contest a 
bottle of nitric acid was broken, and the 
contents spilled upon the jailor and Mrs. 
B., both of whom were stained and burned. 
The valiant feminine finally sank exhaust- 
ed, and was carried into the jail and placed 
under surgical treatment. 

Upon examining the parcel, the jailor 
found that it contained a bottle of chloro- 
form, a bottle of nitric acid, a chisel, a box 
of steel pens, and two love letters from 
Mrs. Briggs, and copies of various news- 
papers. As descriptive of one of the 
lettei-s, love is stated to be a word of hard- 
ly sufficient strength. The infatuated wo- 
man had climbed to the Avail with a lad- 
der, and was about to attach the package 



DOMESTIC, WOMANLY, HOSPITAL, PRISON, ETC. 



629 



to a long pole and extend it to the window 
of her ' Dusky's ' cell, when she dropped 
it, and was thus discovered. 

Pathetic Offering of Genius to the Dead. 
Here is a theme for one of the poets. 
The scene is at Newport News, Virginia ; 
the subject — A Soldier's Grave. The au- 
thor would have the melody of the moan- 
ing sea for inspiration, and his imagination 
would find material in the tragedy of the 
Cumberland and Congress. The name of 
the sleeper it would be difficult to ascer- 
tain ; nor has the curiosity of the visitor 
been able to ascertain the name of the un- 
conscious genius, who possessed such power 
of condensation, poetic feeling and pathos, 
as are exhibited in the simple epitaph on 
this lonely grave of an unknown hero. 
Here it is in words and figure : 




It is safe to affirm that one might travel 
over all the graveyards and the field of the 
dead in all Virginia — that modern Acel- 
dama — and find nothing more touching in 
the lapidaric offering- 



Beware of a Soldier's Wife ! 
An incident of quite a romantic charac- 
ter — and something more — occurred in 
Alleghany county, New York, which ex- 
hibits human nature in some of its pecu- 
liar lights and shades, though perhaps not 
so very strange, considering that " there is 
nothing new under the sun." A couple 



were married. The bride was as beauti- 
ful as the morning ; her eyes like heaven's 
orbs. The husband was patriotic ; he en- 
listed and went to war. A libertine from 
Chautaque county saw the beautiful wife, 
and exclaimed, "Ye gods, how beautiful ! " 
He sought her society, and ostensibly won 
her confidence ; she consented. He gave 
her ten fifty-dollar greenbacks to make 
necessary arrangements. She accepted. 
The hour was fixed upon. The villain 
went to his hotel to smoke the impatient 
hours away, when the following letter was 
put into his hands : 

"Mr. , have to inform you that 

circumstances beyond my control will pre- 
vent me from fulfilling my engagement to 
elope with you to-night. I expect my. 
husband home on furlough soon, to spend 
Christmas and New Year's, when we shall 
enjoy a hearty laugh at your discomfiture. 
Meanwhile, I will keep your money as a 
Christmas present for him, and, when this 
cruel war is over, it will come handy to 
assist him to start in business. 

Yours ' tenderly,' 

C. T. N." 

"P. S. — When next you attempt to 
play the libertine, you would do well to 
select your victim outside of Alleghany 
county ; and, above all, beware of a sol- 
dier's wife." 



Howard, the Havelock of the "War. 
Major-General Howard, commanding the 
Union Department and Army of the Ten- 
nessee, was often styled " the Havelock 
of the war," because of his so closely re- 
sembling the great English commander 
of that name in his habits and manners. 
He was strictly temperate, never imbibing 
of alcoholic drinks, or any of a nature in- 
toxicating. His language was always 
chaste, firm, and right to the point; no 
word or sound of profanity was allowed 
about him ; tobacco he utterly discarded ; 
and himself and staff held religious meet- 
ings for the good of themselves and the coun- 



G30 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



try. One who visited the General while 
engaged in his Georgia campaign, de- 
scribes the prayer meeting as attended 
by the officers of his command, in the 
midst of a pine grove, where his quartei's 
were at that time. The General was in 
the centre of a semi-circle of staff officers 
of his command, his good right arm gone, 
and over his features there played a quiet 



all could understand, the singing of the 
Doxology, and a benediction, to which a 
solemn Amen was echoed by some distant 
battery. Before separating, each man 
was taken by the hand and received a 
kind word from General Howard. 




Maj Gen 0. Howard. 

yet serene smile as he looked around him 
upon the assembled guards and escorts 
upon his left hand, with clerks and order- 
lies on the right. The exercises consisted 
of vocal and instrumental music, a short, 
fervent prayer, a few plain remarks, which 



Miss Clemmie's Album. 

During the last visit of the Federal 

forces, under Major-General A. J. Smith, 

to Holly Springs, Mississippi, in August, 

1864, the following lines were penned by 

Colonel A on the last page of a young 

lady's album, all others having been appro- 
priated by real or pretended admirers in 
1861. The black crape at the top of five 
loving epistles, and the broad, dark borders 
of five cards in the album, proved that ten 
of Miss Clemmie's admirers had fallen vic- 
tims to Federal bullets, and that Yankee 
lead and steel were even more potent than 
Cupid's arrows. The females of the fami- 
ly being at the time residents of the ele- 
gant mansion, the book was returned to 
the centre-table with these lines — 

TO MISS CLEMMIE. 

'Tis certain, Miss Clemmie, whether Feci or Confed, 
In the plain course of nature you're destined to wed ; 
Some " Lord of Creation " will lovingly kneel, 
And pour forth his tender and fervent appeal, 
If the Feds and Confeds will cease this vain strife. 
And leave a man living to make you his wife. 

Fed. 







PART VTTI.— EARLY HOME AND TRAGIC END OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



PART EIGHTH. 



ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION— FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS 

IN THE GREAT DRAMA: ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT 

LINCOLN; IGNOMINIOUS DOOM OF JEFFERSON DAVIS ; ETC. 

The most striking Occurrences relating to the Great Assassination Conspiracy, 
— the Tragedy, the Actors, and their Doom; Remarkable Passages and Con- 
versations in Mr. Lincoln's Presidential Life, — Memorial Incidents of his 
Death, and of a Nation's Mourning ; Capture and Custody of Jefferson Davis, 
— his Sayings and Doings, Personal Bearing among his Captors, Ignominious 
Fate ; Interesting Reminiscences in the Career of Andrew Johnson, &c, &c. 



If this Country can not be saved 'without giving up that principle. I was about to sat I would rather be As- 
sassinated on this spot than surrender it. — Speech of Mr. Lincoln* , at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, defending 
the principle of Liberty contained in the Declaration of Independence ; Feb., 1861. 

"After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well ; 
Treason has done his worst ; nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing 

Can touch him further." — " Macbeth," read tivice by Mr. Lincoln to some friends, 

on the Sabbath preceding his death. 

I never willingly planted a thorn in any human bosom. — Speech of Mr. Lincoln, i'm Washington, en the announce- 
ment of his re-election; Nov., 1864. 

"Judge not, that ye he not judged." — President Lincoln's reply, twice repeated, on being urged to hang Jefferson 
Davis, in case of his capture. 

If it were to be done at all, it were better that it were well done '.—Jefferson Davis to General Breckinridge on 
hearing of President Lincoln's Assassination. 

He was the best man I ever knew. — Secretary Seward to Rev. Dr. Bellows, on Abraham Lincoln. 



Last Day's Incidents in the President's 
Life. 



the morning of 
the fatal Friday 
which closed the 
earthly days of the 
honored President, 
his son, Captain Rob- 
ert Lincoln, who had 
just returned from the 
Capitulation of Gen. 
Lee, breakfasted with his father, and the 
President passed a happy hour listening to 
all the details. "While thus at breakfast, 
he heard that Speaker Colfax was in the 
house, and sent word that he wished to see 




him immediately in the reception room. 
He conversed, with him nearly an hour, 
on his future policy as to the rebellion, 
which he was about to submit to the cabi- 
net. Afterwards he had an interview 
with Mr. Hale, minister to Spain, and 
several senators and representatives. 

At eleven o'clock, the Cabinet and Gen- 
eral Grant met with him, and in one of 
the most satisfactory and important cabi- 
net sessions held since his first inaugura- 
tion, the future policy of the administration 
was harmoniously and unanimously agreed 
on, Secretary Stanton remarking that he 
felt that the Government was stronger 
then than at any previous period since the 
rebellion commenced. Turning to General 



634 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



Grant, Mr. Lincoln asked him if he had 
heard from General Sherman? General 
Grant replied that he had not, but was in 
hourly expectation of receiving dispatches 
from him, announcing the surrender of 
Johnston. In response to this remark the 
President replied — 

" Well, you will hear very soon now, 
and the news will be important." 

" Why do you think so ? " inquired Gen- 
eral Grant, somewhat in a curious mood. 

" Because," said Mr. Lincoln, " I had a 
dream last night, and ever since the war 
began I have invariably had the same 
dream before any very important military 
event has occurred." He then instanced 
Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, &c, and 
said that before each of those events he 
had had the same dream, and, turning to 
Secretary Welles, continued, " It is in your 
line, too, Mr. Welles. The dream is that 
I saw a ship sailing very rapidly, and I 
am sure that it portends some important 
national event." 

In the afternoon, the President had a 
long and pleasant interview with General 
Oglesby, Senator Yates, and other lead- 
ing citizens of Illinois. 

At about half-past seven o'clock, in the 
evening, Hon. George Ashmun, of Massa- 
chusetts, who presided over the Chicago 
Convention in 18 GO, called at the White 
House, and was ushered into the parlor, 
where Hon. Schuyler Colfax was seated, 
waiting for a short interview with the 
President on business which had a bear- 
ing upon his proposed overland trip. A 
few moments elapsed, when President 
Lincoln entered the room, and engaged in 
conversation upon various matters, appear- 
ing to be in a very happy and jovial frame 
of mind. He spoke of his visit to Rich- 
mond, and when they stated that there 
was much uneasiness at the North while 
he was at the rebel capital, for fear that 
some traitor might shoot him, he replied 
jocularly, that he would have been alarmed 
himself if any other person had been Pres- 
ident and gone there, but that personally 



he did not feel any danger whatever. 
Conversing on a matter of business with 
Mr. Ashmun, he made a remark that he 
saw Mr. Ashmun was surprised at, and 
though not very important, he immediately 
said, with his well known kindness of 
heart, 

" You did not understand me, Ashmun. 
I did not mean what you inferred, and I 
take it all back and apologise for it." 

Mr. Ashmun desiring to see him again, 
and there being no time to attend to it 
then, the President took out a card, and 
placing it on his knee, wrote as follows : 

" Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend to come 
to me at nine A. M. to-morrow. 

April 14, '65. A. Lincoln." 

These were the last words that he pen- 
ned. It was the last time that he signed 
his name to any order, document or mes- 
sage. The last words written by him 
were thus making an engagement for the 
morrow — an engagement which he was 
not allowed to meet. Before the hour 
had arrived he was no more. 

After signing the card, he said, humor- 
ously, to Mr. Colfax, — 

" Mr. Sumner has the gavel of the 
Confederate Congress, which he got at 
Richmond, to hand to the Secretary of 
War; but I insisted then that he must 
give it to you, and you tell him for me to 
hand it over." 

Mr. Ashmun here pleasantly alluded to 
the gavel which he still had — the same 
one he had used when presiding over the 
Chicago Nominating Convention of 1860. 

Mr. Lincoln finally stated that he must 
go to the theatre, and, saying " You are 
going "with Mrs. Lincoln and me to the 
theatre, I hope," warmly pressed Speaker 
Colfax and Mr. Ashmun to accompany 
them, but they excused themselves on the 
score of previous engagements. It was 
now half an hour after the time they had 
intended to start, and they spoke about 
waiting half an hour longer, — the Presi- 
dent going with reluctance, as General 
Grant had that evening gone North, and 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 635 



he did not wish the people to be disap- 
pointed, it having been announced in the 
afternoon papers that the President, Mrs. 
Lincoln, and General Grant, would attend 
the theatre that evening, to witness the 
representation of the American Cousin. 
At the door he stopped and said — 

" Colfax, do not forget to tell the people 
in the mining regions, as you pass through 
them, what I told you this morning about 
the development when peace comes, and I 
will telegraph you at San Francisco." 

Starting for the carriage, Mrs. Lincoln 
took the arm of Mr. Ashmun, and the 
President and Mr. Colfax walked together. 
As soon as the President and Mrs. Lincoln 
were seated in the carriage, Mrs. L. 
gave orders to the coachman to drive 
around to Senator Harris's residence 
for Miss Harris. As the carriage rolled 
away, they both said 'Good- by, — Good-by,' 
to Messrs. Ashmun and Colfax, and the 
carriage had in a moment more disap- 
peared from the ground in front of the 
White House. A few moments later 
the presidential party of four persons, 
namely, the Pi-esident and Mrs. Lincoln, 
Miss Harris and Major Rathbun, of Al- 
bany, step-son of Senator Harris, arrived 
at the theatre and entered the front and 
left hand upper private box. There was 
an immense audience present, as was to 
be expected, in view of the announcement 
of the attendance of the President and 
Lieutenant-General Grant. 

Only a short time elapsed, while Presi- 
dent Lincoln occupied that box, before the 
leaden messenger was sped on its fatal 
errand, and "Good Friday," of the 14th 
April, I860, was the last of the beloved 
President's earthly days. 

Perhaps nothing can be more appropri- 
ately presented, in closing this mournful 
historic page — the last day's incidents of 
the President's life — than the following 
lines, written by the President on that 
same fatal day. It appears that his friend, 
General Van Alen, had recently written 
to him not to expo e his life unnecessarily, 



as he had done at Richmond, and assuring 
him of the earnest desire of all his coun- 
trymen to close the war he had so success- 
fully conducted. After acknowledging the 
receipt of the letter, the President replied, 
April 14th, the day of his assassination, 
and said : 

I intend to adopt the advice of my 
friends and use due precaution. * * ■ * 
I thank you for the assurance you give me 
that I shall be supported by conservative 
men like yourself in the efforts I may make 
to restore the Union, so as to make it, to 
use your language, a Union of hearts and 
hands as well as of States. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln." 



Deathbed Scene of the Murdered President. 

As soon as the discovery was made that 
the President was shot, the surgeon-gen- 
eral and other physicians were immediately 
summoned and their skill exhausted in 
efforts to restore him to consciousness. 
An examination of his wounds, however, 
showed that no hopes could be given that 
his life would be spared. 

Preparations were at once made to 
remove him, and he was conveyed to a 
house immediately opposite, occupied by 
Mr. Petei'son, a respectable citizen of that 
locality. He was placed upon the bed, 
the only evidence of life being an occa- 
sional nervous twitching of the hand and 
heavy breathing. He was entirely uncon- 
scious, as he had been ever since the as- 
sassination. At about half past eleven the 
motion of the muscles of his face indica- 
ted as if he were trying to speak, but 
doubtless it was merely muscular. His 
eyes protruded from their sockets and 
were suffused with blood. In other re- 
spects his countenance was unchanged. 

At his bedside were the Secretary of 
War, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary 
of the Interior, Postmaster General and 
Attorney General ; Senator Sumner, Gen- 
eral Todd, cousin to Mrs. Lincoln ; Major 
Hay,M. B. Field, General Halleck, Major- 
General Meigs, Rev. Dr. Gurley, Drs- 



036 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



Abbott, Stone, Hatch, Neal, Hall, and 
Lieberman, and a few others. All were 
bathed in tears; and Secretary Stanton, 
when informed by Surgeon Gen. Barnes, 
that the President could not live until 
morning, exclaimed, " Oh, no, General ; 
no — no ; " and with an impulse, natural as 
it was unaffected, immediately sat down 
on a chair near his bedside, and wept like 
a child. Senator Sumner was seated 
on the right of the President, near the 
head, holding the right hand of the 
President in his own. He was sobbing 
like a woman, with his head bowed down 
almost on the pillow of the bed on which 
his illustrious friend was dying. In an 
adjoining room were Mrs. Lincoln, and her 
son, Capt. Eob't Lincoln ; Miss Harris, who 
was with Mrs. Lincoln at the time of the 
assassination, and several others. 

Mrs. Lincoln was under great excite- 
ment and agony, wringing her hands and 
exclaiming, " Why did he not shoot me 
instead of my husband ? I have tried to 
be so careful of him, fearing something 
would happen, and his life seemed to be 
more precious now than ever. I must go 
with him," and other expressions of like 
character. She was constantly going back 
and forth to the bedside of the President, 
exclaiming in great agony, "How can it 
be so!" The scene was heart-rending. 
Captain Robert Lincoln bore himself with 
great firmness, and constantly endeavored 
to assuage the grief of his mother by tell- 
ing her to put her trust in God and all 
would be well. Occasionally, however, 
being entirely overcome, he would retire 
by himself and give vent to most piteous 
lamentations. Then, recovering himself, 
he would return to his mother, and, with 
remarkable self-possession, try to cheer 
her broken spirits and lighten her load of 
sorrow. 

At four o'clock the symptoms of rest- 
lessness returned, and at six the premo- 
nitions of dissolution set in. His face 
which had been quite pale, began to as- 
sume a waxen transparency, the jaw 



slowly fell, and the teeth became exposed. 
About a quarter of an hour before the 
President died, his breathing became very 
difficult, and in many instances seemed to 
have entirely ceased. He would again 
rally and breathe with so great difficulty 
as to be heard in almost every part of the 
house. Mrs. Lincoln took her last leave 
of him about twenty minutes before he 
expired, and was sitting in the adjoining 
room when it was announced to her that 
he was dead. When the announcement 
was made, she exclaimed, " Oh ! why did 
you not tell me that he was dying ! " 

The surgeons and the members of the 
cabinet, Senator Sumner, Captain Robert 
Lincoln, General Todd, Mr. Field, and 
Mr. Rufus Andrews, were standing at his 
bedside when he breathed his last. Sena- 
tor Sumner, General Todd, Robert Lin- 
coln, and Mr. Andrews, stood bailing over 
the headboard of the bed, watching every 
motion of the beating breast of the dying 
President. Robert Lincoln was resting 
himself tenderly upon the arm of Senator 
Sumner, the mutual embrace of the . two 




Charles Sumner. 

having all the affectionateness of father 
and son. The surgeons were sitting upon 
the side and foot of the bed, holding the 
President's hands, and with their watches 
observing the slow declension of the pulse, 
and watching the ebbing out of the vital 
spirit. Such was the solemn stillnes for 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 637 



the space of five minutes that the ticking 
of the watches could be heard in the room. 

At twenty-two minutes past seven o'- 
clock, in the morning, April fifteenth, 
gradually and calmly, and without a sigh 
or a groan, all that bound the soul of 
Abraham Lincoln was loosened, and the 
eventful career of one of the most re- 
markable of men was closed on earth. 

As he drew his last breath, the Rev. 
Dr. Gurley, the President's pastor, offered 
a fervent prayer of supplication and sym- 
pathy. The countenance of the President 
Was beaming with that characteristic smile 
which only those familiar with him in his 
happiest moments could appreciate ; and 
except the blackness of his eyes, his face 
appeared perfectly natural. The morning 
was calm, and the rain was dropping 
gently upon the roof of the humble apart- 
ment where they laid him down to die. 
The body servant of the President entered 
the room just before he died, and as the 
breath left the body of Mr. Lincoln,' this 
loving and bereaved servant manifested 
the most indescribable sorrow. Mrs. Lin- 
coln remained but a short time, when she 
was assisted into her carriage, and with 
her son Robert and other friends she was 
driven to the house which but the evening 
before she left for the last time with her 
honored husband, who never was again to 
enter that home alive. 

The room, into which the most exalted 
of mortal rulers was taken to die, was in 
the rear part of the dwelling, and at the 
end of the main hall, from which rises a 
stairway. The dimensions of the room 
are about ten by fifteen feet, the walls be- 
ing covered with a brownish paper, figur- 
ed with a Avhite design. Some engravings 
and a photograph hung upon the walls. 
The engravings were copies of the " Vil- 
lage Blacksmith," and " Stable and Barn- 
yard Scenes ; " the photograph was one 
taken from an engraved copy of Rosa 
Bonheur's " Horse Fair." The furniture 
of the apartment consisted of a bureau 
covered with crochet, a table, several 



chairs of simple construction, adapted for 
sleeping rooms, and the bed upon which 
Mr. Lincoln lay when his spirit took its 
flight. The bedstead was a low walnut, 
the headboard from two to three feet high. 
The floor was covered with Brussels car- 
peting, which had been considerably used. 
Everything on the bed was stained with 
the blood of the Chief Magistrate of the 
nation. A few locks of hair were re- 
moved from the President's head for the 
family, previous to the remains being 
placed in the coffin temporarily vised for 
removing the remains to the executive 
mansion. 



Flight, Capture and Death of Booth. 

After eleven days had transpired since 
the death of the President, his murderer, 
John Wilkes Booth, was discovered in a 
barn on Garrett's farm, near Port Royal, 
on the Rappahannock. Immediately after 
the murder, Colonel Baker, of the detect- 
ive service, set out to find Booth's hiding- 
place. He soon succeeded in capturing 
Atzerodt, the would-be assassin of Vice- 
President Johnson, and Dr. Mudd. It 
was Dr. M. who attended to Booth's leg, 
crippled by his getting entangled with the 
flag that decorated the President's box, 
and a boot with Booth's name in it was 
found in his possession. A negro was 
then arrested, who said he had seen Booth 
and another man cross the Potomac in a 
fishing-boat. Col. Baker sent to Gen. Han- 
cock for twenty-five mounted men to aid 
him in the pursuit. These were sent un- 
der Lieutenant Dougherty, and Baker 
placed them under the control of Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Conger, and of his cousin, 
Lieutenant L. B. Baker, and dispatched 
them to Belle Plain, with orders to scour 
the country about Port Royal. 

The detectives and cavalrymen left 
Washington at two P. m. on the 23d of 
April, and at ten o'clock disembarked at 
Belle Plain, near Fredericksburg. Here 
they commenced their inquest, but without 
any result. The next morning they came 



638 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION, 



to Port Royal ferry, and crossed. At 
Fort Royal they found one Rollins, a fish- 
erman, who referred them to a negro nam- 
ed Lucas as having driven two men a 
short distance toward Bowling Green in a 
wagon. These men perfectly answered 
the description of Booth and his accom- 
plice Harold. Some disbanded men, it 
was learned, belonging to Mosby's com- 
mand, took Booth under their protection 
on the way to Bowling Green. On the 
25th Baker and his party proceeded to 
Bowling Green, a small court-house town 
in Caroline County. Here they found the 
captain of the rebel cavalry, and extorted 
from him a statement of Booth's hiding- 
place. It was found that this was at the 
house of a Mr. Garrett, which they had 
passed on their way to Bowling Green. 

Returning with the captain for a guide, 
the worn-out command halted at Garrett's 
gate, at two o'clock on the morning of the 
2Gth. Without noise the house was sur- 
rounded, and Baker went up to the kitchen 
door on the side and rapped. An old 
man in half undress undrew the bolts, and 
had scarcely opened the door before Ba- 
ker had him by the throat with a pistol at 
his ear, and asked, "Where are the men 
who stay with you ? " Under the menace 
of instant death the old man seemed para- 
lyzed, but at Baker's order lit a candle. 
The question was then repeated. " They 
are gone," replied the old man. Soon a 
young boy appeared, and told Baker the 
men he sought were in the barn. The 
barn was then surrounded. Baker and 
Conger went to the door. The former 
called out signifying his intention to have 
a surrender on the part of the men inside, 
or else to fire the barn, and shoot them on 
the spot. The young boy was sent in to 
receive their arms. To the boy's appeal 
Booth answered with a curse, accusing the 
boy of having betrayed him. The boy 
then came out, and Baker repeated his de- 
mand, giving Booth five minutes to make 
up his mind. Booth replied — 



" Who are you, and what do you want 
with us ? " 

" We want you to deliver up your arms 
and become our prisoners," said Baker. 

" But who are you ? " 

" That makes no diflerence. We know 
who you are, and we want you. We have 
here fifty men with carbines and pistols. 
You cannot escape." 

After a pause, Booth said : " Captain, 
this is a hard case, I swear. Perhaps I 
am being taken by my own friends." He 
then asked time to consider, which was 
granted. After a little interval, Baker 
threatened to fire the barn, if they did not 
come out. Booth replied that he was a 
cripple, and begged a chance for his life, 
declaring that he would fight them all at 
so many yards apace, and that he would 
never be taken alive. Baker replied that 
he did not come there to fight but to cap- 
ture him, and again threatened to fire the 
barn. 

" Well, then, my brave boys," said 
Booth, " prepare a stretcher for me." 

Hai'old now wanted to surrender, and, 
in the midst of a shower of imprecations 
from Booth, did so. Conger then set fire 
to the barn. 

The blaze lit up the black recesses of 
the great barn till every wasp's nest and 
cobweb in the roof was luminous, flinging 
streaks of red and violet across the tum- 
bled farm-gear in the corner, and bathed 
the murderer's retreat in a vivid illumina- 
tion, and while in bold outline his figure 
stood revealed, they rose like an impene- 
trable wall to guard from sight the dread- 
ed enemy who lit them. Behind the blaze, 
with his eye to a crack, Conger saw Wilkes 
Booth standing upright upon a crutch. 
He likens him at this instant to his emi- 
nent brother Edwin, whom he says he so 
much resembled that he half believed, for 
the moment, the whole pursuit to have 
been a mistake. At the gleam of fire 
Wilkes dropped his crutch and carbine, 
and on both hands crept up to the spot to 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 639 



espy the incendiary and shoot him dead. 
His eyes were lustrous like fever, and 
swelled and rolled in terrible anxiety, 
while his teeth were fixed, and he wore 
the expression of one in the calmness be- 
fore frenzy. In vain he peered with ven- 
geance in his look ; the blaze that made 
him visible concealed his enemy. A 
second he turned glaring at the fire, as if 
to leap upon and extinguish it, but the 
flames had made such 
headway that this was 
a futile impulse, and ^ 
he dismissed it. As u 
calmly as upon the 
battle-field a veteran 
stands amidst the hail 
of ball and shell and 
plunging iron, Booth 
turned at a man's 
stride, and pushed for 
the door, carbine in 
poise, and the last 
resolve of death — de- 
spair — set on his high, 
bloodless forehead. 

At this instant, Sergeant Boston Cor- 
bett fired through a crevice and shot Booth 
in the neck. They then took him up and 
carried him out on the grass, a little way 
from the door, beneath a locust tree. 
Conger went back to the barn, to see if 
the fire could be put out, but found it 
could not, and returned to where Booth 
was lying. Before this (says Lieutenant- 
Colonel Conger) I supposed him to be 
dead ; he had all the appearance of a dead 
man ; but when I came back his eyes and 
mouth were moving. I called immediate- 
ly for water And put some on his face. 
He seemed to revive, and attempted to 
speak. I put my ear down to his mouth, 
and heard him say, " Tell my mother I 
died for my country." I repeated the 
words to him and said, " Is that what you 
would say ? " He said " Yes." They 
carried him to the porch of Garrett's 
house, and laid him on a straw bed or tick. 
At that time he revived considerably, and 



could talk in a whisper so as to be intelli- 
gibly understood. He could not speak 
above a whisper. He wanted water; I 
gave it to him. He wanted to turn 0:1 
his face ; I said he could'nt lie on his face. 
He wanted to be turned on his side ; we 
turned him on his side three times, but he 
could not lie with any comfort, and asked 
immediately to be turned back. He asked 
me to put my hand on his throat, and 




Death of the Assassin. 

press down, which I did. He said 
" Harder " ; I pressed as hard as I thought 
necessary. He made a very strong exer- 
tion to cough, but was unable to do so. I 
suppose he thought there was blood in his 
throat. I asked him to put out his tongue, 
which he did. I said, " There is no blood 
in your throat." He repeated several 
times — two or three times at least — " Kill 
me ! kill me ! " I replied, " I do not want 
to kill you. I want you to get well." 

When the doctor, whom Conger had 
sent for, arrived, Booth asked to have his 
hands raised and shown him. When 
this Avas done, he muttered " Useless, use- 
less ! " These were his last words. He 
died about four hours after he was shot. 

Booth and Harold were dressed in rebel 
gray uniform. Booth's mustache had been 
cut off, apparently with scissors, and his 
beard allowed to grow, thus changing his 
appearance considerably. His hair had 
been cut somewhat shorter than he usually 



040 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



wore it. Being taken to "Washington, a 
post-mortem examination of the remains 
took place on board the monitor Montauk, 
the body being laid out on a carpenter's 
bench between the stern and turret. The 
shot which terminated his life entered on 
the left side, at the back of the neck, a 
point not far different from that in which his 
victim, the lamented President, was shot. 

On the night of the 27th of April a 
small row-boat received the remains of the 
assassin, and no one save two men — sworn 
to irrevocable secrecy — it is said, know 
the place or manner of his sepulture. 

The capture and solemn trial of the 
other accomplices and conspirators in the 
great crime of simultaneously murdering 
the President, Vice President, Secretary 
of State, Secretary of War, and Lieuten- 
ant- General Grant — viz., the Surratts, 
mother and son, Payne, Atzerodt, Harold, 
O'Loughlin, Arnold, etc., — constitute the 
remainder of this darkest chapter in the 
annals of human crime. Four of these 
expiated their crime on the gallows, and 
the blood of the Martyred President was 
avenged. 



and, observing that the President looked 
weary, Mr. Fessenden remarked — 

"Mr. President, the people of the 
United States are praying that God 



Conversation on his Threatened Assassina- 
tion. 

It is a most noteworthy incident that 
one of the latest, if not the very last of 
the letters written by Mr. Lincoln, was in 
reply to Gen. Van Alen, who wrote to the 
President a short time previously, asking 
him not to expose his life unnecessarily, as 
he had done at Richmond, and assuring 
him of the earnest desire of all his coun- 
trymen for him to close the war he had so 
successfully conducted. After acknowledg- 
ing the receipt of the letter — which he 
did on the 14th of April, the very day of 
his assassination — Mr. Lincoln said, "I 
intend to adopt the advice of my friends, 
and use due precaution." Alas ! 

Senator Fessenden states that one day 
he was standing with Mr. Lincoln on the 
steps of the Secretary of State's office, 




Secretary Fessenden. 

would spare your life to see the end of 
this rebellion." 

"Mr. Fessenden," replied the Presi- 
dent,, "it may be that I shall not live to 
see it, and sometimes I think I shall not ; 
but if I were taken away, there are those 
who would perform my duties better." 



Patience of Mr. Lincoln Tried too Far. 

One day President Lincoln was found 
in a close and loud conversation with a 
gentleman from a certain portion of re- 
claimed southern territory. The visitor 
professed to be a southern loyalist, and 
wanted certain papers signed by the Presi- 
dent, making good a considerable amount 
of damage inflicted upon him by the war. 
The claimant urged his claims in soft, 
timid tones, and the President answered 
in a way quite the reverse. He was not 
pleased, and said — 

"Why! this paper does not say you 
are entitled to the money." 

" No, Sir, but it recommends my claim 
for your consideration." 

" But, Sir, you do not prove youi 
claim." 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 641 



" We are loyal, Sir." 

" Yes, Sir, and so are the men who 
stand up in front of Richmond, to be shot 
at, but they don't come here to plague 
me." 

" We don't wish to worry you, Mr. 
President." 

" No, I know whai you want — you are 
turning, or trying to turn me into a jus- 
tice of the peace, to put your claims 
through. There are a hundred thousand 
men m the country, every one of them as 




Patience tried too far. 

good as you are, who have just such bills 
as you present ; and you care nothing of 
what becomes of them, so you get your 
money." 

" We think our claim just, Mr. Presi- 
dent." 

" Yes, but you know you can't prove 
what is in this paper by all the people in 
the United States, and you want me to 
prove it for you by writing my name on 
the back of it : yes, in plain words you 
wish me to lie for you that you may get 
your money. I shall not do it." 

The visitor stood a moment, as if dizzy 
and undecided ; but gathering up slowly, 
retired to digest his repulse as best he 



could. Abraham the Just was right. 
Anybody could go and tell his story, but 
he had to look to it that he made out a 
good case, especially if he was after gov- 
ernment money. 



Contrast Between the Two. 

Mr. William C. Bryant's paper, the 
Evening Post, says, — An officer of the 
United States Army, whose authority in 
such a case we can not question, gives 
leave to publish the following account of 
what he heard Jefferson Davis say just 
before the breaking out of the Avar : 

I heard Mr. Davis utter the following 
words in a southern town where he deliv- 
ered an address in November, 1860. I 
did not hear the whole speech, only the 
words quoted, as I passed by the crowd 
of listeners : 

" What ! coerce a sovereign State ! at- 
tempt to deprive us of our most inestima- 
ble rights! Let Mr. Lincoln try it, or 
Mr. Douglas either, and Ave will hang 
them higher than Hainan, and the only 
difference I should make would be that 
[humorously] as Mr. Lincoln is consider- 
ably taller than Mr. Douglas, Ave should 
have to build his gibbet [standing on his 
toes and reaching up his hand] a leetle 
higher than that for Douglas." 

During the trial of the assassins of 
President Lincoln, one of the witnesses 
was Mr. LeAvis F. Bates, for several years 
residing in Charlotte, N. C, and agent of 
the Adams Express Company, in that 
place. He testified that Jeff. Davis 
stopped at his house on the 19th of April, 
and made a speech from the steps. Davis 
received and read a dispatch from General 
Breckinridge, dated Greensborough, April 
19th, as folloAvs : — 

" President Lincoln Avas assassinated in 
the theatre on the night of the 14th. 
Secretary Seward's house Avas entered 
the same night, and he Avas repeatedly 
stabbed, and is probably mortally wound- 
ed." 



642 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OP THE REBELLION 



Witness said that after reading the dis- 
patch to the crowd, Davis stated, " If it 
were to be done, it were better it were 
well done." The day after, Breckinridge 
and Davis conversed in the house of wit- 
ness on the subject of the assassination. 
Breckinridge remarked to Davis that he 




sSerson Davis. 



regretted it very much — it was unfortu- 
nate for the people of the South, at that 
time. Davis replied, " Well, General, I 
don't know that if it were to be done at 
all it were better it were well done, and 
if the same were done to Andy Johnson, 
the beast, and Secretary Stanton, the job 
would then be complete." 

Mr. J. Courtney, telegraph operator, 
testified that the dispatch in question 
passed over the wires; and Mr. Bates's 
testimony was unimpeached. 

In contrast with the above, it is refresh- 
ing to cite the animus of clemency and 
good will which ever characterized the 
acts and declarations of the murdered 
President. 

It is well known that, at the very mo- 
ment of his assassination, he was occu- 
pied by thoughts and plans of both lenity 
and pardon. He was never harsh, even 
in speaking of Jefferson Davis ; and, only 
a few days before his end, when one who 
was privileged to speak to him in that 
way, said, " Do not allow him to escape 
the law — he must be hanged," the Pres- 



ident replied calmly, in the words which 
he had adopted in his last Inaugural Ad- 
dress, " Judge not that ye be not judged." 
And when pressed again, by the remark 
that the sight of Libby Prison made it 
impossible to pardon him, the President 
repeated twice over those same tvords, 
revealing unmistakably the generous sen- 
timents of his heart. Indeed, so disposed 
was the amiable President to extenuate, 
or forget, the crimes of even the most 
active conspirators, civil and military, 
against the life of the nation, that, on this 
point, a breach seemed imminent between 
him and many of his best friends, if not 
the majority, who elevated him to office. 
But now that he is dead, the spirit of 
mercy that actuated him, gives fragrance 
to his memory. In the words of another 
— his great Exemplar — Mr. Lincoln might 
well say of his enemies, " They hated me 
without a cause." 



Disappointed Expectations. 

In the year 1854, a conversation took 
place at the Smithsonian Institution in 
Washington, between Jefferson Davis and 
Professor Jewett, in the course of which 
Davis predicted that the Union would soon 
be divided into two republics. 

" Where will the division or boundary 
line be ? " interrogated Prof. Jewett. 

" The line separating the slave and free 
states," answered Mr. Davis. 

" Then," said the professor, " you expect 
to claim the national capital." 

" Of course," was the reply, " and this 
very Smithsonian Institute will be within 
the southern republic." 

" But," asked Prof. J., " how will you 
bring about such a division of the coun- 
try ? Do you think the free states will 
agree to it without a resort to arms ? " 

" Sir," said Jefferson Davis, in his sen- 
tentious manner, " the North -will never 
fight us on that occasion. There will be 
no bloodshed. When the South says she 
will secede, and become a distinct nation- 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 643 



ality, the North will be glad to let us go, 
and that peaceably. It will be a bloodless 
revolution." Alas ! 

Comment on Mr. Sloanaker's "Beautiful 
Portrait.!' 

The genial spirit of the lamented Pres- 
ident, which relieved him amidst the toils 
and anxieties of his dangerous and difficult 
station, will linger long, in many charac- 
teristic anecdotes, to soften in a measure 
the horror of his death, and mingle light 
with the dark mourning for his loss to the 
country he preserved. A significant inci- 
dent, in illustration of this, is related by a 
friend of the late President, who happened 
to be present at the White House the day 
after the renomination of Mr. Lincoln to 
the Presidency. Various political organ- 
izations called to pay their respects to 
him. Among the rest was the Philadel- 
phia delegation. The chairman of that 
body, in presenting one of the members, 
said — 

" Mr. President, this is Mr. A. B. Sloan- 
aker, of the second district of our State ; 
a most active and earnest friend of yours 
and of the cause. He has, among other 
things, been good enough to paint and 
present to our league rooms a most beauti- 
ful portrait of yourself." 

Mr. Lincoln took Mr. Sloanaker's hand 
in his, and with an earnest cordiality, 
shook it kindly, saying with a merry 
voice — 

" I presume, Sir, in painting your beau- 
tiful portrait, you took your idea of me 
from my principles, and not from my per- 
son." 



manner. He then addressed the audience 
in terms as follows : 

" Fellow citizens : It is proper when 
freemen assemble for the discussion of im- 
portant public interests, that everything 
should be done decently and in order. I 
have been informed that part of the busi- 
ness to be transacted on the present occa- 
sion is the assassination of the individual 
who now has the honor of addressing you. 



Attending- to Business in Regular Order. 
Andrew Johnson was once announced to 
speak in Nashville, on one of the exciting 
questions of the day ; and loud threats 
were uttered that, if he dared to appear, 
he should not leave the hall alive. At the 
appointed hour he ascended the platform, 
and, advancing to the desk, laid his pistol 
upon it, with the most quiet unconcern of 
40 




President Johnson. 

I beg respectfully to propose that this be the 
first business in order. Therefore, if any 
man has come here to-night for the pur- 
pose indicated, I do not say to him let him 
speak, but let him shoot." 

Here he paused, with his right hand on 
his pistol and the other holding open his 
coat, while with his eyes he blandly sur- 
veyed the assembly. After a pause of half 
a minute, he resumed : — 

" Gentlemen, it appears that I have been 
misinformed. I will now proceed to ad- 
dress you on the subject that has called us 

together." 

♦ 

Reward of a Speech after Fifteen Years from 

its Delivery. 

In an interesting conversation between 

President Lincoln and Rev. Dr. M'Clin- 

tock — as given in a public address by the 



044 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



latter, — Dr. M'C. asked the President if 
there was any truth in the rumor, at that 
time quite prevalent, of the removal of Mr. 
Dayton, American Minister at the French 
Court, and, if there was, he, Dr. M'C, 
would like the privilege of discussing the 
matter a little. President Lincoln said : 
" As to discussing the matter I have no 
objection, but as to his removal I have no 
such idea." He then went on to speak 
of his reason for appointing Mr. Dayton, 
and said : 

" When I was a member of Congress, 
in 1846-7, after the close of the Mexican 
war, a treaty was made, and opposed by 
Daniel Webster. After Daniel Webster 
sat down, William L. Dayton arose and 
made a speech that covered every point 
that Webster had made. I had been in the 
habit of regarding Webster as the greatest 
and most eloquent of men, until Mr. Day- 
ton made that speech (and then with a 
peculiar humor that belongs to all great 
natures, Mr. Lincoln added) : It may be 
because Mr. Dayton was on my side that I 
thought it was a great speech; and one of 
my first thoughts after my election was 
that William L. Dayton should occupy one 
of the best appointments I could give 
him." 

This anecdote shows how tenaciously 
Mr. Lincoln clung to men he believed to 
be reliable, remembering that speech and 
its maker fifteen years. 

"Public Opinion Baths." 
Colonel Halpine, one of General Hal- 
leek's staff, relates that once, on what was 
called " a public day " — when Mr. Lincoln 
received all applicants in their turn — the 
first thing he saw on being ushered into 
the President's chamber by Major Hay, 
was Mr. Lincoln bowing an elderly lady 
out of the door, the President's remarks 
to her being, as she still lingered and ap- 
peared reluctant to go, — 

" I am really very sorry, madam ; very 
sorry. . But your own good sense must tell 
you that I am not here to collect small 



debts. You must appeal to the courts in 
regular order." 

When she was gone, Mr. Lincoln sat 
down, crossed his legs, locked his hands 
over his knees, and commenced to laugh — 
this being his favorite attitude when much 
amused. 

" What odd kinds of people come in to 
see me," he said ; " and what odd ideas 
they must have about my office ! Would 
you believe, Major, that the old lady who 
has just left, came in here to get from me 
an order for stopping the pay of a Treas- 
ury clerk, who owes her a board bill of 
about seventy dollars ! " (And the Presi- 
dent rocked himself backward and for- 
ward, and appeared intensely amused.) 
" She may have come in here a loyal wo- 
man," continued Mr. Lincoln, " but I'll be 
bound she has gone away believing that 
the worst pictures of me in the Richmond 
press only lack truth in not being half 
black and bad enough." 

This led to a somewhat general conver- 
sation, in which surprise was expressed 
that the President did not adopt the plan 
in vogue at all military head-quarters, un- 
der which every applicant to see the Gen- 
eral commanding had to be filtered through 
a sieve of officers — assistant Adjutant Gen- 
erals, and so forth, — who allowed none in 
to take up the General's time, save such 
as they were satisfied had business of suffi- 
cient importance, and which could be trans- 
acted in no other maimer than by a per- 
sonal interview. Colonel Halpine re- 
marked — 

" Of every hundred people who come to 
see the General-in-chief daily, not ten have 
any sufficient business with him, nor are they 
admitted. On being asked to explain for 
what purpose they desire to see him, and 
stating it, it is found in nine cases out of ten, 
that the business properly belongs to some 
one or other of the subordinate bureaux. 
They are then referred, as the case may be, 
to the quartermaster, commissary, medical, 
adjutant general, or other departments, 
with an assurance that — even if they saw 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 645 



the General-in-cbief — lie could do nothing 
more for them than give them the same 
direction. With these points courteously 
explained, they go away quite content, 
although refused admittance." 

" Ah, yes," replied Mr. Lincoln, gravely 
— and his words on this matter are import- 
ant as illustrating a rule of his action, 
and to some extent, perhaps, the essential- 
ly representative character of his mind 
and of* his administration — " ah, yes ! such 
things do very well for you military peo- 
ple, with your arbitrary rule, and in your 
camps. But the office of President is 
essentially a civil one, and the affair is 
very different. For myself, I feel — though 
the tax on my time is heavy — that no 
hours of my day are better employed than 
those which thus bring me again within 
the direct contact and atmosphere of the 
average of our whole people. Men mov- 
ing only in an official circle are apt to be- 
come merely official — not to say arbitrary 
— in their ideas, and are apter and apter, 
with each passing day, to forget that they 
only hold power in a representative capac- 
ity. Now this is all wrong. I go into 
these promiscuous receptions of all who 
claim to have business with me, twice each 
week, and every applicant for audience has 
to take his turn, as if waiting to be shaved 
in a barber's shop. Many of the matters 
brought to my notice are utterly frivolous, 
but others are of more or less importance, 
and all serve to renew in me a clearer and 
more vivid image of that great popular 
assemblage out of which I sprang, and to 
which at the end of two years I must re- 
turn. I tell you, Major," he said, — ap- 
pearing at this point to recollect that Hal- 
pine was in the room, for the former part 
of these remarks had been made with half- 
shut eyes, as if in soliloquy — " I tell you 
that I call these receptions my public opin- 
ion baths — for I have little time to read 
the papers and gather public opinion that 
way ; and though they may not be pleas- 
ant in all their particulars, the effect, as a 
whole, is renovating and invigorating to 



my perceptions of responsibility and duty. 
It. would never do for a President to have 
guards with drawn sabres at his door, as 
if he fancied he were, or were trying to 
be, or were assuming to be, an emperor." 

That original phrase of the President's, 
" public opinion baths," is not likely e ve- 
to be forgotten. 



Pamphlet of Jokes in the Corner of Mr. Lin- 
coln's Desk. 

In a corner of his desk, Mr. Lincoln 
was accustomed to keep a copy of some 
humorous work, and it was frequently his 
habit, when greatly fatigued, annoyed, or 
depressed, to take this up and read a chap- 
ter, with great relief. The Saturday be- 
fore he left Washington to go to the front, 
just previous to the capture of Richmond, 
had been a very hard day with him. The 
pressure of office-seekers was greater at 
that juncture than ever before, and he was 
almost worn out. Among the callers that 
evening, was a party composed of a sena- 
tor, a representative, an ex-lieutenant gov- 
ernor of a western State, and several pri- 
vate citizens. They had business of great 
importance, involving the necessity of the 
President's examination of voluminous 
documents. Pushing every tiling aside, he 
said to one of the party — 

" Have you seen the Nasby papers ? " 
a No, I have not — who is Nasby ? " 
" There is a chap out in Ohio," returned 
the President, " who has been writing a 
series of letters in the newspapers under 
the signature of Petroleum V. Nasby. 
Some one sent me a pamphlet collection 
of them the other day. I am going to 
write to ' Petroleum ' to come down here, 
and I intend to tell him if he will commu- 
nicate his talent to me, I will swap place? 
with him ! " Thereupon he arose, went to 
a drawer in his desk, and, taking out the 
" letters," he sat down and read one to the 
company, finding in their enjoyment of it 
the temporary excitement and relief which 
another man, perhaps, would have found 
in a glass of grog ! The instant he had, 



64:6 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



ceased, the book was thrown aside, his I woman saw it in that light and wept 



countenance relapsed into its habitual se- 
rious expression, and the business was en- 
tered upon with the utmost earnestness. 



Justice surviving Clemency. 
One of the officers employed in investi- 
gating the plot of the murder of the Pres- 
ident had occasion to question a woman 



Justice survived, while mercy lay stricken 
to the ground by those most in need of its 
benefit. 



who was in some way connected with the born 



Polly's Baby. 
In a rather plain frame building in 
Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew John- 
son, President of the United States, was 
The house is shown to visitors by 
the owner, a venera- 




Arnlrcw Johnson's Tailor Shop 

affair. She kept flippantly asserting that 
" S'help me heaven I don't know anything 
about it, and s'help me heaven, I don't tell 
an untruth, for I never told a lie in my 
life," keeping on in her voluble assertions 
till at length the officer quietly interrupted 
her with the assurance that it did not much 
matter to him what she revealed, but it 
might be better for her, — at which she be- 
came a little indignant, and asked what 
they could do with her if she knew about 
the matter and wouldn't tell it. " Why," 
responded the officer, " in case you prove 
to be implicated as much as I am afraid 
you are, you might be hanged." At this 
reply she was a trifle moved, and said, 
"Justice should be tempered with clemen- 
cy." " Ah, yes, my dear madam," replied 
the officer, " but you forget that the clem- 
ency man is dead." For the first time the 



ble old lady named 
Stewart. She will 
also tell how, in an 
ecstacy of delight, 
on returning from 
her wedding tour, the 
first news she got 
was, " Polly has a 
baby." Full -of the 
feelings and enthusi- 
asm of a young bride, 
she rushed in and 
kissed and hugged 
the baby. " Little I 
thought," she ex- 
claimed to a visitor, 
"that I was caress- 
ing the future Pres- 
ident of the United States." " You, then, 
knew his father and mother ? " " Yes, 
Sir, I knew them well ; they were in our 
employ for several years." " Plow did 
they serve you ? " " They were plain, hard- 
working, honest folks, that attended to 
their business and nothing more." When 
leaving, the old lady said to her company, 
" How I would like to see him, dear me ; 
only it is so far ; but then he would not 
know me. Well, any Avay, I should like 
to see ; I think he would grant me one lit- 
tle request. I have a grandson in prison 
in the North, perhaps he'd let him come 
home to gladden my old heart — would you 
mention it to him, Sir ? " 



Pocket-Full of Coin Beady for Delivery. 
The words " Honest Old Abe " have 
passed into the language of our time anil 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA! ETC. 647 



country as the synonym for all that is just 
and honest in man. Yet thousands of in- 
stances, unknown to the world, might be 
added to those so often told of Mr. Lin- 
coln's great and crowning virtue. He dis- 
liked inuendoes, concealments, and subter- 
fuges ; and no sort of approach at official 
"jobbing" ever had any encouragement 
from him. He steadily discountenanced 
all practices of government officers using 
any part of the public funds for tempora- 
ry or personal purposes ; and he loved to 
tell of an instance in his own official expe- 
rience, when he was saved from embar- 
rassment by his rigid adherence to a good 
rule. 

He had been postmaster at Salem, Illi- 
nois, during Jackson's administration, Wil- 
liam T. Barry being then Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, and resigning his* office, removed to 
Springfield, having sent a statement of ac- 
counts to the Department at Washington. 
No notice was taken of his account, which 
showed a balance due the Government of 
over one hundred and fifty dollars, until 
three or four years after, when, Amos Ken- 
dall being Postmaster-General, he was 
presented with a draft for the amount due. 
Some of Mr. Lincoln's friends, who knew 
that he was in straightened circumstances 
then, as he had always been, heard of the 
draft and offered to help him out with a 
loan ; but he told them not to worry, and 
producing from his trunk an old pocket, 
tied up and marked, counted out in six- 
pences, shillings, and quarters, the exact 
sum required of him, in the identical coin 
which he received while in office years be- 
fore, and which he had sacredly reserved 
for the Government, whenever the proper 
official should be pleased to respond to his 
" account rendered." 



Answering the Secretary and tlie General. 
One of the last stories told by Presi- 
dent Lincoln, was to one of the members 
of his cabinet who went to see him, to ask 
if it would be a proper proceeding to per- 
mit Jake Thompson to slip through Maine 



in disguise and embark from Portland to 
a foreign port. The President, as usual, 
was disposed to be merciful aiid to permit 
the arch traitor to pass unmolested. The 
Secretary, however, urged that he should 
be arrested as a traitor, sayiug : 

" By permitting him to escape the pen- 
alties of treason, you sanction it." 

" Well," replied Mr. Lincoln, " let me 
tell you a story. There was an Irish sol- 
dier here last summer who wanted some- 
thing to drink stronger than water, and 
stopped at a drug shop, where he espied a 
soda fountain. ' Mr. Doctor,' said he, 
' give me, plase, a glass of soda wather, 
an' if yees can put in a few dhrops of 
whiskey unbeknown to meself. I'll be 
obleeged.' Now," continued Mr. Lincoln, 
" if Jake Thompson is permitted to go 
through Maine unbeknown to meself, 
what's the harm ? So don't have him ar- 
rested." 

Similar was the logic employed by Mr. 
Lincoln, it appears, in the case of Jeffer- 
son Davis. General Sherman, in vindica- 
ting himself against what he regarded as 
the hostile course of the War Department, 
said that the Government never distinctly 
explained to him the policy which should 
guide his actions, and that at City Point 
he had asked Mr. Lincoln whether he 
wanted Jefferson Davis captured, and for 
reply had been told a story. This story 
is the one, substantially, which Mr. Lin- 
coln had employed in the case narrated 
above, but its use in connection with Da- 
vis, and its repetition by General Sher- 
man, under the circumstances referred to, 
give it in some measure a historical value. 

" I'll tell you, General," Mr. Lincoln is 
said to have begun, " I'll tell you what I 
think about taking Jefferson Davis. Out 
in Sangamon County there was an old 
temperance lecturer who was very strict 
in the doctrine and practice of total absti- 
nence. One day, after a long ride in the 
hot sun, he stopped at the house! of a 
friend, who proposed making him a lem- 
onade. As the mild beverage was being 



G48 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



mixed, the friend insinuatingly asked if he 
wouldn't like just the least drop of some- 
thing stronger to brace up his nerves after 
the exhausting heat and exercise. ' No,' 
replied the lecturer, ' I couldn't think of 
it ; I'm opposed to it on principle. But,' 
he added, with a longing glance at the 
black bottle that stood conveniently at 
hand, ' if you could manage to put in a 
drop unbeknownst to me, I guess it would 
not hurt me much.' Now, General," Mr. 
Lincoln is said to have concluded, " I'm 
bound to oppose the escape of Jeff. Davis ; 
but if you could manage to let him slip 
out unbeknownst-like, I guess it wouldn't 
hurt me much." 

" And that," exclaimed General Sher- 
man, " is all I could get out of the Gov- 
ernment as to what its policy was concern- 
ing the rebel leaders." 

The good intentions of the amiable Pres- 
ident are appreciated by the whole nation 
that mourns his loss ; but his willingness 
to allow the escape of the great master- 
spirit of the rebellion, can scarcely be said 
to have been shared by many beside him- 
self, even to " save trouble." 



Second Reflection in the Cooking' Glass. 
When Mr. Lincoln received the news 
of his first election, he went home to tell 
Mrs. Lincoln about it. She Avas up stairs 
in the bed-room, and there he went, throw- 
ing himself down on a lounge, in a care- 
less manner. " Opposite where I lay," 
said Mr Lincoln, " was a bureau, with a 
swinging glass upon it," — and here in re- 
lating the matter to a friend he got up and 
placed the furniture so as to illustrate the 
position — " and. looking in that glass, I 
saw myself reflected, nearly at full length, 
but my face, I noticed, had two separate 
and distinct images, the tip of the nose of 
one being about three inches from the tip 
of the other. I was a little bothered, per- 
haps startled, and got up and looked in the 
glass; but the illusion vanished. On lying 
down again, I saw it a second time — 
plainer, if possible, than before ; and then 



I noticed that one of the faces was a little 
paler, say five shades, than the other. I 
got up and the thing melted away, and I 
went off, and, in the excitement of the 
hour, forgot all about it — nearly, but not 
quite, for the thing would once in a while 
come up, and give me a little pang, as 
though something uncomfortable had hap- 
pened. A few days after, I tried the ex- 
periment again, when*[with a laugh,] sure 
enough, the thing came back again ; but I 
never succeeded in bringing the ghost back 
after that, though I once tried very indus- 
triously to show it to my Avife, avIio Avas 
Avorried about it someAvhat. She thought 
it Avas a ' sigif ' that I Avas to be elected to 
a second term of office, and that the pale- 
ness of one of the faces Avas an omen that 
I should not see life through the last 
term." 

The President, with his susual good 
sense, saAV nothing in all this but an opti- 
cal illusion ; though the flavor of supersti- 
tion which hangs about every man's com- 
position made him Avish that he had never 
seen it. But there are people Avho will 
uoav believe that this odd coincidence was 
'• a Avarning," notAvithstanding its entire 
consistency with the laws of nature. 



Tenth of May at Irwinsville. 
On arri\'ing at General Johnston's head- 
quarters, and learning of the terms of the 
convention betAveen Sherman and John- 
ston, Jefferson Davis, then on his flight 
South from Richmond, stopped at Char- 
lotte, N. C. It wa,s frequently remarked 
that it Avas dangerous to do so ; but he in- 
variably replied that he had two many 
friends, and kneAV the country two well, 
to be caught by any of the forces in the 
Yankee army. He remained at Charlotte 
until tAvelve o'clock on the day that the 
armistice expired. At eleA'en o'clock on 
that day, his horse, a handsome blooded 
bay, Avas brought to the door of the pri- 
vnte house in AA'hich he Avas stopping. At 
tAvelve, having learned that the terms of 
the aforesaid convention Avere rejected, he 



FJNAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA: ETC. 049 



mounted his horse, and, accompanied by 
numerous friends and officials, rode off. 
At the same time a force of cavalry, under 
General Dibrel, moved off with him. 

In passing through Lexington, Davis 
was introduced by Judge Freeman, of 
Mississippi, who was traveling with him, 
to Dr. Dusenbury, a native of the place. 
The doctor invited Davis in to take a 
drink of apple brandy, and he did so. A 
brief conversation ensued, the doctor re- 
marking — 

" Mr. Davis, our cause is lost." 

" Our cause may be lost," replied Davis, 
" but the principle for which we are con- 
tending will present itself at another time, 
in another shape." 

He meant that there would yet be a 
conflict between the great agricultural in- 
terests of the South and the manufacturing 
and commercial interests of the North and 
Northwest. The conversation continu- 
ing, Dr. Dusenbury again observed — 

" The masses of the people of the South 
are not prepared for self-government." 

" Unfortunately it is so," replied Davis. 

Davis continued his flight, but General 
Wilson, who had been put on the fugitive's 
track, was following hard after him, hav- 
ing left Macon on the evening of May 7th, 
with orders to push on by forced marches. 
On the 7th, Lieutenant Colonel Harden, 
commanding the First Wisconsin, struck 
the trail of Davis at Dublin, Laurens 
County, and followed him closely, night 
and day, through the pine wilderness of 
Alligator Creek and Green Swamps, via 
Cumberlanilsville to Irwinsville. At Cum- 
berlandsville, Colonel Harden met Colonel 
Pritchard, with his picked men and horses 
of the Fourth Michigan, Harden followed 
the trail directly south, while Pritchard, 
having fresher horses, pushed down the 
Ocmulgee toward Hopewell, and thence 
by House Creek to Irwinsville, arriving 
there at midnight of the ninth. Davis 
had not arrived; but from a citizen Pritch- 
ard learned that his party were encamped 
two miles out of the town. He made dis- 



positions of his men, and surrounded the 
camp before day. 

The attack was made upon the camp by 
Colonel Pritchard just as the first streak of 
dawn began to light the eastern sky. The 
fugitive party were suddenly startled by 
the yells of the soldiers, but woke too 
late to make preparations for even a feeble 
resistance. After the officers and men 
were safely under guard, which occupied 
some time, a corporal went to the door of 
the tent occupied by defunct royalty, and 
ordered them to come forth s nd deliver 
themselves up. Mrs. Davis appeared at 
the door, somewhat en dishabille, and said : 

" Please, gentlemen, do not intrude upon 
the privacy of ladies. There are no gen- 
tlemen here, and you will oblige us greatly 
by giving us time to dress." 

"All right, madam," was the reply ; ' ; we 
will give you time to make your toilet, 
and then you can take a ride to Macon 
for your health." 

After something of an interval, the mo- 
notony outside only being broken by the 







Jirs. Jell. Davis. 

demands of the guard to " hurry up," 
there came to the door Mrs. Davis and 
Miss Howell; leading an apparently de- 
crepit old lady, dressed in a lady's water- 
proof cloak, with a tight hood on her head, 
and her face covered with a small veil. 
The ' old lady ' could walk only with great 
difficulty, but tottered through the door 



650 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



of the tent with a tin pail on her arm. j 
It appears that Mrs. Davis's keen eyes j 
were the first to recognize the horsemen | 
as they approached in the distance to be j 
Yankee cavalry, and she immediately 
called to her negro female servant, Ellen 
Bond, to get the articles of appaixd in i 
question, which being done, Mrs. Davis j 
arrayed her liege lord in them, and then | 
said to Mrs. Bond, " Go with Mr. Davis 
and try to get him off; for God's sake 
don't refuse me, Ellen ; save him if you 
can.'' 

Mrs. Bond left the tent with Mr. Davis, 
Mrs. Davis saying, '' Soldier, I suppose 
you have no objection to letting my old 




Jeff's last Shift— Capture by the Yanks 



mother go to the spring for some water 
for us to wash with ? " 

" "Well, I reckon I have some little ob- 
jection to letting that k old lady ' go," was 
the reply; "she wears boots, don't she?" 
and with the point of his sabre he raised 
the frock, discovering a large, coarse pair 
of calf-skin boots. AVhile doing this, an- 
other soldier stripped the veil and hood 
from off his face, and lo! Davis — it was 
lie ! Finding that he was fairly caught, 
and would be delivered into the hands of 
liis enemies, he waxed exceeding wroth, — 
declared how he would have defended him- 
self if he had his revolver, — and frequently 



made use of such sneering remarks as 
" Valorous soldiers, indeed, to make war 
upon women and children ! " "I thought 
the Yankee government was a little more 
valorous than to send its soldiers to steal 
defenceless women and children out of 
their beds at night ! " He also remarked, 
among other things, that Lee was one of 
the boldest Generals of which he had any 
knowledge — never needing to be urged. 
This was in comparison with Johnston, of 
whom his silence was marked. 

After a hurried breakfast the party was 
put in marching order. The prisoners 
were in ambulances, preceded by the band 
of the Fourth Michigan cavalry, which 
played first " Yan- 
kee Doodle," and 
then " John Brown's 
body's marching on," 
to inspirit the droop-, 
ing mood of the cap- 
tives ! 

On reaching the 
steamer that was to 
convey him to For- 
tress Monroe, there 
to be kept under lock 
and key, the scene 
of parting with his 
family took place. 
They were grouped 
on the deck, and 
consisted of Mrs. Da- 
vis, a girl just about in her teens, a 
boy somewhat younger, and an infant. 
Mrs. Davis was clad in black, — a woman 
of prepossessing appearance, of the bru- 
nette style, though her black hair was 
sprinkled Avith gray; her black eyes 
sparkled clearly, and her features bore a 
resolute stamp. Mr. Davis, a tall spare 
man, having a wan, gaunt and de- 
pressed look, his whiskers and moustache 
rather close cut and almost white, was the 
chief character. He was clad in a suit 
of fine dark gray cloth, and wore an over- 
coat of the same material ; his head was 
covered by a soft gray felt hat. He parted 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. G51 



from his family in rather a formal manner. 
After embracing them coldly and without 
any outward show of feeling, he walked on 
board the other little steamer, the Pierce, 
which was to convey him to his prison 

quarters. 

* 

Sir Frederick's Question Answered. 

The set speeches of State dignitaries 
rarely possess an attractive interest to the 
masses, while their familiar personal inter- 
course gives an index to the actual state 
of feeling, which all are pleased to trace. 
The reception given by President Johnson 
to the newly appointed British minister, 
Sir Frederick Bruce, in April, 1865, is an 
illustration in point. His after interview 
with President Johnson was as informal and 
undiplomatic as President Lincoln him- 
self would have made it. The new min- 
ister made his appearance with all his stars 
and decorations on, presented his creden- 
tials, and formally read his speech. Mr. 
Johnson was in the unadorned garb usual 
to his eminent office, and to Sir Frederick's 
set speech simply replied, that he was glad 
to see him, and to welcome to the capital 
a representative of Great Britain. He 
afterwards good-humoredly said : 

" I am not much used to the diplomatic 
formalities customary on such occasions. 
My idea is simply that two great nations 
ought to conduct their relations very much 
as two neighbors who sincerely desire 
peace and goodfellowship between them- 
selves would do, and that the less mere 
formality about it the better." 

" I assure you, Mr. President," inter- 
rupted the cordially spoken Sir Frederick, 
pointing to his uniform and decorations, 
" that I should feel very much more at 
ease without these things than with them." 

The remark was so thoroughly English, 
and at the same time so consonant to 
American prejudice against fuss and feath- 
ers, that the President and Minister be- 
came friends at once, and sat down for a 
regular White House chat. Sir Frederick 



| asked about Sherman. President Johnson 
explained the position. 

" What chance is there for Mr. Davis, 
then ? " asked Sir Frederick. 

" Oh, a small particle still — doubtless 
his escape across the country," said the 
President. 

" Well" replied the Minister, in an in- 
quiring tone, "I should think that Mr. Da- 
vis and a few members of his cabinet would 
probably find it toell to start pretty soon." 

" If they know what is for their own in- 
terest," responded the President rather 
grimly, " they had better lose no time about 
it. The time has come when traitors must 
be taught that they are criminals. The 
country has clearly made up its mind on 
that point, and it can find no more earnest 
agent of its will than myself" 

There was then a renewal of the mutual 
promise to talk over any difficulties that 
might arise between Great Britain and 
the United States like two neighbors sin- 
cerely desirous of good terms with each 
other, and so the interview ended. 



Admiration of Burns. 
Mr. Lincoln was an enthusiastic admirer 
of Robert Burns, always having a copy of 
the bard's poems by him, and reading 
them with delight. There was something 
in the humble origin of Burns and in his 
checkered life, no less than in his ten- 
der, homely songs, that appealed to the 
heart of the plain man who, transferred 
from the prairies of Illinois to the execu- 
tive mansion at Washington at a time of 
immense responsibility, gave a fresh and 
memorable illustration of the truth that 

" The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the £owd for a' that." 



Familiar Talk with Mr. Lincoln on the 
Fmancipation Proclamation. 

The eminent historian, Mr. Bancroft, 
remarked in his eulogy delivered in New 
York, on the Life and Character of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, that his place in history 



G52 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



would centre chiefly in the memorable 
Proclamation of Emancipation. For one 
of the most authentic as well as interesting 
accounts of the origin and forth-putting of 
that great document, the public are in- 
debted to the exceedingly graphic pen of 
Mr. F. B. Carpenter, who, through the 
columns of the Independent, communicated 
a sketch of the history of the Proclama- 
tion, as given to him by Mr. Lincoln him- 
self, while Mr. C. was painting the mag- 
nificent picture illustrative of its consider- 
ation by the Cabinet. 

" It had got to be," said Mr. Lincoln, 
"mid-summer, 1862. Things had gone 
on from bad to worse, until I felt that we 
had reached the end of our rope on the plan 
of operations we had been pursuing ; that 
Ave had about played our last card, and 
must change our tactics, or lose the game ! 




Familiar Talk with Mr. Lincoln. 

I now determined upon the adoption of the 
emancipation policy ; and without consul- 
tation with, or the knowledge of the Cabi- 
net, I prepared the original draft of the 
proclamation, and, after much anxious 
thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon 
the subject. This was the last of July, 
or the first part of the month of August, 
1862. (The exact date he did not remem- 
ber.) This Cabinet meeting took place, I 
think, upon a Saturday. All were pres- 
ent, excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster- 



General, who was absent at the opening 
of the discussion, but came in subsequently. 
I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved 
upon this step, and had not called them 
together to ask their advice, but to lay the 
subject matter of a proclamation before 
them ; suggestions as to which would be 
in order after they had heard it read. 
Mr. Lovejoy," said he, "was in error when 
he informed you that it excited no com- 
ment, excepting on the part of Secretary 
Seward. Various suggestions were offered. 
Secretary Chase wished the language 
stronger in reference to the arming of the 
blacks. Mr. Blair, after he came in, de- 
precated the policy, on the ground that it 
would cost the administration the fall elec- 
tions. Nothing, however, was offered, that 
I had not fully anticipated and settled in 
my own mind, until Secretary Seward 
spoke. Said he : ' Mr. President, / ap- 
prove of the proclamation, but I question 
the expediency of its issue at this juncture. 
The depression of the public mind, conse- 
quent upon our repeated reverses, is so 
great, that I fear the effect of so important 
a step. It may be viewed as the last 
measure of an exhausted government — 
a cry for help ; the government stretching 
forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethi- 
opia stretching forth her hands to the gov- 
ernment.' His idea (said the President) 
was that it would be considered our last 
shriek, on the retreat. ' Now,' continued 
Mr. Seward, ' while I approve the measure, 
I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue, 
until you can give it to the country sup- 
ported by military success, instead of 
issuing it, as would be the case now, upon 
the greatest disasters of the war ! ' " 

" The wisdom of the view of the Sec- 
retary of State," said Mr. Lincoln, " struck 
me with very great force. It was an aspect 
of the case that,, in all my thought upon 
the subject, I had entirely overlooked. 
The result was that I put the draft of the 
proclamation aside, as you do your sketch 
for a picture, waiting for a victory. From 
time to time I added or changed a line, 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 653 



touching it up here and there, waiting the 
progress of events. Well, the next news 
we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. 
Things looked darker than ever. Finally, 
came the week of the battle of Antietam. 
I determined to wait no longer. The 
news came, I think on Wednesday, that 
the advantage was on our side. I was 
then staying at the ' Soldiers' Home,' 
(three miles out of Washington.) Here 
I finished writing the second draft of the 
preliminary proclamation ; erne up on 
Saturday ; called the Cabinet together to 
hear it, and it was published the following 
Monday. Jt was a somewhat remarkable 
fact, that there were just one hundred 
days between the dates of the two procla- 
mations, issued upon the 22d of Septem- 
ber and the 1st of January. I had not 
made the calculation at the time." 

At the final meeting on Saturday, an- 
other interesting incident occurred in con- 
nection with Secretary Seward. The 
President had written the important part 
of the proclamation — 

" That on the first day of January, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held 
as slaves within any State or designated 
part of a State, the people whereof shall 
then be in rebellion against the United 
State-, shall be then, thenceforward and 
forever free ; and the Executive govern- 
ment of the United States, including the 
military and naval authority thereof, will 
recognize the freedom of such persons, and 
will do no act or acts to repress such per- 
sons, or any of them, in any efforts they 
may make for their actual freedom." 
" When I finished reading this paragraph," 
resumed Mr. Lincoln, " Mr. Seward stopped 
me. and said : ' I think, Mr. President, 
that you should insert after the word ' re- 
cognize,' in that sentence, the words ' and 
maintain.' I replied, that I had already 
fully considered the import of that expres- 
sion in this connection, but I had not in- 
troduced it, because it was not my way to 
promise what I was not entirely sure that 



I could perform, and I was not prepared to 
say that I thought we were exactly able 
to ' maintain ' this. But Mr. Seward in- 
sisted that we ought to take this ground, 
and the words finally went in." 

A few days after the passage of the 
Constitutional Amendment (says Mr. Car- 
penter,) I was in Washington, and was re- 
ceived by Mr. Lincoln with the kindness 
and familiarity which had characterized 
our previous intercourse. I said to him one 
day that I was very proud to have been the 
artist to have first conceived of the design 
of painting a picture commemorative of the 
act of emancipation — that subsequent oc- 
currences had only confirmed my own first 
judgment of that act as the most sublime 
moral event in our history. " Yes," said 
he, and never do I remember to have no- 
ticed in him more earnestness of expres- 
sion or manner, " as affairs have turned, it 
is the central act of my administration, and 
the great event of the nineteenth cen- 
tury." 

I remember to have asked him, on one 
occasion, if there was not some opposition 
manifested on the part of several members 
of the Cabinet to the emancipation policy. 
He said, in reply, " Nothing more than I 
have stated to you. Mr. Blair thought we 
should lose the fall elections, and opposed 
it on that ground only." Said I, " I have 
understood that Secretary Smith was not 
in favor of your action. Mr. Blair told 
me that, when the meeting closed, and he 
and the Secretary of the Interior went away 
together, that the latter told him, if the 
President carried out that policy, he might 
count on losing Indiana sure ! " " He 
never said anything of the kind to me," 
returned the President. " And how," said 
I, " does Mr. Blair feel about it now ? " 
" Oh," was the prompt reply, " he proved 
right in regard to the fall elections, but he 
is satisfied that we have since gained more 
than we lost." " I have been told," said 
I, " that Judge Bates doubted the consti- 
tutionality of the proclamation." " He 
never expressed such an opinion in my 



654 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



hearing," replied Mr. Lincoln ; " no mem- 
ber of the Cabinet ever dissented from the 
policy, in any conversation with me." 

Mr. Chase told me that, at the Cabinet 
meeting immediately after the battle of 
Antietam, and just prior to the September 
proclamation, the President entered upon 
the business before them by saying that 
"■ the time for the enunciation of the eman- 
cipation policy could no longer be delayed. 
Public sentiment," he thought, "would sus- 
tain it — many of his warmest friends and 
supporters demanded it; and he had prom- 
ised his God that he would doit/" The 
last part of this was uttered in a low tone, 
and appeared to be heard by no one but 
Secretary Chase, who was sitting near him. 
He asked the President if he was cor- 
rectly understood by him. Mr. Lincoln 
replied : " I made a solemn vow before God 
that, if General Lee was driven bach from 
Pennsylvania, I ivoidd crown the result by 
the declaration of freedom to the slaves!" 



Simple but Effective Point taken by Mr. 
Lincoln in a Capital Case. 

An instance which occurred during Mr. 
Lincoln's early professional career as a 
lawyer, is worthy of record, as showing 
the simplicity of his character in man- 
aging a case that involved nothing less 
than the life of his client. At a camp 
meeting held in Menard County, a fight 
took place which ended in the murder of 
one of the participants in the quarrel. A 
young man named Armstrong, a son of 
the aged couple for whom, many years 
previously, Abraham Lincoln had worked, 
was charged with the deed, and being ar- 
rested and examined, a true bill was found 
against him, and he was lodged in jail to 
await his trial. As soon as Mr. Lincoln 
received intelligence of the affair, he ad- 
dressed a kind letter to Mrs. Armstrong, 
stating his anxiety that her son should 
have a fair trial, and offering in return for 
her kindness to him while in adverse cir- 
cumstances some years before, his profes- 



sional services gratuitously in defence of 
her son. Investigation of the matter in 
its various bearings, convinced the volun- 
teer attorney that the young man was the 
victim of a conspiracy, and he determined 
to postpone the trial until the excitement 
had subsided. The clay of trial, how- 
ever, finally arrived, and the accuser tes- 
tified positively that he saw the accused 
plunge the knife into the heart of the 
murdered man. He declared that he re- 
membered all the circumstances perfectly 
— that the murder was committed about 
half-past nine o'clock in the evening, the 
moon shining brightly, so as to render it 
easy for him to see the act committed. 
Mr. Lincoln reviewed all the testimony 
carefully, and then proved conclusively 
that the moon, which the accuser had 
sworn was shining brightly, did not rise 
until an hour or more after the murder 
was committed. Other discrepancies were 
exposed, and in thirty minutes after the 
jury retired, they returned with a verdict 
of " Not Guilty." 



Life of Lincoln -written by Himself. 
The singular modesty of Mr. Lincoln 
is, perhaps, in no instance more palpably 
illustrated than in the account given by 
Mr. Charles Lanman, the Avell-known edi- 
tor and author. In 1858, Mr. Lanman 
commenced his labors on the work known 
as the " Dictionary of Congress," in the 
preparation of which he forwarded to 
every ex-member of Congress whose res- 
idence he could ascertain, a circular asking 
each person for information as to the date 
and place of his birth, the character of his 
education, his profession or occupation, and 
a list of any public positions he may have 
filled. In looking over the thousands of 
replies that were sent to him, Mr. Lanman 
remarks upon the fact that men of the 
greatest ability invariably told a direct and 
brief story, — thereby showing their innate 
modesty, and writing nothing to compro- 
mise their dignity. The reply which he 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 655 



received from Mr. Lincoln was of this char- 
acter — singularly brief, and yet compre- 
hensive, — as follows : 

Born, February 12, 1800, in Hardin 
county, Kentucky. 

Education defective. 

Profession, a lawyer. 

Have been a captain of volunteers in 
the Black Hawk war. 

Postmaster at a very small office. 

Four times a member of the Illinois 
Legislature. 

And was a member of the lower House 
of Congress. 

Yours, &c, A. Lincoln. 

Such is the story of his life down to 
1858. What a Avonderful contrast does it 
present to his subsequent career ! 



eral Grant ? Even 



(naming a mem- 



Solitary and Alone in Favor of Grant. 

Soon after the capture of Vicksburg by 
General Grant, Hon. Jesse K. Dubois, of 
Illinois, went to Washington, to obtain a 
sick furlough for his son, who had been at 
the siege and Avas then in a Memphis hos- 
pital. Mr. Lincoln himself went to the 
War Office with Mr. Dubois, to obtain the 
furlough. Returning from the office, and 
while Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Dubois, and United 
States Marshal Phillips were standing at 
the railing which separates the War Office 
grounds from those of the White House, 
the following conversation, in substance, 
took place : 

u Mr. President," said Mr. Dubois, " I 
do not like General Grant's paroling those 
prisoners at Vicksburg. We had better 
feed than fight them." 

Mr. Lincoln, straightening himself up to 
his full height, and his countenance beam- 
ing with that peculiar smile which indi- 
cated that he was highly pleased, said : 

" Dubois, General Grant has done so 
well, and we are all so pleased at the tak- 
ing of Vicksburg, let us not quniTel with 
him about that matter." He then added, 
placing his foot upon the base of the rail- 
ing, and taking a less erect posture, " Du- 
bois, do you know that at one time 1 stood 
solitary and alone here in favor of Gen- 



ber of Congress from Illinois) came and 
told me that he (Grant) was not worth a 
— , and that I would have to remove him. 
But I remembered that you, and Hatch, 
and others, had been down there about the 
first of April, and had not said a word to 
me on the subject." 

In Major Penniman's "Tanner Boy," 
may be found the happy secret, admirably 
told, of the good President's confidence in 
his great General. 



Good Htimor towards a Journalist. 
A gentleman visited President Lincoln 
in high dudgeon one night. He was a 
newspaper proprietor, and one of his edi- 
tors had been arrested. " Mr. Lincoln," 
he said, " I have been off electioneering 
for your re-election, and in my absence you 
have had my editor arrested. I won't 
stand it, Sir. I have fought better admin- 
istrations than yours." " Why, John," said 
the President, " I don't know much about 
it. I suppose your boys have been too en- 
terprising. The fact is, I don't interfere 
with the press much, but I suppose I am 
responsible." " I want you to order the 
man's release to-night," said the applicant ; 
" I shan't leave here till I get it. In fact, 
I am the man who should be arrested. 
Why don't you send me to Capitol Hill ? " 
This idea pleased the President exceeding- 
ly. He laughed the other into good hu- 
mor. " In fact," he said, " I am under re- 
straint here, and glad of any pretext to 
release a journalist." So he wrote the or- 
der, and the editor got his liberty. 



Under Lock and Key. 
On the capture of Jefferson Davis at 
Irwinsville, he was at once taken to Macon, 
and thence to Hilton Head, by the steam- 
er Clyde, and then to Fortress Monroe by 
the little steamer Silas C. Pierce. Gen- 
eral Miles was charged by the Secretary 
of War with the disposal of the captive, 
and, boarding the Clyde, he despatched an 
officer of the guard to order the prisoner 
to report to him. Davis immediately made 



056 



THE BOOK OP ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION 



liis appearance, and General Miles at once 
informed him that he was to be removed 
from that vessel to Fortress Monroe, and 
that a few minutes would be allowed him 
to take leave of his family. He did not 
evince any surprise at this announcement, 
but, bidding his family farewell, he walked 
on board the Pierce, closely attended by 
General Miles. After reaching the deck 
of the Pierce he beckoned his son Jeff., 
and bade, him summon Bob, his colored 
body servant. When Bob made his ap- 
pearance, Davis shook him warmly by the 
hand and bade him " Good bye:" 

Mrs. Davis bore the parting remarkably 
well, and it did not seem to cost her much 
effort to do so. As the Pierce was about 
getting underway she leaned over the rail 
of the Clyde, and called out to her hus- 
band, "Jeff! if they will allow you, write 
to me and let me know what kind of quar- 
ters you have." She also requested him 
that if it were possible he should remain 
with Clay — a fellow captive and criminal. 
Lieutentant- Colonel Pritchard, as the 
steamer was leaving, stepped up to Mrs. 
Davis and bade her adieu, when she said 
to the Colonel, " This is very hard," a re- 
mark which very naturally brings to mind 
the many, many affecting partings which 
took place between loyal and loving ones — 
now buried and mourned — during the past 
four years, all occasioned by the crime of 
that leading conspirator. 

General Miles lavished no needless 
courtesies upon the offender, indeed, no 
courtesies whatever were exchanged, nor 
did any social recognition transpire, with 
tl^e prisoner. To preclude any attempt at 
jumping overboard, by Davis or his com- 
panions in felony, a strong guard was 
placed on each side of the gangway ; this 
guard consisted of twenty-five cavalrymen 
armed with Sharps' rifles. 

The Pierce landed at the Engineei*'s 
dock, where an additional guard was in 
waiting, consisting of picked men from the 
Third Pennsylvania Artillery regiment. 
As soon as the boat was secured, General 



Miles took Davis by the arm and led him 
ashore, at once conducting him within the 
walls of the fort by the rear sallyport, and 
placing him in a cell separate by himself. 

The conduct of Davis necessitated the 
placing of irons on his feet, which wflre 
subsequently removed, when they had an- 
swered the purpose. Not only was he 
imperious and haughty, but he became ab- 
solutely obstreperous, insulting the guard, 
abusing the officers and their government, 
throwing his food at his attendants, and 
tearing a secession passion to tatters gen- 
erally — sometimes threatening others, and 
sometimes melo-dramatically courting a 
bayonet puncture in his bared breast. As 
a necessity — and possibly as a punishment 
and warning — orders were given to place 
manacles on his feet. The Captain in 
charge, attended by a blacksmith and grim 
manacles, approached, saying : 

" Mr. Davis, I have a very unpleasant 
duty to perform." 

" My God ! " exclaimed the conspirator, 
••you don't intend to put those things on 
me." 

Such were the orders; the Captain could 
only obey. Davis remonstrated. They 




Jeff, and the Blacksmith 



should never be put on. The Captain must 
go to General Halleck and have the order 
countermanded. The Captain replied: 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 657 



" But, Mr. Davis, the order came from 
General Halleck." Davis still insisted 
that the order must be countermanded. 
At this, the Captain finally and resolutely 
said — 

" You are a military man, Mr. Davis, 
and know that my only course is — to obey 
orders." 

Davis now went off in a more towering 
passion than before, and declared he would 
never be ironed alive. After becoming a 
little cool, and mechanically placing one 
foot on a stool, the Captain told the black- 
smith to proceed. Leaning forward to 
take to his arms the heels of the anti-co- 
ercionist, Davis seized him, and with a 
vigorous push tumbled him backward on 
the Moor, while the honest son of Vulcan, 
justly indignant, hurled his hammer at the 
" president," but missed him. Davis then 
attempted to seize a gun, and asked to be 
bayoneted. The guards presented bayo- 
nets, and the Captain feared he might rush 
upon them, and so ordered the guard to 
fall back. The Captain then called in four 
stout men and ordered them to lay Davis 
on his back, which they did, the prisoner re- 
sisting with almost preternatural strength, 
essaying to deal a thwack now to the right 
and anon to the left, and writhing in their 
grasp while the blacksmith hammered on 
the rivet with a will. When placed in 
his chair again, Davis looked in utter de- 
spair upon his manacled limbs, and was 
Tinable, even with his well known strong 
will, to conceal his emotions. The black- 
smith's medicine had the desired effect, so 
that the great fugitive became compara- 
tively docile, far less defiant, but more de- 
pressed, and the irons were subsequently 
removed. 

It was feared he would starve himself 
to death, and, complaining of being sick, 
he expressed a wish, one day, to see a phy- 
sician. The officer of the day, after con- 
sulting the proper authorities, told his pris- 
oner that a doctor would be allowed him. 
'' What physicians have you here ? " asked 
Davis of Captain Tetlow, the officer on 



duty. Captain T. mentioned the names 
of Doctors Bancroft, Janeway, and Craven. 
" Where is Dr. Bancroft from ? " queried 
Davis. " From Connecticut," answered 
the Captain. " Don't want him, then. 
Where's Janeway from ? Do you know 
where Craven is from ? " continued Davis. 
" Yes, he is from New Jersey." " Let me 
have him then." The doctor — a strong; 
Union man, by the way — found nothing 
seriously wrong with the prisoner's physi- 
cal condition. The real reason of Davis's 
desire for a physician became apparent 
when his noontide meal was served to him. 
He who deliberately starved to death 
thousands of Union prisoners was fed on 
the regular army rations, precisely of the 
same quantity and quality as that served 
to the soldiers at Fortress Monroe. He 
threw the soup, bread and meat from him, 
exclaiming, in a loud and angry voice, 
that he " was not accustomed to such living 




Geo. N. Sanders. 



and would not put up with it." The phy- 
sician prescribing a little different diet, it 
was served accordingly. 



Transfer of "President Davis's" Table Ser- 
vice. 

A short time after the evacuation of 
Richmond, an auction sale took place in 
that city of a coffee, or tea set, and a 
quantity of silver plate, formerly used by 
Jefferson Davis. The set was purchased 



658 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



at the sale by a loyal man, and by him 
presented, as a souvenir, to President John- 
? on. The coffee or tea set in question is 
a perfect minature or fac simile of a rail- 
road locomotive, with tender detached ; 
the locomotive boiler receives the coffee or 
tea, makes and discharges it through a 
spiggot, a steam whistle indicating when the 
tea or coffee is ready. The boiler of the loco- 
motive is of porcelain, and the figure of the 
fireman, of the same material, appears on 
the locomotive vigorously ringing the bell, 
— the breakfast, dinner, or supper bell, as 
the case may be. The tender, which is 
an admixture of brass and other metal, 
carries the sugar in an elegant silver cais- 
son, with goblet for cognias and stunning 
small cut glasses. The sides of the tender 
are embellished with racks for cigars. But 
the most curious contrivance of all is a 
secret music box, located somewhere in 
the tender, which, being set, plays eight 
popular airs, sufficient induration to enter- 
tain a supper, dinner, or breakfast table. 
The whole establishment, engine and 
tender, rests upon two beautiful enamelled 
waiters. Upon the side of the locomotive, 
in miniature, is emblazoned " President Jef- 
ferson Davis," showing that the testimo- 
nial — locomotive and tender — combining 
so peculiarly the useful and agreeable, was 
especially designed for the use and pleas- 
ure of " His p]xcellency." Upon the front, 
just above where the " cow catcher " ought 
to be, appears the confederate national 
banner and battle flag, entwined with the 
national ensijm of France. 



President Lincoln's First Dollar. 
One evening, in the executive chamber, 
there were present a number of gentle- 
men, among them Mr. Seward. A point 
in the conversation suggesting the thought, 
Mr. Lincoln said, " Seward, you never 
heard, did you, how I earned my first dol- 
lar ? " " No," said Mr. Seward. " Well," re- 
plied Mr. L., " I was about eighteen years of 
ago. I belonged, you know,* to what they 
call down South the ' scrubs ' — people who 



do not own land and slaves are nobody 
there. But we had succeeded in raising, 
chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as 
I thought, to justify me in taking it down 
the river to sell. After much persuasion 
I got the consent of my mother to go, and 
constructed a little flat boat, large enough 
to take the barrel or two of things that we 
had gathered, with myself and a little bun- 
dle, down to New Orleans. A steamer 
was coming down the river. We have, 
you know, no wharves on the we tern 
streams, and the custom was, if passengers 
were at any of the landings, for them to 
go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and 
taking them on board. I was contemplat- 
ing my new flatboat and wondering whether 
1 could make it stronger, or improve it in 
any particular, when two men came down 
to the shore in carriages, with trunks, and 
looking at the different boats, singled out 
mine, and asked, ' Who owns this ? ' I 
answered, somewhat modestly, ' I do.' 
' Will you,' said one of them, ' take us and 
our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Cer- 
tainly,' said I. I was very glad to have 
the oppoVtunity of earning something. I 
supposed that each would give me two or 
three bits. The trunks were put on my 
flatboat, the passengers seated themselves 
on the trunks, and I sculled them out to 
the steamboat. They got on board, and I 
lifted up their heavy trunks, and put them 
on deck. The steamer was about to put 
on steam again, when I called out that 
they had forgotten to pay me. Each of 
them took from his pocket a silver half dol- 
lar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. 
I could scarcely believe my eyes as I 
picked up the money. Gentlemen, you 
may think it a very little thing, and in 
these days it seems to me like a trifle ; but 
it was a most important incident in my life. 
I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, 
had earned a dollav in less than a clay — 
that by honest woi'k I had earned a dollar. 
The world seemed wider and fairer before 
me. I was a more hopeful and confident 
beinn; from that time." 



FINAL SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE GREAT DRAMA; ETC. 659 



Treating his Guests to a Good Drink. 

At the interview between Mr. Lincoln 
and the committee of the Chicago Conven- 
tion that came to his Springfield home to 
inform him of his nomination for the pres- 
idency, a little incident occurred, of a social 
nature, which deserves to be repeated. 

After the ceremony had passed, Mr. 
Lincoln remarked to the company that, as 
an appropriate conclusion to an interview 
so important and interesting as that which 
had just transpired, he supposed that good 
manners would require that he should treat 
the committee with something to drink ; 
and, opening a door that led into a room 
in the rear, he called out, ' Mary ! Mary ! ' 
A girl responded to the call, whom Mr. 
Lincoln spoke a few words to in an under- 
tone ; and, closing the door, returned again 
to converse with his guests. In a few 
minutes the maiden entered bearing a 
large waiter, containing several glass tum- 
blers, and a large pitcher in the midst, and 
placed it upon the center-table. Mr. Lin- 
coln arose, and gravely addressing the com- 
pany, said : ' Gentlemen, we must pledge 
our mutual healths in the most healthy 
beverage which our God has given to 
man ; it is the oidy beverage I have ever 
used or allowed in my family, and I can- 
not conscientiously depart from it on the 
present occasion ; it is pure Adam's ale 
from the spring ; ' and taking a tumbler, he 
touched it to his lips and pledged them his 
highest respects in a cup of cold water. 
Of course, all his guests were constrained 
to admire his consistency, and to join in 
his example. 



Dissensions in the "Happy Family." 
On Monday, the 6th of February, 1865, 
after the Peace Commissioners from Rich- 
mond had returned from Fortress Monroe, 
Senator Johnson, of Georgia, waited on 
Jeff. Davis, and, in substance, the following 
conversation took place : — 

" Well, President Davis, so your peace 
mission has failed." 
41 



" Yes, I knew it would ; I hope now the 
^constructionists will fight Lincoln instead 
of fighting me." 

Mr. Lincoln, it seems, was not opposed 
to making peace with the States ; but he 
was not in favor of recognizing the con- 
federate government as an independent 
power. 

" I see, President, that you have with- 
drawn all the troops from Georgia into 
Carolina and Virginia. What will the 
people of Georgia do for protection in the 
next campaign ? " 

" The people of Georgia have followed 
the counsels of Governor Brown and Mr. 
Stephens ; they must now protect them- 
selves." 

" Well, President, if you can do without 
the people of Georgia, the people of Geor- 
gia can do without you ! " 



The Last Battery in Lee's Army: its Doom 
Sealed by Loyal Virginia Troops. 

It is indeed a strange fact, that the last 
battery which the distinguished command- 
er of the Confederate army, General Rob- 
ert E. Lee, ever put in position near Ap- 
pomattox Court-house, was silenced by a 
skirmish line thrown forward by Brigadier- 
General T. M. Harris (and commanding 
at Fredericksburg), under command of 
Captain Jarbo, of the Tenth West Vir- 
ginia, and consisted entirely of West Vir- 
ginia Union troops, armed with the Spen- 
cer seven-shooter. General Lee, supposing 
that there was nothing but cavalry in his 
front, oi'dered his column to disperse it 
and move forward. The Twenty-fourth 
Army Corps having, by a forced march 
of twenty-four hours' duration, with but a 
short interval of rest, at the middle of the 
night been thrown in line across his front 
in rear of the cavalry, checked his advanc- 
ing columns. 

General Lee had placed a battery in 
position, and was shelling the line com- 
manded by General Harris (consisting, as 
before remarked, of West Virginia troops) 
at a furious rate, when Harris ordered the 



660 



THE BOOK OF ANECDOTES OF THE REBELLION. 



skirmish line forward, under Captain Jar- 
bo, with orders to silence the troublesome 
battery, which, with the aid of the Spencer 
rifle, they were enabled to do in half an 
hour, the line of support following up rap- 
idly. A portion of the battery had been 
withdrawn, and one or two guns, the horses 
of which had been killed, fell into the hands 
of the Federal General. 

These cannon were the last ever ordered 



into position by General Lee. Soon after 
their capture terms were proffered by 
Grant, and accepted by the Confederate 
General ; the war in Virginia was at an 
end ; and now, at last, upon the long and 
bloody drama of Southern Rebellion, 
— the greatest and most ghastly organized 
crime that stands out in human history, — 
fell the white curtain of Federal Vic- 
tory and National Peace ! 




• To Whom it May Coscmw ! ' 



LIST OF BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, CAPTUKES, 
SURRENDERS, SURPRISES, ETC., 

AND OF NOTABLE LOCALITIES, OX LAND AND SEA, DURING THE REBELLION, 

CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THESE ANECDOTES.* 

(See also General Index, at the close of the volume.) 



Abaco, 1862, July 7, 16. 

Abbeville, La, 1863, Nov. 20. 

Abbeville, Miss., 1862, Nov. 30, Dec. 2; 1864, 

Aug. 10. 
Aberdeen, 1864, Feb. 19. 
Abingdon, 1864, Dec. 14. 
Accatink, 1863, Aug. 11, Oct. 1*7. 
Ackworth, 1864, June 6, Oct. 5. 
Acquia, see Aquia. 

Adairsville, 1863, Oct. 24; 1864, May 17. 
Adamsville, 1862, April 6. 
Aiken, 1865, Feb. 10, 11. 
Aiken's Landing, 1 864, June 21 ; — . 
Alabama River; — . 
Albemarle Sound ; — . 
Aldie, 1862, Oct. 9 ; 1863, Feb. 6, Mar. 12, June 

4, 17, Aug. 1. 
Alexandria, La. and Miss., 1863, May 6, Nov. 

18; 1864, Mar. 15, 21, 26, May 5, 14; 1865, 

June 2 ; — . 
Alexandria, Mo., 1862, Aug. 3. 
Alexandria, Va., 1861, May 24, June 1 ; 1862, 

Aug. 27. 
Alexandria Falls, 1864, May 16. 
Alimosa, 1861, Oct. 4. 
All Saint's Parish, 1865, Feb. 4. 
Allatoona, 1864, May 24, June 2, Oct. 6. 
Alleghany, and A. Junction, 1861, Dec. 13; 

1864, Jan. 2; — . 
Alligator Harbor, 1863, June 13. 
Altamaha River ; — . 
Alton, 1864, Jan. 26. 
Amelia Court House, 1865, April 3. 
Americus, Prison. 
Amity River, 1863, May 12; — . 
Anandale, 1861, Dec. 4; 1863, Feb. 14, June 

27. 



Anderson's Cross Roads, 1863, Oct. 2; 1864, 

Oct. 1, 2. 
Andersonville, Prison. 
Annapolis, 1861, April 22, 23; - 
Annisville. 

Antietam, 1862, Sept.16, 17 ; 1863, July 8-11 ; — . 
Apache Canon, and A. Pass, 1862, Mar. 27, 28. 
Apalachian Range ; — . 
Appalachicola, 1862, April 3, Oct. 15. 
Appomattox, 1862, May 27; 1864, May 10; 1865, 

April 2-9 ; — . 
Aquia Creek, 1861, May 31, June 1, July 29, 

Oct. 1 1 ; 1 862, Mar. 7, 1 5, 1 8, Aug. 2, Sept. 7 ; — . 
Aransas, 1863, Nov. 17. 
Arkadelphia, 1863, Feb. 15, Oct. 28. 
Arkansas Post, 1863, Jan. 11, 23. 
Arkansas River and Valley ; — . 
Arlington, 1861, May 23, June 1 ; 
Armstrong's Mills, 1864, Oct. 27. 
Ashby's Gap, 1862, Sept. 22, Nov. 4; 1863, June 

19; 1864, July 18-20. 
Ashbyville, 1864, Dec. 17. 
Ashepoo River, 1863, May 3, June 3; 1864, 

May 25. 
Ashland, 1862, May 29; 1863, June 7; 1864, 

May 11. 
Atchafalaya, 1863, Oct. 4. 
Athens, Ala., 1864, Sept. 20, 23, Oct. 1, 2. 
Athens, Ga. and Tenn., 1862, May 9; 1864, 

Jan. 26. 
Athens, Ky., 1863, Feb. 23. 
Athens, Mo., 1861, Aug. 5. 
Atlanta, 1864, June 5-17, July 20-22, Aug. » : 

6, 10-27, 30, Sept. 2, Nov. 5, 9, 16; — . 
Aubry, 1862, Mar. 7. 
Auburn, 1863, Feb. 3. 
Augusta, Ga., 1861, Jan. ; — . 
Augusta, Ky., 1862, Sept. 12, 27. 



*The dates and localities of Battles here recorded, indicate either an actual engagement, or a military movement, at 
or about the time and place named. Some of the localities, which were the scene of constantly recurring military ope- 
rations, or of prolonged occupation, investment, or siege, are given with a blank ( — ) at the right, instead of specifying, 
in all cases, the numerous data pertaining to such. 



662 



.BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



Austin, 1863, May 22, 23. 
Averysborough, 1865, Mar. 16 
Avoyalles Prairie, 1864, May 16. 
Aylett's, 1863, June 4. 

Bachelor Creek, 1862, Oct. 1 ; 1864, Feb L 

Bacon Creek, 1862, Sept. 14, Dec. 25. 

Bahia, 1864, Oct. 7. 

Bainbridge, 1864, Jan. 14, IT, Dec. 28. 

Baker's Creek, 1863, May 16. 

Bald Headed Hill. 

Baldwin, 1864, Feb. 18, 28. 

Ball's Bluff, Cross Roads, Ferry and Gap, 

1861, Aug. 27, Oct. 21 ; 1864, Mar. 31, Nov. 
24; — . 

Ballinger Mills, 1862, July 29, Oct. 22. 
Baltimore, and B. Cross Roads, 1861, Apr. 19 ; 

1863, July 1 ; — . 

Barbee's Cross Roads, 1862, Nov. 5 ; 1863, 

Sept, 1. 
Barbour, 1862, Nov. 5. 
Barboursville, 1861, July 12, Sept. 16, 18, 

Nov. 4. 
Bardstown, 1861, Sept. 19; 1862, Oct. 2, 4, 6 ; 

1864, June 18: 1865, Jan. 13. 
Barhamsville. 
Barnesville, 1862, Oct. 12. 
Batesville, 1862, May 15; 1863, Feb. 4. 
Bath, 1862, Jan. 4; 1863, Sept. 8. 

Baton Rouge, 1862, Aug. 5, 6, Dec. 17; 1863, 

Jan. 1 ; — . 
Battle Creek, 1862, June 21, Aug. 27. 
Baxter's Springs, 1863, Oct. 6. 
Baylor's Farm, 1864, June 15. 
Bayou Barnard, 1862, July 27 ; B. Bontouca, 

1862, Nov. 21 ; B. Bourbeaux, 1863, Nov. 3 ; 
B. de Cache, 1862, July 7; B. de Metea; B. 
Cateau, 1863, Nov. 4; 1863, Aug. 27; B. 
Pierre, 1863, May 1 ; B. Sara, 1862, Aug. 11, 
31; B. Teche, 1862, Nov. 3; 1863, Jan. 13, 
14, Apr. 14; B.Vermillion, 1863, Apr. 17, 
Oct. 21. 

Bayport, 1863, Nov. 27. 

Bealton, 1863, Oct. 24, 26, Dec. 25, 27. 

Bean Station, 1863, Dec. 9, 14. 

Bear Bluff, 1862, Feb. 24. 

Bear Creek and Inlet, 1863, Feb. 5, April 17, 

Nov. 15, Dec. 25. 
Bear River, 1863, Jan. 29. 
Bear Wallow, 1S62, Dec. 15, 25. 
Beaufort, 1861, Nov. 8, 10, Dec. 8; 1862, Mar. 

20; — . 
Beaver Dam and B. Mills, 1862, July 20, 27; 

1864, May 9; 1865, Mar. 11. 
Beckwith's Farm, 1861, Oct. 13. 
Beech Grove, 1863, June 24, 26. 
Beelington, 1861, July 8. 



Beher's Mill, 1861, Sept. 2. 

Bell River, 1862, Nov. 3, Dec. 1. 

Belle Isle, — . 

Bellefield and Belltown, 1863, Oct. 13 ; 1864 

Dec. 9. 
Belmont, 1861, Nov. 7. 
Bennett's Mills, 1861, Sept. 1. 
Benton, 1862, Jan. 26, Mar. 6. 
Bentonsville, 1865, Mar. 19, 20. 
Berlin, 1861, Sept. 30, Dec. 15. 
Bermuda Hundred, 1864, May 4, 5, 11, 20, June 

2, 12-19; — . 
Berry's Ferry, 1863, May 16. 
Berryville, 1862, Mar. 6, 12, May 25, Nov. 26- 

29, Dec. 1 ; 1863, Apr. 21, June 6, 13; 1864, 

Aug. 10, 13, Sept. 4. 
Bertie, 1864, Feb. 26. 
Bertrand, 1861, Dec. 11. 
Berwick Bay and City, 1863, Mar. 13-18; — . 
Bethany, 1865, Apr. 4. 
Bethel Church, 1861, June 10. 
Bethesda Church, 1864, May 30. 
Beverly, 1861, July 12; 1863, Apr. 24, June S, 

July 2, Oct. 22-24; 1864, Oct. 29; 1865, Jan. 

11; — . 
Big Beaver Creek, 1862, Nov. 7. 
Big Bethel, 1861, June 10; 1862, Jan. 3, Mar. 

27. 
Big Black Bridge and River, 1863, Mar. 16, 17, 

May 17, July 5, Oct. 13; 1864, Nov. 24; — 
Big Blue, 1864, Oct. 25; — . 
Big Capon. 
Big Creek, 1862, Mar. 10 ; 1863, Apr. 20 ; 1864, 

July 25. 
Big Elk River Bridge, 1863, May 27. 
Big Hill, 1862, Aug. 23, Oct. 23. 
Big Hurricane Creek, 1861, Oct. 19. 
Big Miami, 1863, July 13 ; — . 
Big Mound, 1863, July 24. 
Big Shanty, 1864, June 8, 25, Oct. 5, 6. 
Biloxi, 1861, Dec. 31. 
Bird's Point, 1861, Dec. 2; 1863, Aug. 1. 
Black Bayou, 1863, April 5. 
Black Jack Forest, 1862, Mar. 
Black River, 1861, Sept. 12; 1863, May 17, 

1864, Mar. 1, Sept. 14; — . 
Black Walnut Creek, 1861, Nov. 29. 
Blackburn's, or Blackford's Ford, 1861, July 

18, 21 ; 1862, Sept. 20. 
Blackville, 1865, Feb. 7. 
Blackwater, 1862 Sept. 28, Oct. 3, 24, Nov. 19; 

1863, Mar. 9, 17, Apr. 11 ; — . 
Blair's Cross Roads, 1863, Dec. 16. 
Bi.akely River. 
Bloomfield, 1862, Jan. 26, May 11, Aug. 25, 

Sept. 11, Nov. 1 ; 1863, Jan. 27, Mar. 1 ; 1864, 

Sept. 23. 
Blooming Gap, 1862, Feb. 14. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC 



663 



Bloomingdale, 1864, Dec. 10. 

Blount's Mills and Blodntsville, 1862, Dec. ; 

1863, Apr. 9, 28, Sept. 22. 
Blue's Gap, 1862, Jan. 7, 8. 
Blue Mills Landing, 1861, Sept. 17. 
Blue Ridge, — . 

Blue Springs, Mo., 1863, Mar. 22, Oct. 4. 
Blue Springs, Tenn., 1863, Sept. 28, Oct. 10, 11. 
Bluffton. 1862, Sept. 30 ; 1863, May 28, June 3. 
Boco Chico,* 1865, May 12. 
Bolivar, Miss., 1862, Sept. 20. 
Bolivar, Mo., 1862, Oct. 26. 
Bolivar, Tenn., 1862, July 27, Aug. 30; 1863, 

Feb. 13, Mar. 9, Dec. 25; 1864, May 2. 
Bolivar, Va., 1861, Oct. 16, 18; 1862, June 24, 

Sept. 14, 15, Nov. 4; 1864, July 4. 
Bollinger, see Ballinger. 
Bolton, 1863, July 5; 1864, Feb. 3. 
Bonnet Carre, 1862, Aug. 29. 
Bonsecour Bat, 1864, Sept. 10. 
Boone, and B. Court House, 1861, Sept. 1 ; 1865, 

Mar. 26. 
Booneville, 1861, June 17, Sept. 13; 1862, May 

30, July 1, 19. 
Boonsboro, 1862, Sept. 14; 1863, June 19, July 

7-10. 
Boston, Ky., and B. Mountains, 1862, Nov. 18, 

28; 1863, June 13, 23. 
Bottom Narrows, 1863, May 9. 
Bottom's Bridge, 1862, May 23, June 30; 1863, 

July 2, Aug. 26; 1864, Feb. 6. 
Bowling Green, 1862, Feb. 1, 15, Aug. 21 ; — . 
Bowners, 1861, June 29. 
Boyd's Station, 1862, Sept. 8. 
Botdtown, 1864, Oct. 27 ; 1865, Mar. 29, Apr. 

2; — • 
Bradyville, 1863, Mar. 1, May 16. 
Branchville, 1865, Feb. 8. 
Brandenburgh, 1863, July 7; 1865, Mar. 15. 
Brandon Farms, 1864, Jan. 23, 25, Mar. 7. 
Brandy Station, 1862, Aug. 20; 1863, June 9, 

Aug. 5, Sept. 6, Oct. 12, Nov. 26, 30. 
Brashear City, 1863, June 20, 23, 26, July 22, 

24. 
Brazos, and B. Island, 1863, Oct. 11, 31 ; — . 
Brentville, 1862, Dec. 9. 
Brentwood, 1863, Mar. 25; 1864, Dec. 15, 16. 
Brick House Point, 1862, May 7. 
Bridgeport, 1862, Apr. 29, 30; 1863, July 7, 

Aug. 16, Nov. 17. 
Brier Creek and Forks, 1861, July 5; 1864, 

Dec. 3. 
Bristoe's Station, 1862, Aug.; 1863, Oct. 14; 

1864, Mar. 9; — . 
Bristol, 1863, Sept. 21 ; 1864, Dec. 14. 
Britton's Lane, 1862, Aug. 30, Sept. 1. 



Broad River, and B. Run, 1863, Apr. 1, 8; — . 
Brookville, 1864, Nov. 20. 
Brown's Ferry, 1863, Oct. 27. 
Brown's Gap, 1864, Sept. 26. 
Brownsville, Ark., 1863, Aug. 25, Sept. 2. 
Brownsville, Ky., 1861, Dec. 5. 
Brownsville, Mo., 1863, Oct. 16. 
Brownsville, Tenn., 1862, July 29. 
Brownsville, Texas, 1863, Nov. 5, 6; 18G5, 

June 1. 
Bruin's Lake, 1863, Apr. 23. 
Bruinsburg, 1863, May 1. 
Brunswick, 1862, Mar. 2, 10; 1863, June 8. 
Buckingham, 1861, Nov. 25. 
Buckhannon, 1861, July 6; 1862, Aug. 30. 
Buckhead Creek, 1864, Dec. 2. 
Buckland's Mills, 1863, Oct. 19. 
Budd's Ferry, 1861, Dec. 9. 
Buffalo, and B. Swamp, 1862, Sept. 27; 1864, 

Nov. 25. 
Buffalo Hill, Ky., 1861, Oct. 4. 

BUFFINGTON ISLAND, 1863, July 19. 

Bull Pasture Mountain, 1862, May 8. 

Bull Run, (Manassas,) 1861, July 21; 18t>2 ; 

Aug. 26, 30. 
Bull's Bay, 1862, July 7; 1863, Mar. 27; — . 
Bull's Gap, 1864, Jan. 11, Oct. 18, Nov. 13. 
Bunker Hill, 1861, July 15; 1862, Mar. 5, 

June 2. 
Bcrk's Station, 1862, Mar. 9. 
Burkittsville, 1862, Sept. 14. 
Burksville, 1864, Apr. 19, June 23; 1865, 

April 6. 
Burnt Ordinary, 1863, Jan. 19. 
Burton's Ford, 1864, Feb. 29. 
Bushy Creek, 1861, Dec. 9. 
Bute a la Rose, 1863, April 20. 
Butler, 1861, Dec. 13; 1862, Oct. 29. 
Buzzard's Roost, 1864, Feb. 24, 25. 



Cabin Creek, 1863, June 30, July 1. 
Cacapon Bridge, 1862, Sept, 6, Oct. 11. 
Cache, 1862, May 28, July 7. 
Cainesville, 1863, Feb. 12, 15. 
Cairo, 1861, Apr. 24, Aug. 2; — . 
Calhoun, 1862, Nov. 13 ; 1863, Dec. 28. 
California, Mo., 1864, Oct. 9. 
Camden, 1862, Apr. 19; 1864, Apr. 2, 19, 26; 

1865, Feb. 24. 
Cameron, 1861, Oct. 11. 
Camp Alleghany, 1861, Dec. 13. 
Camp Beckwith, 1863, Oct. 5. 
Camp Cole, 1861, June 18. 
Camp Defiance. 
Camp Finegan, 1864, Feb. 7. 



♦Last Engagement in the War of the Rebellion. 



664 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC, 



Camp Jackson, 1861, May 10. 

Camp Moore, 1863, May 15. 

Camp Pratt, 1863, Nov. 20. 

Campbell's Station, 1863, Nov. 6, 16. 

Campbellville, 1861, Oct. 24. 

Campti, 1864, April 4. 

Cane Hill, and C. River, 1862, Nov. 28; 1863, 

Oct. 26; 1864, Mar. 28, Apr. 24. 
Canton, 1862, Aug. 1 ; 1863, July 18, Oct. 15 ; 

1864, Feb. 4, 14, 21, Mar. 26, July T, Aug. 22. 
Cape Fear River, — . 
Cape Girardeau, 1861, July 28; 1862, Aug. 24; 

1863, Apr. 26 ; — . 
Cape Hatteras, — . 
Cape Henry, — . 
Cape Lookout, — . 
Cape Romaine Inlet, 1863, Apr. 18. 
Capitol Hill. 

Carlisle, 1863, June 25, — , July 1. 
Carmel Church, 1862, July 23. 
Carnifex Ferry, 1861, Sept. 10, 11. 
Carrick's Ford, 1861, July 13, 14. 
Carrion Crow Bayou, 1863, Nov. 3. 
Carroll Station, 1864, Sept. 30. 
Carrollton, 1864, Mar. 8. 
Carrsville, 1862, Oct. 15; 1863, May 15. 
Carter's Creek, 1861, June 24. 
Carthage, 1861, July 5; 1863, May 30, Oct. 8. 
Caseyville, 1862, Oct. 14, 15. 
Cashtown, June 30, July 3. 
Cassville, 1862, Sept. 20; 1864, May 19. 
Castle Rock, 1864, Oct. 6. 
Catlett's Station, 1862, Aug. 22, Oct. 24, Nov. 

16; 1863, Jan. 10; — . 
Catoctin Station, 1863, June 17. 
Cave City, and C. Hill, 1862, May 11. 
Cedar Bluff, Creek, and Mountain, 1862, Aug. 

9; 1863, Apr. 7; 1864, Oct. 19, Nov. 12; — . 
Centralia, 1864, Sept. 27. 
Centreville, Mo., 1863, Dec. 24. 
Centreville, Va., 1861, July 21 ; 1862, Mar. 10, 

Aug. 28, 30; 1863, Nov. 2; — . 
Chaffin's Farm, 1864, Sept. 29, 30. 
Chain Bridge. 
Chalk Bluff, 1863, May 2. 
Chamberlain's Creek, 1865, Mar. 30, 31, Apr. 1. 
Chambersburg, 1862, Oct. 10; 1863, June 15, 

18, 23, July 5; 1864, July 28-30. 
Champion Hills, 1863, May 16 ; 1864, Feb. 4. 
Chancellorsville, 1863, May 2-4; 1864, May 

3-8. 
Chantilly, 1862, Sept. 1 ; 1863, Oct. 17. 
Chapel Hill, and C. House, 1863, Mar. 4; 1864, 
Chaplin's Hills, 1862, Oct. 4, 7, 8. [Oct. 

Chapmanville, 1861, Sept. 25; 1862, Sept. 6. 
Charles City Court House, 1863, Dec. 9, 13 ; — . 
Charles City Cross Roads, 1862, June 30, July 

i; -• 



Charleston, Mo., 1861, Aug. 19, Oct. 2. 
Charleston, S. C, 1861, Jan. 12, Apr. 13, 14; 

1862, Jan. 30, 31 ; 1863, Jau. 31, Apr. 7, July 
24, Aug. 20, 22, Oct. 27, Dec. 25 ; 1865, Feb. 
17, 18; — . 

Charleston, Tenn., 1863, Dec. 28. 
Charleston, Va., 1861, July 25; 1862, Sept. 12. 
Charlestown, 1862, Feb. 28, Oct. 6, 16, Nov. 9, 

Dec. 1 ; 1863, Feb. 13, May 16, July 15, Oct. 

7, 18, Dec. 28; 1864, Dec. 3; — . 
Charlotte, Fla., 1863, Mar. 3. 
Charlotte, Tenn., 1863, Feb. 8. 
Charlottesville, 1864, Feb. 28; 1865, Mar. 3. 
Chattahoochie, 1863, June 17 ; 1864, June 5 ; — . 
Chattanooga, 1862, June 7 ; 1863, July 14, Aug. 

21, Sept. 8, 9, 10, Oct. 5, Nov. 23-27, Dec. 1 ; 

1864, Sept. 29 ; — . 
Cheat Mountain, 1861, Sept. 12. 
Check's Cross Roads, 1864, Mar. 14. 
Chelsea, 1861, Oct. 12. 
Cheraw, 1865, Mar. 3. 
Cherbourg, 1864, June 19. 
Cherokee Station, 1863, Oct. 21. 
Cherry Stone, 1864, Mar. 7. 
Chesapeake Bay, — . 
Chesnaburg, 1861, — . 
Chester's Gap, 1863, July 22. 
Chesterfield, 1865, Mar. 3. 
Chew Inlet, 1864, Sept. 29. 
Chewa Station, 1864, July 17. 
Chickahominy, 1862, May 7, 31, June 1, 25; 

1864, May 27, 30 ; — . 
Chickamauga, 1863, Sept. 19-21, Nov. 26; — . 
Chickasaw, and C. Bluffs, 1862, Dec. 27-29; 

1864, Dec. 27; 1865, Mar. 22; — . 
Chicomacomico, 1861, Oct. 5. 
Chicot Pass, and C. Lake, 1862, Dec. 6; 1864, 

June 5. 
Chillicothe, 1863, July 14. 
Chincoteague Inlet, 1861, Oct. 5, 25. 
Chowan River, 1862, May 9; 1864, Mar. 4; — . 
Christiansburg, 1865, Mar. 12. 
Chuckatuck, 1863, Apr. 23; 1864, Jan. 21, 31, 

Feb. 1, Mar. 29. 
Chunky Creek, 1864, Mar. 17. 
Cincinnati, O., 1862, Sept. 11, 12. 
Citico Creek, 1863, Nov. 23-25. 
City Point, 1862, July 3, Aug. 28; 1864, May 

4, 5; 1865, Jan. 21; — . 
Citronville, 1865, May 4. 
Clarendon, 1862, Aug. 11, 13. 
Clark's Hollow, 1862, May 1. 
Clarksburg, 1861, May 20, June 20. 
Clarkson, 1862, Oct. 26. 
Clarksville, 1862, Feb. 19, Aug. 18, Sept. 7; 

1863, Jan. 4, Apr. 8. 
Clear Spring, 1861, May 22. 
Cleveland, 1863, Nov. 27. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC 



665 



Clifton, 1863, Feb. 18. 

Clinch Mountain and River, 1863, Dec. 4, 6. 

Clinton, La., 1863, Jan. 19, June 1; 1864, Oct. 6. 

Clinton, Miss., 1864, Aug. 24. 

Clinton, Mo., 1864, Feb. 4. 

Clinton, N. C, 1S62, May 19, Dec. 28. 

Clinton Forge, 1863, Dec. 18. 

Cloyd Mountain, 1864, May 9. 

Clydesdale, 1864, Dec. 19. 

Coal Harbor, (see Cold Harbor.) 

Cobb's Point, 1862, Feb. 10. 

Cockeysville, 1864, July 10. 

Cockpit Point, 1862, Mar. 9. 

Coffeeville, 1862, Dec. 5, 14. 

Covin's Point, 1862, Aug. 1. 

Cold Harbor, 1862, May 24; 1864, May 30, June 

1,3; -. 
Cold Knob Mountain, 1862, Nov. 26. 
Coldwater, and C. River, 1862, June 22, July 

24, Sept. 10; 1863, Feb. 19, Apr. 19, June 24, 

Oct. 12; — . 
Cole Camp, and C. Island, 1861, June 19; 1863, 

Mar. 28. 
Colesgate Island, 1862, May 21. 
Colliersville, 1863, Oct. 11, 13, 25, Nov. 2, 3. 
Columbia, Ark., 1864, June 5, 6. 
Columbia, Pa., 1863, June 28. 
Columbia, Ky., 1861, Dec. 26; 1863, Oct. 22. 
Columbia, S. C, 1865, Feb. 16, 17, 18. 
Columbia, Tenn., 1862, July 17 ; 1863, June 30 ; 

1864, Nov. 24. 
Columbia Bridge, 1862, May 7. 
Columbus, 1861, June 12, Sept. 7, Oct. 7 ; 1862, 

Jan. 11, 12, Feb. 27, Mar. 3; 1863, Dec. 24; 

1864, Apr. 6, 13; 1865, Jan. 18, Apr. 16. 
Compton's Ferry, 1862, Aug. 11. 
Combahee River, 1863, June ; 1865, Jan. 26 ; — . 
Commerce, Miss., 1862, Dec. 18; 1863, Jan. 14. 
Commerce, Mo., 1861, Aug. 19. 
Commerce, Tenn., 1862, Oct. 19. 
Como, 1863, Oct. 7. 
Concordia, 1862, Dec. 9. 
Conrad's Ferry, 1861, June 18, Sept. 6. 
Cooleyville, 1863, July 19. 
Coosahatchie, 1862, Oct. 22. 
Coosaw River, 1863, June; 1864, July 13; — . 
Corbin's Bridge, and C. Neck, 1863, Aug. 24. 
Corpus Christi, 1863, Nov. 15. 
Corinth, 1862, Apr. 2, 24, June 4, May 8, 24-30, 

Oct. 3, 4, 5, Dec. 12, 18; 1863, July 7, 17; 

1864, Jan. 25; — . 
Corrotowan Creek, 1861, Nov. 6. 
Corydon, 1863, June 17, July 9. 
Cosby Creek, 1864, Jan. 15. 
Cottage Grove, 1863, Mar. 21. I 
Cotton Creek, Plant, and Hills, 1861, Oct. 30- 

Nov. 7; 1862, Sept. 12, Oct. 28; 1864, Apr. 

22, Nov. 16. 



Cotton ville, 1865, May 5. 

Courtableau, 1863, Apr. 22. 

Courtland, Ala., 1862, July 25; 1863, Apr, 28. 

Courtland, Tenn., 1862, Aug. 23. 

Cove Creek and Cove Mountain Gap, 1862, Nov. 

18 ; 1864, May 10. 
Covington, Ky., 1862, Sept. 6. 
Covington, Tenn., 1863, Mar. 10; 1864, Nov. 17. 
Covington, Va., 1863, Nov. 17, Dec. 18. 
Cox's Bridge, 1865, Mar. 21. 
Cowan, 1863, July 3. 
Crab Orchard, 1862, Aug. 20-22. 
Crampton's Pass and Gap, 1862, Sept. 14. 
Craney Island, 1862, May 8-12 ; — . 
Cranston's Bluff, 1862, Oct. 1. 
Cricket Hill. 

Cripple Creek, 1863, May 16. 
Crooked Run, 1862, Aug. 16. 
Cross Hollows, 1862, Oct. 28. 
Cross Keyes, 1862, June 8. 
Cross Lanes, 1861, Aug. 1. 
Crow House, 1865, Mar. 30-Apr. 2. 
Crump's Hill, 1864, Mar. 31. 
Crystal Springs, 1863, May 11. 
Culp's Farm, 1864, June 22. 
Culpepper, 1862, July 12, Aug. 9; 1863, June 

8, Sept. 13, Oct. 11, Nov. 8, Dec. 25 ; — . 
Cumberland, Ky., 1863, July 7. 
Cumberland, Md. and Va., 1.862, May 10, June 

17, 22; 1864, Aug. 1 ; 1865, Feb. 21. 
Cumberland Fort, and Gap, 1861, June 28, Nov. 

13 ; 1862, Sept. 4, 17 ; 1863, Sept. 7, 9 ; 1864, 

Jan. 29, Feb. 22 ; — . 
Cumberland Island and Sound. 
Cumberland Mountain and Valley, — . 
Cumming's Point, — . 
Cynthiana, 1861, Sept. 26; 1862, July 14,17;- 

1864, June 11, 12. 
Cypress Bend, 1863, June 21. 



Dabney's Mills, 1865, Feb. 6, Mar. 29, 30. 
Dallas, 1862, Aug. 24, Dec. 24; 1864, May 

25-28. 
Dalton, 1863, Nov. 30 ; 1864, Jan. 31, Feb. 8, 24, 

26, Mar. 1, May 12, 14, Aug. 14, 15, Oct. 12. 
Dam Number Four. 
Dandridge, 1864, Jan. 15, 17. 
Danville, 1862, Aug. 25, 26 ; 1864, Jan. 29 ; 

1865, Apr. 28. 
Darby Town, 1864, Oct. 7. 
Dardanelle, 1863, Sept. 9, Oct. 5; 1864, May 30. 
Darien, 1863, June 11. 
Darkesville, 1864, Sept. 3. 
Darkeytown. 1864, Oct. 7. 
Darnestown, 1861, Sept. 15; 1864, July 10. 
Davenport, 1J65, Jan. 6. 
Day's Gap, 1863. 



666 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC, 



Davis's Farm, 1864, June 21. 

Davis's Mills, 1862, Dec. 20, 21. 

De Soto, 

Deatonsville, 1865, Apr. 6. 

Decatur, 1863, Dec. 12; 1864, Feb. 14, 21, July 

20, Sept. 29, Oct. 26-30, Nov. 26-29. 
Dechard, 1863, June 29, July 1. 
D.:ep Bottom, D. Creek, and D. Run, 1863, June 

5; 1864, Aug. 15, 16; 1865, Apr. 3; — . 
Deer Creek, 1863, Mar. 21. 
Delhi, 1862, Dec. 24. 
Denmark, 1862, Sept. 1. 
Des Arc, 1863, Jan. 17. 
Deserted House, 1863, Jan. 30. 
Devil's Back Bone, 1863, Sept. 1. 
Dinwiddie Court House, 1865, Mar. 30, 31. 
Dismal Swamp. 
Doboy Sound and River, 1863, Nov. 30, Dec. 

16; — . 
Donaldsonville, 1862, Aug. 10, Oct. 26; 1863, 

June 27, 28, July 13, 14, Sept. 25. 
Donelson Bluffs. 

Doniphan, Mo., 1863, May 28, Dec. 25. 
Doniphan, Tenn. 
Dover Landing, 1863, Sept. 15. 
Dranesville, 1861, Nov. 26, Dec. 20; 1864, 

Feb. 22, 28. 
Dresden, 1862, May 5. 
Dripping Spring, 1862, Dec. 28. 
Driver's Hill, 

Droop Mountain, 1863, Nov. 6. 
Drury's Bluff, 1864, May 12-16; — . 
Dry Fork, 1861, July 5 ; 1862, Jan. 8. 
Dry Springs and Wood, 1861, Aug. 2. 
Duck River, 1863, Apr. 25, June 25; 1864, 

Dec. 19; — . 
Dug Springs, 1861, Aug. 2. 
Dumfries, 1861, Oct. 11; 1862, Mar. 15, 27, 

Dec. 2, 11, 23, 27 ; 1863, Jan. 2. 
Dunksburg, 1861, Dec. 4. 
Durham's Station, 1865, Apr. 17, 18. 
Durhamville, 1862, Sept. 17. 
Dutch Gap, 1864, July 11 ; 1865, Jan. 1 ; — . 
Duvall's Bluff, 1863, Jan. 16; 1864, Aug. 23; 

1865, May 24; — . 
J)yersbukg, 1863, Jan. 30. 



Eaglesport, 1863, July 23. 

Eagleville, 1863, Mar. 2. 

East Bay, 1864, Feb. 18. 

East Point, 1864, Oct. 10. 

Eastport, 1862, Mar. 24, Apr. 1, 13. 

Ebenezer Church, 1865, Apr. 1. 

Edenton, 1862, Feb. 12. 

Edgefield Junction, 1862, >ug. 20. 

Edindurg. 

Edisto, 1861, Dec. 18; '62, Apr. 19, 29; '64, July 2. 



Edwards' Ferry, and Station, 1801, June 18, 

Oct. 21, 25; 1862, Sept. 9. 
Egypt, 1864, Feb. 19, Dec. 28. 
Eliott's Mills, 1861, Sept. 22. 
Elizabeth City, and River, 1862, Feb. 10, Apr. 

8, 19; 1863, Dec. 10; — . 
Elizabethtown, 1862, Dec. 25, 27. 
Elk Creek, 1863, July 16, 17. 
Elk Fork, 1862, Dec. 28. 
Elk Horn, 1862, Mar. 8. 
Elk Ridge, 1861, Apr. 23. 
Elk River, 1862, Sept. 12; 1863, June 25, July 

2, 14. 
Elk Water, 1861, Sept. 13. 
Elkton, 1862, May 9. 
Ellicott's'Mills, 1861, June 6. 
Ellison's Mills, 1S62, May 22, 24, June 27. 
Ely's Ford, 1864, Mar. 5. 
Emmetsburg, 1862, Oct. 11. 
Enterprise, 1804, Feb. 14-21. 
Etowah River, 1864, May 18. 
Estell Springs, 1863, July 1. 
Eunice, 1863, June 13. 

EVANSPORT. 

Evansville, 1862, July 15. 



Fair Gardens, 1804, Jan. 28. 

Fair Oaks, 1862, May 31, June 1, 16,.21, 25, 29. 

Fairburn, 1864, Aug. 19. 

Fairfax, 1861, June 1, July 17, Nov. 17, 27; 

1863, Mar. 8, June 14, 25, 27, July SO, 31, 

Aug. 6, 24, Dec. 15 ; — . 
Fairfield, 1863, July 3. 
Fairhaven, 1865, Apr. 4. 
Fairmount, Mo., 1862, July 12. 
Fairmount, Va., 1863, Apr. 29. 
Fairview Mountain. 
Falling Creek and F. Waters, 1801, July 2; 

1863, July 14, Aug. 30. 
Fall's Church, 1861, June 29, Oct. 8; — . 
Falmouth, Ky., 1862, Sept. 17. 
Falmouth, Va., 1862, Apr. 18, Nov. 18j 28; 

1863, Feb. 25. 
Farmington, Miss., 1S62, Apr. 2, May 3, 9; 

1863, Oct. 7. 
Farmington, Mo., 1861, July 1. 
Farmington, Tenn., 1863, Oct. 8. 
Farmville, 1865, Apr. 7. 
Farrar's Island, (see Dutch Gap.) 
Fayette, 1862, Sept. 10, 14. 
Fayetteville, Ark., 1862, July 15, Oct, 27-29, 

Dec. 7 ; 1863, Apr. 18. 
Fayetteville, Ga., 1864, July 29. 
Fayetteville, if. C, 1861, Apr. 22; 1862, Feb. 

23; 1864, Mar. 12; 1865, Mar. 9, 11. 
Fayetteville, Va., 1862, Sept., Nov. 15; 1S63, 

May 18-20. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC, 



667 



Federal Hill, and F. Point, 1865, Jan 15. 

Fernandina, 1862, Mar. 3, 7. 

Fernando, 1863, June 18. 

Fire Island, 1864, Aug. 11. 

Fish Springs, 1863, Jan. 23. 

Fisher's Hill, 1864, Sept. 20-23. 

Fishing Creek, 1863, May 25. 

Fitzhugh's Woods, 1864, Apr. 1. 

Five Forks, 1865, Mar. 30-Apr. 1. 

Flat Lick Ford, 1862, Feb. 14. 

Fleming, 1863, June 16. 

Flint Hill. 

Florence, Ala., 1862, July 22; 1863, Feb. 22, 

Apr. 28, May 27; 1864, Jan. 26, Dec. 5-9. 
Florence, Ky., 1862, Sept. 15 17. 
Florence, (Prison). 
Florida, 1862, July. 23. 
Floyd's Fork, 1862, Oct. 1. 
Flussell's Mill Pond. 
Folly Island and Inlet, — . 
Ford's Station, 1864, June 22. 
Forsyth, 1861, July 22. 
Fort Alexis, 1865, Apr. 8. 
Fort Anderson, 1864, Mar. 25; 1865, Jan. 19, 

Feb. 19. 
Fort Andrew Johnson. 
Fort Barrancas, 1861, Jan. 12, Nov. 22, 23; 

1862, Jan. 1. 

Fort Bartow, 1862, Feb. 8 ; 1864, Dec. 21. 

Fort Beauregard 1 861, Nov. 7; 1862, Mar. 5. 

Fort Berthold. 

Fort Blakely, 1865, Apr. 9. 

Fort Blanchard. 

Fort Bliss. 

Fort Brady, 1865, Jan. 24. 

Fort Brown, 1861, Mar. 6; 1863, Nov. 4,6; 

1864, Dec. 21. 
Fort Campbell, 1865, Jan. 16. 
Fort Caswell, 1861, Jan. 8; 1863, Jan. 5; 1865, 

Jan. 16, 17. 
Fort Clark, 1861, Aug. 29. 
Fort Clinch, 1862, Mar. 7. 
Fort Craig, 1861, Oct. 4, Dec. 27; 1862, Feb. 

21, May 23. 
Fort Darling, 1862, May 15, June 30, July 14 ; 

1864, May 12-14. 
Fort Delaware. 

Fort De Rdssy, 1863, May 5; 1864, Mar. 14-17. 
Fort Donelson, 1862, Feb. 12-16, Aug. 25, 26; 

1863, Feb. 3; — . 
Fort Ellsworth. 

Fort Esperanza, 1863, Nov. 27-Dec. 1. 

Fort Eugene, 1865, Apr. 8. 

Fort Evans, 1862, Mar. 8. 

Fort Fillmore, 1861, July 24, Aug. 2 ; 1862, 

Aug. 7. 
Fort Fisher, 1863, Sept. 23 ; 1864, Dec. 24-27 ; 

1865, Jan. 13-15, Mar. 25; — 



Fort Foster, 1865, Apr. 2. 

Fort Gaines, 1864, Aug. 5, 8. 

Fort Gibson, 1863, May 20, Dec. 17-19. 

Fort Gilmorf., 1864, Sept. 29. 

Fort Gray, 1864, Apr. 17. 

Fort Greenwood, 1863, Mar. 13. 

Fort Gregg, 1863, Sept. 6, 7. 

Fort Griffin, 1865, May 24. 

Fort Halleck, 1863, July 7; 1864, Apr. 6. 

Fort Harrison, 1864, Sept. 29. 

Fort Haskell, 1865, Mar. 25. 

Fort Hatteras, 1861, Aug. 29. 

Fort Henry, 1862, Feb. 6, 14. 

Fort Hicks, 1864, Mar. 25, 26. 

Fort Hill. 

Fort Hindman, 1863„Jan. 11. 

Fort Hodson, 1864, Sept. 28. 

Fort Holt, 1861, Sept. 20, Dec. 2. 

Fort Huger, 1865, Apr. 10. 

Fort Jackson, 1862, Apr. 14-28; 1S64, Dec. 21. 

Fort Jefferson, 1862, Jan. 11. 

Fort Johnson, 1861, Jan. 8; 1863, Sept. 3-, 

Oct. 10; 1864, July 2. 
Fort Kearney, 1861, Feb. 19. 
Fort Kelly, 1864, Nov. 28. 
Fort Lafayette. 
Fort Lee, 1864, Dec. 21. 
Fort Livingston, 1862, Apr. 27. 
Fort Lowry, 1863, Feb. 21. 
Fort Macon, 1862, Mar. 23, Apr. 12, 25, 26. 
Fort Magruder, 1863, Apr. 12. 
Fort Mannahasset, 1865, May 24. 
Fort McAllister, 1863, Jan. 27, Feb. 1, Mar. 

3; 1864, Dec. 10-13. 
Fort McCrae, 1861, Nov. 23. 
Fort McGilvery. 
Fort McHenry, — . 
Fort Meade. 
Fort Monroe, — . 
Fort Morgan, 1861, Jan. 4; 1864, Aug. 5,9, 

23, 26 ; — . 
Fort Modltrie, 1860, Dec. 26; 1861, Jan. 9, 

Apr. 12; 1863, Sept. 9, Oct. 6; 1865, Feb. 

18; — . 
Fort Myers, 1865, Feb. 20. 
Fort Negley. 

Fort Nelson, 1864, Oct. 11. 
Fort Oregon, 1861, Sept. 16. 
Fort Philip, 1862, Apr. 18-28. 
Fort Pickens, 1861, Sept. 14, Nov. 22, 23 ; 1862. 

Jan. 1 ; — . 
Fort Pillow, 1862, Apr. 14, May 10, 24, 27, 

June 4; 1864, Mar. 16, 25, Apr. 12; — . 
Fort Point, 1862, Oct. 4, 5. 
Fort Powell, 1864, Feb. 16, 26, Mar. 28, Aug. 

5; 1865, July. 
Fort Powhatan, 1863, July 14; 1864, May 24. 
Fort Polaski, 1S61, Jan. 3; 1862, Apr. 11. 



668 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



Fort Ridgeley, 1862, Aug. 20, 22, Sept. 4. 
Fort Saint Philip, 1862, Apr. 14-28. 
Fort Sadnders, 1863, Nov. 29-Dec. 1. 
Fort Scott, 1861, Sept. 2; 186Sy Oct. 6, 10; 

1864, Oct. 25. 
Fort Sedgewick, 1864, Nov. 5, 
Fort Simpkins, 1863, Sept. 30. 
Fort Smith, 1861, Apr. 25, May 4; 1863, Sept. 

1, 10, 19 ; 1864, June 26, Aug. 5. 
Fort Stanton, 1861,Aug. 29, Dec. 27. 
Fort Steadman, 1865, Mar. 25. 
Fort Stevens, 1864, July 11, 12. 
Fort Sumner, 1864, Jan. 4. 
Fort Sumter, 1861, Apr. 12-14*; 1863, Apr. 7, 

Aug. 17, 20, 22, Sept. 2S, 30, Oct. 9, 27, 31, 

Dec. 11; 1864, May 13, 14; 1865, Feb. 18, 

Apr. 14, — . 
Fort Totten. 

Fort Tracy, 1865, Apr. 10. 
Fort Wagner, 1863, July 10-18, 30, Aug. 17, 

Sept. 1-7; — . 
Fort Walker, 1861, Nov. 7. 
Fort Warren. 
Fort Welch, 1865, Apr. 2. 
Fort Wessell, 1864, Apr. 18. 
Fort White, 1865, Feb. 23. 
Fort Wright, 1862, Apr. 13, 14, May 10, June 5. 
Four-Mile Creek, 1864, June 21, July 28. 
Fourteen-Mile Creek, 1863, May 3. 
Fox Gap. 
Frankford, and Frankfort, 1861, June 26 ; 

1862, Sept. 12, Oct. 5-8, Nov. 25; 1864, 
June 10. 

Franklin, La., 1863, Apr. 15, Oct. 2; 1864, 

Dec. 15. 
Franklin, Tenn., 1862, Dec. 12; 1863, Feb. 1, 

Mar. 5, 25, Apr. 10, 27, May 12, June 4; 1804, 

Nov. 30, Dec. 17 ; — . 
Franklin, Va., 1862, Oct. 3, 31, Nov. 1, Dec. 2 ; 

1863, Mar. 17. 
Frazier's Farm. 

Frederick, 1862, Sept. 4-14 ; 1863, June 20, 21, 

26; 1864, July 8, 9. 
Fredericksburg, 1862, Apr. 18, Aug. 31, Nov. 
' 9, Dec. 11-16 ; 1863, May 1-5, Aug. 24 ; 1864, 

May 7 ; 1865, Mar. 6 ; — . 
Fredericktown, 1861, Aug. 16, Oct. 16, 21 ; 

1864, Sept. 24. 
Freeman's Ford, 1862, Aug. 22. 
Freestone, 1861, Sept. 25, Dec. 9, 29. 
Frick's Gap, 1863, Sept. 8. 

Frog's Gap. 

Front Royal, 1862, May 23-30- 1863, June 12, 

July 23 ; 1S64, Aug. 13, Nov. 12. 
Fulton, Mo., 1862, July 27. 
Funktown, 1863, July 11, 12. 

* First Engagement in the War of the Rebellion . 



G. 

Gadsden, 1863, May 3. 

Gaines' Cross Roads, and G. Landing, 1862, Nov. 

8; 1864, May 24, 25, 27. 
Gaines' Farm, and G. Mills, 1862, June 27. 
Gainesville, 1862, Aug. 29; 1863, Oct. 19; 

1864, Feb. 14. 

Gallatin, 1862, Feb. 23, Aug. 12, 21, Oct. 1, 19; 

1863, Nov. 16. 
Gallop's Island. 
Galveston, 1861, Aug. 2, 5; 1862, Oct. 4, 9; 

1863, Jan. 1, 10; 1865, June 2-5 ; — . 
Garnett's Hill. 

Garrettsburg, 1862, Nov. 11. 

Gatesville, N. C, 1862, May 29. 

Gatesville, Va., 1863, Feb. 22. 

Gauley, 1861, Sept. 10, Nov. 10 ; 1862, 

Sept. 11. 
Geiger's Creek, 1863, July 20. 
Genesis Point, 1863, Mar. 4. 
Georgetown, 1863, Dec. 11; 1864, June 3; 

1865, Feb. 23. 

Germania Ford, 1863, Nov. 18 ; 1865, May 4. 
Germantown, 1862, Feb. 7, June 25, Sept. 1, 

Nov. 1 ; 1863, Apr. 10. 
Gettysburg, 1863, June 26-July 3. 
Ghent, 1864, Sept. 8. 
Giles' Court House, 1862, May 7. 
Glade's Spring, 1S64, Dec. 15. 
Glasgow, 1861, Sept. 19; 1862, Oct. 5; 13CC. 

Oct. 5; 1864, Oct. 14. 
Glendale, 1862, June 30, July 1. 
Gloucester, 1862, May — , Nov. 17; 1863, Apr. 

12, May 7, 8, Sept. 3. 
Golding's Farm. 

Goldsboro', 1862, Dec. 17; 1865, Mar. 21, 22. 
Golgotha, 1864, June 15. 
Gonzales, 1864, July 20. 
Goodrich's Landing, 1863, June 29. 
Goose Creek, 1861, Oct. 22; 1862, Sept. 17; 

1864, Feb. 26. 

Gordon, Gordon's Landing, and Gordonsville, 
1862, July 17 ; 1863, Jan. 14, Feb. 14; 1864, 
June 12, Nov. 21, Dec. 23. 

GOSPORT. 

Grafton, 1861, May 27, 30, Aug. 13. 

Grahamsville, 1864, Nov. 30. 

Grand Coteau, 1863, Nov. 3. 

Grand Ecore, 1S64, Apr. 5-14; — . 

Grand Gulf, 1862, May 26, June 1, 8; 1863, Feb. 

24, Apr. 1, 29, May 3 ; 1864, July 17 ; — . 
Grand Haze, 1862, July 4. 
Grand Junction, 1862, June 9, July 28. 
Grand Prairie, 1862, July 6, Oct. 24. 
Grant's Pass, Creek, and Mills, 1863, Sept. 13; 

1864, Apr. 1, July; 1865, Mar. 9, Apr. 12. 
Grass Lick, 1862, Apr. 23. 
Gravelly Run, 1865, Mar. 29. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



669 



Grayson, 1862, Sept. 30. 

Greasy Creek, 1863, May 11. 

Great Bethel, 1861, June 10. 

Great Falls, and G. Run, 1861, July 7, Sept. 

4 ; 1862, Aug. 23. 
Green Hill, 1863, Apr. 6. 
Green River, 1861, Oct. 15, Dec. 12, 16; 1862, 

Feb. 1, Sept. 12; 1863, July 4; — . 
Green's Chapel, 1862, Dec. 25. 
Greenbrier, 1861, Oct. 3 ; 1863, Dec. 31. 
Greencastle, 1863, June 15, 20, July 1, 7. 
Greenland Gap, 1863, Apr. 26. 
Greensboro', 1864, Nov. 20. 
Greentown, 1864, June 1. 
Greenupsburg, 1862, Oct. 3. 
Greenville, 1863, Feb. 23, July 19, Oct. 28 ; 

1864, Sept. 4. 
Greenwich, 1863, May 30. 
Greenwood, 1863, Mar. 11-13. 
Gregg's Creek, 1863, July 20. 
Gregory's Landing, 1864, Dec. 6. 
Grenada, 1862, Dec. 2; 1863, Aug. 17. 
Greysville, 1863, Nov. 26. 
Grider's Hill. 

Grieger's Lake, 1862, Sept. 3. 
Grimball's, 1865, Feb. 15. 
Griswoldville, 1864, Nov. 23. 
Groveton, 1862, Aug. 29. 
Gum Swamp, 1863, May 22. 
Guntown, 1S64, June 10. 
Guy's Gap, 1863, June 24. 
Guyandotte, 1861, Nov. 10, 11. 

H. 

Hackett's Point, 1S62, Dec. 6. 

Hagerstown, 1862, Sept. 10-14, Oct. 10; 1863, 

June 14, 29, July 6-12; 1864, July 5-9. 
Haines' Bluff, 1862, Aug. 16-18, Dec. 27; 1863, 

May 18. 
Halifax Road, 1865, Mar. 29. 
Hall's Hill. 

Halltown, 1862, Nov. 9, 22, Dec. 20. 
Hamilton, 1862, July 9, Oct. 2, Nov. 4. 
Hampton, H. Bridge, and H. Creek, 1861, May 

23, Aug. 1, 8, Nov. 19. 
Hampton Roads. 
Hancock, 1862, Jan. 6, Oct. 10. 
Hanging Rock, 
Hannibal, 1861, July 10. 
Hanover, Ala., Aug. 27. 
Hanover, Pa., 1863, June 30. 
Hanover, H. Court House, H. Gap, and H. 

Junction, Va., 1862, May 29 ; 1863, June 24, 

29; 1864, May 26 ; — . 
Hanovertown, 1864, May 27-31. 
Hardeeville, 1864, Dec. 19. 
Hare's Hill, 1865, Mar. 25. 
Harper's Ferry, 1861, Apr. 21, June 29, July 4, 



Oct. 16, 18; 1862, Feb. 7, 24, May 30, Sept. 

12-18 ; 1863, June 16, July 3, Oct. 5-7 ; 1864, 

Jan. 4, July 3, 7 ; — . 
Harpeth Shoals, 1863, Jan. 13, 16; 1864, 

Oct. 11. 
Harrisburg, 1863, June 16, 28. 
Harrison, and H. Island, 1861, Oct. 21 ; 1863, 

July 13 ; — . 
Harrison's Landing, 1861, Oct. 21 ; 1S62, July 

80, Aug. 4. 
Harrisonburg, 1862, Apr. 22, May 6, June 6; 

1864, May 2. 
Harrisonville, 1861, July 18; 1862, Nov. S. 
Harrodsburg, 1862, Oct. 10. 
Hart's Island. 

Hartford, Ky., 1863, May 25. 
Hartsville, 1862, Dec. 7; 1863, Jan. 10, 11. 
Hartwood Church, 1863, Feb. 25, Aug. 27. 
Hatcher's Run, 1864, Oct. 27, Dec. 9; 1865, Feb. 

5, 6, Mar. 25, 30. 
Hatchie (The), 1862, July 24, Oct. 5. 
Hatteras, 1861, Aug. 29, Sept 8, 9 ; Oct, 5 , — . 
Hawes' Store, 1864, May 28. 
Hawesville, 1862, Oct. 10; 1865, Jan. 6. 
Hawk's Nest, 1861, Aug. 20. 
Haxall's Landing, 1864, July 26. 
Haymarket, 1862, Oct. 18 ; 1863, Oct. 20. 
Haynesborough, 1864, Dec. 3. 
Haynesville, 1861, July 1. 
Hazel Green, 1863, Feb. 23. 
Hedgesville, 1862, Oct. 22; 1863, Oct. 15. 
Helena, Ark., 1862, Aug. 11, 14, Oct. 11, 18, 

22, Dec. 5, 14; 1863, Feb. 17, July 4, 9; — . 
Helena, Ky., 1863, Apr. 20. 
Henderson, and H. Hill, 1862, Nov. 25; 1864, 

Mar. 14, 21, July 21 ; 1865, Jan. 6. 
Hernando, 1862, Aug. 28. 
Hertford, 1863, Aug. 15. 
Hickman, 1861, Sept. 4; 1863, July 15. 
Hickory Hill. 
High Bridge, 1865, Apr. 7. 
Hillsboro', and H. River, 1861, Oct. 8; 1863, 

Mar. 8, June 28; 1864, Feb. 14, 21, July 31. 
Hilton Head, 1861, Nov. 7 ; — . 
Hodgesville, 1861, Oct. 23. 
Holly Gap, 1S63, July 4. 
Holly River, 1862, Apr. 18, May 13. 
Holly Springs, 1862, June 17, Nov. 13, Dec. 

19, 20 ; 1863, Jan. 12, July 18. 
Holston River, 1863, Nov. 15, Dec. 3; 1864, 

Jan. 19. 
Honey Springs, and H. Hill, 1863, July 17; 

1864, Nov. 29, 30 ; 1865, Feb. 11. 
Hoover's Gap, 1863, July 3. 
Hopefield, 1863, Feb. 19. 
Hopkinsville, 1862, Aug. 16; 1864, Oct. 8, 

Dec. 13, 18. 
Horse Shoe, 1S63, May 9. 



670- 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC, 



Horton's Mills, 1862, Apr. 27. 

Houston, 1861, Nov. 4. 

Howe Cross Roads, 1865, Apr. 5. 

Howlett's House. 

Hudson, 1861, Dec. 20. 

Hudsonville, 1S62, Nov. 8. 

Humboldt, 1861, Sept.; 1862, July 29, Dec. 20. 

Humonville, 1862, Mar. 26. 

Hunnewell, 1862, Jan. 3. 

Hunter, 1861, Sept. 22. 

Hunter's Chapel, and H. Ford, 1861, Dec. 2; 

1863, Oct. IV. 
Hunterstown, 1863, July 2. 
Huntersville, 1861, Dec. 31; 1862, Jan. 4; 

1864, Sept, 30. 
Huntoon's Mills, 1863, Jan. 8. 
Huntsville, 1S61, Dec. 1; 1862, Apr. 11, Aug. 

31, Nov. 11, Dec. 7; 1863, July 17; 1864, 

Sept. 30, Oct. 2. 
Hurricane Bridge, and H. Creek, 1861, Oct. 

12; 1864, Aug. 13. 
Huttonsville. 
Hyattstown, 1862, Oct. 12. 

I. 

Iaton, 1861, June 3. 

Independence, 1862, Feb. 18, Mar. 22, Aug. 

11, 13. 
Indian River, 1862, Oct. 23, 28, Dec. 10. 
Indian Village, 1863, Jan. 27. 
Indianola, 1861, Apr. 17; 1862, Oct. 26; 1863, 

Dec. 2; 1864, Mar. 13. 
Ingham's Mills, 1863, Oct. 12. 
Iron Banks and Mount, 1861, Oct. 7. 
Ironton, 1861, Sept. 12, Oct. 15 ; 1864, Sept. 29. 
Irvine, 1863, July 16. 
Irwinsville, 1865, May 10, 11. 
Island Ford, 1864, July 18-20. 
Island Number Ten, 1862, Mar. 16, — ; Apr. 1-8, 

Oct. 17; 1863, Feb. 1 ; — . 
Isle of Wight Court House, 1862, Dec. 22. 
Iuka, 1862, Sept. 19, 20. 
Ivy Mountains. 



Jackson, Miss., 1863, May 14, June 16, July 

11-16 ; 1864, Feb. 5, July 5, Nov. 24. 
Jackson, Mo., 1863, Apr. 28. 
Jackson, N. C, 1863, Aug. 3 ; 1865, Mar. 8. 
Jackson, Tenn., 1862, Dec. 20; 1863, July 19. 
Jackson's River, 1863, Dec. 17. 
Jacksonville, 1862, Mar. 12, Apr. 9, Oct. 5; 

1863, Mar. 10, 27, 28; 1864, Feb. 5-9. 
James Bayou, 1861, Sept. 29. 
James Island, 1862, June 5-16; 1863, June 1, 

July 16 ; 1864, July 1 ; 1865, Feb. 10-15 ; — . 
James River, 1861, Dec. 2; 1862, Mar. 9, July 

3, Aug. 1 ; 1 864, June 1 ; — . 



Jarratt's Station, 1864, May 4. 

Jasper, 1864, June 4. 

Jefferson City, 1S61, June 14-17 ; 1864, 

Oct. 7, 8. 
Jenkins's Ferry, Ark. 
Jennie Creek, 1862, Jan. 7. 
Jericho Ford, 1864, May. 
Jerusalem Plank Road, 1864, June 22, Aug. o, 

Sept. 9, 28, Nov. 5. 
Jettersville, 1865, Apr. 3, 5. 
John's Island, 1864, July 1, 2, 9. 
Johnson's Island. 
Johnsonville, 1864, Nov. 2-5. 
Joiner's Bridge, 1862, Dec. 24. 
Jones's Ford, 1864, May 5. 
Jonesboro', 1864, Sept. 1, Nov. 14, 17. 
Jonesville, 1862, Dec; 1864, Jan. 3. 
Jordan's Road. 
Joy's Farm, 1864, Feb. 22. 
Jupiter Inlet, 1863, Jan. 5, 8< 

K. 

Kanawha, 1861. Aug. 20; — . 
Kansas City, 1861, Sept. 14, Nov. 20, 
Keawah Island, 1862, May 21, — . 
Keittsville, 1862, Feb. 26, Mar. 8. 
Kelley's Ford, 1862, Aug. 21; 1863, Mar. 17, 

Nov. 7. 
Kenansville, 1863, July 1, 7. 
Kenesaw Mountain, 1864, June 4-29, July 3, 

Oct. 5; — . 
Kernstown, 1864, Nov. 11. 
Kettle Run, 1862, Aug. 27; 1863, May 30. 
Key West ; — . 
Kinderhook, 1862, Aug. 11. 
King George Court House, 1862, Dec. 2, 7. 
King's Bay, 1862, Nov. 4. 
Kingsport, 1864, Dec. 13. 
Kingston, Ga., 1864, May 18, 20, Nov. 22 ; 1865, 

May 12. 
Kingston, Tenn., 1863, Sept. 2, Nov. 18. 
Kinston, 1862, Nov. 17, Dec. 12-14; 1863, Dec. 

14; 1864, June 21, Dec. 12; 1865, Mar. 8, 

11, 16; — . 
Kirksville, 1862, Aug. 7. 
Kittochin Mountains, — . 
Knob Noster. 
Knoxville, 1863, Sept. 1, 4, 10, Nov. 14, 15, 

17, Dec. 3, 4; 1864, Jan. 20, 21; — . 



Labadieville, 1862, Oct. 27. 
Labone Pass, 1865, May 25. 
Lafayette, 1863, Sept. 19, 20, Dec. 2, 4, 12, 28 ; 

1864, June 23-26. 
Lafourche, 1862, Oct. 27; 1863, June 20, 21, 

July 14. 
Lagrange, Ark., 1863, Jan. 3, May 1. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC 



671 



Lagrange, Miss., 1&62, Nov. 4. 

Lagrange, Tenn., 1862, Nov. 9, 11; 1864, 

Aug. 81. 
Lake City, and L. Station, 1864, Feb. 14, 21. 
Lake Erie, 1864, Sept. 19. 
Lake George, 1864, Mar. 18. 
Lake Harney, 1864, Mar. 18. 
Lake Providence, 1863, Feb. 4, June 10. 
Lamar, Kan., 1862, Aug. 24. 
Lamar, Miss., 1862, Nov. 11. 
Lamar, Mo., 1862, Nov. 5, 7. 
Lancaster, 1861, Nov. 24. 
Lanes', 1861, July 26; 1864, Aug. 21. 
Langville. 

Latonia Springs, 1862, Sept. 11. 
Lauderdale Springs, 1864, Feb. 14, 21. 
Laurel Hill, 1861, July 10, 11 ; 1865, Mar. 8. 
Lavacca, 1862, Nov. 1. 
Lavergne, 1862, Oct. 6, 7, Nov. 27, Dec 9 ; 

1863, Nov. 16. 
Lawrence, 1863, Aug. 20, 21. 
Lawrenceburg, 1862, Apr. 7, Oct. 9; 1863, 

Nov. 3, 4. 
Leatherwood, 1862, Nov. 6. 
Leavenworth, 1861, Nov. 2. 
Lebanon, Ala., 1864, Feb. 3. 
Lebanon, Ky., 1862, July 12; 1863, Jan. 1, 

July 5. 
Lebanon, Mo., 1861, Oct. 13; 1862, Mar. 12. 
Lebanon, Tenn., 1862, May 5, Nov. 11, Dec. 6; 

1863, Feb. 8, July 5. 
Lee's Mills, 1862, Apr. 16, 22. 
Leesburg, 1861, Oct. 21, 22; 1862, Mar. 7, May 

23, Sept. 17, Oct. 5, 13, 30, Nov. 20, Dec. 
11 ; — . 

Leestown, 1863, Aug. 21; 1864, Aug. 25. 

Leesville, 1862, Mar. 7. 

Legareville, 1863, Dec. 24. 

Leiper's Ferry, 1863, Oct. 30. 

Lennox, 1863, June 19. 

Lenoir, 1863, Nov. 14, 15. 

Lewinsville, 1861, Sept. 11, 25; 1863, Oct. 4. 

Lewisburg, 1862, May 23 ; 1863, Nov. 5, 7. 

Lexington, Ky., and Va., 1862, July 15, Sept. 1, 

Oct. 2, 7, 17, 18, Dec. 17; 1864, June 10. 
Lexington, Mo., 1861, Aug. 29, Sept. 10-29, 

Oct. 16; 1864, Oct. 17, 19. 
Lexington, S. C, 1865, Feb. 15. 
Lexington, Tenn., 1863, July 27. 
Liberty, La., 1864, Nov. 21. 
Liberty, Mo., 1861, Apr. 20, June 19. 
Liberty, Tenn., and L. Gap, 1863, Feb. 3, June 

24, 25. 

Liberty, and L. Mills, Va., 1863, Oct. 22 ; 1864, 

Dec. 22. 
Licktown, 1863, Feb. 25. 
Limestone Station, 1863, Sept. 9. 
Linden, Tenn., 1863, May 12. 



Linden, Va., 1862, May 15. 

Linn Creek, 1861, Oct. 14; 1862, Feb. 8. 

Lithington's Mills. 

Little Bethel, 1861, June 10. 

Little Black River, 1863,. May 28; — . 

Little Blue, 1861, Nov. 11, 27; 1862, Apr. 12; 

1864, Oct. 22; — . 
Little Osage, — . 
Little River, 1863, Jan. 5, Aug. 24; 1865, Feb. 

4, Apr. 9. 
Little Rock, 1862, May 31 ; 1863, Sept. 10. 
Little Run, 1862, Nov. 18. 
Little Salkahatchie, 1865, Feb. 5. 
Little Santa Fe, 1861, Nov. 6; 1S62, Apr. 21. 
Little Tennessee River, — . 
Little Washington, 1864, Apr. 28-30. 
Littletown, 1S63, June 16. 
Liverpool Heights, 1864, Mar. 5. 
Lockwood, 1864, Jan. 11. 
Locust Hill, and Grove. 
Logan's Cross Roads, 1862, Jan. 19. 
London, 1863, Oct. 30, Nov. 14, 17. 
Lone Jack, 1862, Aug. 16. 
Long Bridge, 1862, July 1. 
Longview, 1864, Mar. 26. 
Lookout Mountain, and Valley, 1863, July 7, 

Sept. 8, Oct. 27, 29, Nov. 3, 23-27 ; — . 
Lost Mountain, 1864, June 8 
Loudon, Tenn., 1863, Nov. 1, 14, 20. 
Loudon, Va., 1S61, Sept. 13, Oct. 18; 1864, 

Jan. 10. 
Louisville, 1862, Sept. 22-26 ; 1863, Nov. 28. 
Lovejoy's Station, 1864, Aug. 20, Nov. 14, 16. 
Lovettsville, 1861, Aug. 8 ; 1862, Oct. 21. 
Lowry's Point, 1862, Apr. 14. 
Lucas Bend, 1861, Sept. 10, 26. 
Luray, 1862, June 30, July 29; 1863, Dec. 23, 

24 ; 1864, Sept. 21, 24. 
Lynchburg, 1864, June 16, IS; 1865, Apr. 11. 
Lynn Haven, 1861, June 24, Oct. 9. 

M. 
Mackey's Point, 1862, Oct. 28. 
Mackintosh Creek. 
Macon, 1864, July 31, Nov. 20-22; 1865, Apr. 

20, 21. * 
Madison, and M. Court House, 1862, July 26; 

1563, Sept. 22.; 1864, Apr. 20, Nov. 19, Dec. 

21; — . 
Madisonville,1862, Aug. 26, Nov. 5. 
Magnolia, 1863, May 1 ; 1864, Mar. 21, 

July 11. 
Mairge's Heights, 1863, May 2-4 ; 1864, May 

3-8. 
Malvern Hills, 1862, July 1, 24, Aug. 5, 7. 
Mammoth Cave. 
Manassas — (Bull Run), 1861, July 21 ; 1862, Mar. 

10, Aug. 26, 30, Oct. 24; 1863, July 23. 



672 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



Manchac, 1862, June 18. 

Manchester, 1862, Aug. 29 ; 1863, Jan. 5, June 

26, July 3. 
Mansfield, 1864, Apr. 8. 
Marianna, 1862, Nov. 8 ; 1864, Sept. 27. 
Marias desCygnes, 1864, Oct. 27. 
Mariatown, 1861, Sept. 17. 
Marietta, 1 864, June 2, 27, July 3, Nov. 9. 
Marion, 1864, Feb. 14, 21, Dec. 16; 1865, 

Mar. 21. 
Markiiam's Station. 
Marriottsville, 1863, June 29. 
Marsh Run, 1863, July. 
Marshfield, 1862, Oct. 20, 
Martin's Creek, 1864, Feb. 8. 
Martinsburg, 1861, July 2, 15 ; 1862, Mar. 3, 

May 25, 31, Sept. 6, Oct. 1; 1863, June 14, 

Oct. 16; 1864, July 3, 20-28, Aug. 19, Sept. 

18; -. 
Mattox Creek, 1865, Mar. 16. 
Maryland Heights, 1S62, Sept. 13,15; 1S33, 

June 30, — ; 1864, July 4. 
Marye's Hill, 1863, May 3. 
Marysville, and Mary's Heights, 1863, Nov. 12. 
Mason's Hill, and Masonic Hill. 
Masonboro' Inlet, 1863, Jan. 16. 
Matagorda Bay, and Island, 1863, Nov. 27-30, 

Dec. 1. 
Matamoras, 1864, Sept. 6. 
Mattapony, 1862, Aug. 6; 1864, May 22 ; — . 
Matthias Point, 1861, June 24, 27, Nov. 11, — . 
Mayfield, 1861, Sept. 20; 1863, Nov. 2; 1864, 

Jan. 17. 
Maynardsville, 1863, Dec. 1, 2. 
Maysville, Ark., 1862, Oct. 22. 
Maysville, Ky., 1862, Sept. 11, 14. 
Maysville, Va., 1862, Oct. 31. 
McConnellsbtjrg, 1863, June 19, 24-29. 
McCormick's Gap. 
McCoy's Creek, and Mills, 1861, Nov. 14 ; 1862, 

Oct. 10. 
McDonough, 1864, Nov. 17. 
McDowell, 1862, May 7, 8. 
McLean's Ford, 1863, Oct. 13. 
McMinnsville, 1862, Mar. 26, Aug. 30; 1863, 

Apr. 22, May 24, Sept. 28, Oct. 3. 
McNeil's Ford, 1864, Feb. 4. 
Mechanicsburg, 1861, Sept. 23; 1863, June 28. 
Mechanicstown, 1863, July 5. 
Mechanicsville, 1862, May 24, June 25, 26. 
Meadow Bridge, 1864, May 12. 
Medon, 1862, Aug. 31. 
Memphis, Mo., 1862, July 13, 18. 
Memphis, Tenn., 1862, June 6, 7, Aug. 3 ; 1864, 

Feb. 21, Aug. 21 ; — . 
Mercersburg, 1862, Oct. 10. 
Meridian, 1864, Feb. 14. 



Merrill's Crossing, 1863, Oct. 12, 13. 
Merriwether's Ferry, 1862, Aug. 15. 
Mesilla, 1861, Aug. 3. 
Middle Creek, and M. Fork, 1861, July 6 ; 1862, 

Jan. 10. 
Middleburg, Miss., 1863, Dec. 21. 
Middleburg, Va. , 1862, Mar. 29 ; 1863, Jan. 26, 

Feb. 6, Apr. 29, June 18-21. 
Middlebury, 1863, Dec. 21. 
Middleton, 1863, Feb. 1, 2, May 21, 22. 
Middletown, Md., and Va., 1862, Sept. 9, 10, 11; 

1863, June 12, July 4; 1864, July 7, Oct. 19. 
Middletown, N. C, 1862, Nov. 1. 

Midway, 1865, Feb. 2. 

Milford, 1861, Dec. 18; 1864, May 21. 

Mill Creek Hill, 1861, Oct. 26; 1862, May 25. 

Mill Point, 1S63, Nov. 5. 

Mill Spring, 1862, Jan. 19, 20. 

Milledgeville; 1864, Nov. 20, 23. 

Millen, 1864, Nov. (Prison.) 

Milliken's Bend, 1862, Aug. 18; 1863, June 

6, 8 ; -. 
Millville, 1861, July 16. 
Millwood, 1863, Feb. 6. 
Milton, 1863, Mar. 20. 
Mine Creek, and M. Run, 1863, Nov. 27, 30; 

1864, May 5, Oct. 26. 

Mingo, and M. Swamp, 1862, Nov. 29; 1863, Feb. 3. 

Minor's Hill, 1861, Oct. 14. 

Missionary Ridge, and Mountains, 1863, Nov. 

23-27; — . 
Mississippi City, 1862, Mar. 8. 
Mississippi River, Sound, and Passes, 1861, 

Oct. 12, Nov. 12, Dec. 7 ; 1862, Apr. 4. — . 
Missouri River, — . 

Mitchell's Fork, and Creek, 1865, Mar. 26. 
Mobile, and M. Bay, and Harbor, 1861, May 27, 

Dec. 25 ; 1863, July 18 ; 1864, Aug. 5 ; 1865, 

Mar. 17, Apr. 14, — . 
Mobjack Bay, 1863, Apr. 25. 
Monet's Bluff. 

Monocacy, 1864, May, July 9; — . 
Monroe, 1861, July 10, 11. 
Montauk, 1864, Aug. 12. 
Monteith, 1864, Dec. 9. 
Monterey, Tenn., 1862, Apr. 28, 29, May 13. 
Monterey, Va., 1862, Apr. 8, 12; 1863, July 4. 
Montevalle, 1865, Mar. 29. 
Montgomery, 1862, June 11; 1865, Apr. 11,14. 
Monticello, Ky., 1863, May 1, 31, June 9. 
Monticello, Mo., 1862, Aug. 6; 1864, Mar. 30. 
Moore's Bluff, and M. Mill, 1862, July 28 ; 

1863, Sept. 29. 
Moore's Cross Roads, 1S65, Mar. 15. 
Moorefield, 1862, June 29, Nov. 9; 1863, Jan. 

3, Sept. 5, 11 ; 1864, Jan. 2, Feb. 4, Aug. 7; 

1865, Feb. 5; ■•-. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



6T3 



Morehead City, 1862, Mar. 23. 

Morgan's Bend, 1863, Sept. 7. 

Morganfield, 1862, Aug. 31. 

Morgantown, 1861, Oct. 81; 1862, Oct. 24; 

1863, Apr. 27 ; 1865, Apr. 20. 
Morganzia, 1863, Sept. 29, Oct. 4. 

Morris Ferry, and M. Farm, 1863, July 3 ; 

1865, Mar. 19. 
Morris Island, 1861, Jan. 9; 1862—, ; 1863, 

July 10, 18, Aug. 26, Sept. 6; — . 
Morristown, 1861, Sept. 17; 1863, Dec. 10,12; 

1864, Nov. 13. 

Morton's Ford, 1863, Nov. 15 ; 1864, Feb. 6. 

Moscow, 1863, Dec. 2, 4. 

Mosquito Inlet, 1862, Mar ; — . 

Mossy Creek, 1863, Dec. 29; 1864, Jan. 11, 

Oct. 15. 
Motley's Ford, 1863, Nov. 5. 
Mound City, 1863, Jan. 14, 15. 
Mount Airy, 1864, Dec. 14. 
Mount Crawford, 1864, June 5. 
Mount Elba, 1864, Mar. 30. 
Mount Jackson, 1862, Apr. 17, June 12; 1863, 

Nov. 18. 
Mount Olive, 1865, Mar. 21. 
Mount Pleasant, 1861, July 28; 1863, Mar. 30. 
Mount Sterling, 1S62, July 29; 1863, Feb. 23, 

Mar. 22, June 11, Dec. 2; 1864, June 9, 10; 

1865, May 1. 

Mount Vernon, 1863, Apr. 11. 

Mount Washington, 1862, Oct. 2. 

Mount Zion, 1S61, Dec. 28. 

Mountain Store, 1862, July 26. 

Mud Town, 1862, Feb. 24. 

Mulberry Fork, and M. Island, 1861, Dec. 2 ; 

1865, Mar. 29. 
Muldraugh's Hills, 1862, Dec. 28. 
Munfordsville, 1861, Dec. 17; 1862, Sept. 14- 

21, Dec. 24, 25; — . 
Munson's Hill, 1861, Aug. 31, Sept. 28 ; — . 
Murfreesboro', 1862, July 13, Dec. 23-31 ; 
•1863, Jan. 1-4, 21, Mar. 2, June 4; 1864, 

Sept. 1-3, Dec. 5-7, 13-15; — . 
Murray Hill 
Musquito Inlet, 1862, Mar. ; — . 

N. 
Nanna Hubba Bluff, 1865, May 9. 
Nansemond River, 1863, Apr. 14, 15, 30, May 

2; — • 
Napoleon, 1861, Apr. 23. 
Nashville, 1862, Feb. 23-25, Oct. 6, 22, Nov. 

5, Dec. 12, 21 ; 1864, Nov. 30, Dec. 10-19 ; — . 
Natchez, 1862, May 13, Sept. 1, 10; 1863, July 

7-12, 29; 1864, Jan. 23; — . 
Natchitoches, 1864, Mar. 18-30. 
Needham's Cut-off, 1862, Apr. 13. 
Nelson's Farm, 1862, June 30. 



Neosho, 1862, Apr. 26, May 29-31. 

Neuse River, — . 

New Albany, 1863, Oct. 5. 

New Baltimore, 1862, Nov. 3, 5. 

New Bridge, 1862, May 22, June 5, 28. 

New Creek, 1861, June 19; 1864, Feb. 1, Aug. 

4, Nov. 28. 
New Haven, 1862, Dec. 16. 
New Hope, and N. H. Church, 1862, July 1 1 ; 

1863, Oct. 8; 1864, May 28, 31. 
New Iberia, 1863, Apr. 13. 
New Inlet, — . 

New Kent, 1862, May 10; 1863, June 15. 
New Lawrence, 1863, Nov. 3. 
New Lisbon, 1863, July 26. 
New Madrid, 1862, Mar. 3, 13, Dec. 28. 
New Market, Ala., 1862, Aug. 5. 
New Orleans, 1862, Apr. 14-28, May, Dec. 14; — 
New River, N. C, — . 

New River, Va., 1861, Nov. 7 ; 1864, May 10. 
New Ulm, 1862, Aug. 
New Windsor, 1863, June 29. 
Newark, 1862, Aug. 1. 
Newbern, 1862, Mar. 14, Nov. 11; 1863, Feb. 

27, Mar. 8, 14; 1864, Feb. 1, 4, 7, 29, May 

10; 1865, Apr. 2; — . 
Newburg, 1862, July 18. 
Newmarket, 1861, July 19, Nov. 11, 12, 29, 

Dec. 22; 1862, Apr. 17, June 30, Sept. 11; 

1863, Nov. 18; 1864, Jan. 18, May 15, Sept. 

28-30, Oct. 7, Dec. 21 ; — . 
Newman, 1864, July 30. 
Newport News, 1S61, June 5, July 5, Dec. 2 ; 

1862, Mar. 9. 
Newport, Ky., 1862, Sept. 30. 
Newtonia, 1862, Sept. 30; 1864, Oct. 2S. 
Newtown, 1863, Oct. 4. 
Nickajack Trace, 1864, Apr. 23. 
Nineveh, 1864, Nov. 12. 
Nolensville, 1863, Feb. 15. 
Nonconnor, 1863, Apr. 19. 
Norfolk,Mo., 1861, Sept. 10. 
Norfolk, Va., 1861, Apr. 20, May 20; 1862, 

May 10; — . 
Norristown, 1864, Oct. 28. 
North Anna, 1862, July 23; 1864, May 19-24;— . 
North Branch, 1864, Feb. 2. 
North Fork, 1862, Nov. 9. 
North River Mills, 1862, Aug. 18. 
Nottoway, 1864, June 22, Dec. 8. 

O. 

Oak Grove, Hill and Woods, 1861, Aug. 10; 

1862, June 25 ; 1863, Nov. 25. 
Occoquan, 1861, Nov. 12; 1862, Jan. 28, Feb. 

4, 20, Mar. 8, Dec. 19, 20, 27 ; — . 
Ocean Pond, 1864, Feb. 20. 

OCMULGEE, . 



674 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC, 



Ocracoke, 1861, Sept. 16; — . 

Ohio River, — . 

Okolona, 1864, Feb. 15, 22, Apr. 3, Dec. 21. 

Olathe, 1861, Dec. 7; 1862, Sept. 6. 

Old Church. 

Old Fort Wayne, 1862, Oct. 22. 

Old River, 1863, Feb. 10. 

Old Town, 1864, Aug. 8. 

Olive Hill, 1862, Oct. 2. 

Olustee, 1864, Feb. 20, 21. 

Onslow, 1862, Nov. 23. 

Opelousas, 1863, Apr. 20, Oct. 21. 

Opequan, 1864, Sept. 19. 

Orange Court House, 1862, July 20, 25, Aug. 

1, 2 ; lS63,Nov. 27, 30; 1864, Feb. 6, May 4; 

1865, Feb. 5; — . 
Orangeburg, 1865, Feb. 11. 
Orizaba, 1862, Nov. 3. 
Orleans, 1863, June 11, 17. 
Osage River, 1862, Oct. 29 ; — . 
Osceola, 1861, Sept. 25. 
Ossabaw Sound, 1861, Dec. 11 ; 1863, Jan. 21 ; 

1864, June 2 ;— . 
Overall's Creek, 1864, Dec. 4. 
Overton's Hill, 1864, Dec. 16. 
Owensboro', 1862, Sept. 20; 1865, Jan. 6. 
Oxford, 1862, Dec. 3. 
Oyster Point, 1863, June 28. 
Ozark, 1862, Aug. 2. 



Faducah, 1861, Sept. 6; 1864, Mar. 25, 26, Apr. 

14 ; 1865, Mar. 22. 
Paine's Cross Roads, 1865, Apr. 5. 
Painesville, 1864, Apr. 13. 
Paintsville, 1862, Jan. 7. 10; 1864, Apr. 12. 
Palmetto Branch, and P. Station, 1864, July 

28; 1865, May 11. 
Palmyra, 1861, Nov. 17; 1862, Sept. 13; 1S63, 

Apr. 4, Nov. 13. 
Pamlico Sound, 1862, Feb. 7, 8 ; — . 
Pamunkey River, 1862, May 18, June 14; 1863, 

July 1; 1864, May 29; — . 
Panola, 1863, June 24. 
Panther Gap, and Springs, -1864, Mar. 5, 

Nov. 13. 
Paoli, 1863, June 17. 
Papinsville, 1861, Sept. 21, Dec. 13. 
Parata, 1862, Apr. 23. 
Paris, Ky., 1862, July 30, Sept. 1, 15; 1863, 

Mar. ] 1, July 29, 31 ; 1864, June 8. 
Paris, Tenn., 1862, Feb. 12, Mar. 12; 1863, 

Sept. 13. 
Paris, Va., 1862, Oct. 13; 1863, July 29, 31. 
Parker's Cross Roads, 1862, Dec. 30, 31. 
Parkersburg, 1861, May. 
Parksville, 1864, July 8. 
Pascagoula, 1863, Apr. 9; 1864, Dec. 15. 



Pasquotonk River, 1863, Aug. 15, Sept. 29. 

Pass a L'Outre, 1863, Apr. 6. 

Pass Cabello, 1863, Nov. 30, Dec. 1. 

Pass Christian, 1862, Apr. 4. 

Patten, 1862, July 26. 

Patterson, and P.'s Creek, 1861, June 26; 1863, 

Apr. 20; 1864, Jan. 2, Feb. 2. 
Pattersonyillb, 1863, Jan. 14, Apr. 1. 
Paw Paw, 1862, Oct. 4. 
Paxton's Cut. 

Pea Ridge, 1862, Mar. 5-9, Apr. 24. 
Pea Vine Creek, 1863, Nov. 26. 
Peach Orchard, and P. Hill, 1862, June 29; 

1864, Apr. 8. 
Peach Tree Creek, 1864, July 18-20. 
Peeble's Farm, 1864, Sept. 30. 
Pelham, 1863, July 1. 
Peninsula (The), — . 
Pensacola, 1861, Jan. 12, Sept. 14, Nov. 22, 23 ; 

1862, Jan. 1, May 9, 12, Oct. 28; — . 
Perryville, 1862, Oct. 7, 8; 1863, Aug. 25, 

Sept. 19; 1864, Sept. 3. 
Petersburg, Tenn., 1863, Mar. 2. 
Petersburg, Va., 1861, Sept. 12; 1864, Jan. 30, 

May 9, June 10, 15-July 30 ; 1865, Mar. 29, 

30-Apr. 3 ; — . 
Pettie's Mills, 1863, May 5. 
Philadelphia, Tenn., 1863, Oct. 21, 24-26. 
Philippi, 1861, June 3, 19. 
Phillip's Creek, 1862, May 21. 
Philomont, 1862, Nov. 1, 2; 1863, June 18; 

1864, Feb. 20. 
Piankatank River, 1864, Mar. 7. 
Piedmont, 1861, June 19; 1862, Nov. 3; 1863, 

May 16; 1864, June 5, Oct. 13. 
Pig Point, 1861, June 5; 1862, June 1. 
Piketon, 1861, Nov. 8, 9; 1862, Nov. 5; 1863, 

July 16. 
Pikeville, 1862, Sept. 6; 1863, Apr. 15. 
Pilatka, 1864, Mar. 10. 
Pilot Knob, 1864, Sept. 26. 
Pinckney Island, 1862, Aug. 21; — . 
Pine Barren Ridge, 1864, Nov. 10. 
Pine Bluff, and P. Mountain, 1863, Sept. 11, 

Oct. 25; 1864, Apr. 25, June 15, 21; 1865, 

May 10. 
Pine Hook, 1864, Dec. 26. 
Pinesville, 1862, Mar. 5; 1863, Aug. 15. 
Piney Factory, and P. Woods, 1863, Oct. 30; 

1864, Mar. 31. 
Pinola, 1863, June 28. 
Pittman's Ferry, 1862, Oct. 28, Nov. 2. 
Pittsburg Landing, 1862, Mar. 2, 16, Apr. 

4-9; — . 
Plantersville, 1865, Mar. 21. 
Plaquemine, 1862, Nov. 29; 1863, Jan. 27. 
Platte City, 1861, Dec. 15. 
Piattsburg, 1861, Oct. 27 ; 1863, May 21. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



675 



Pleasant Grove, Hill, and Valley, 1861, Nov. 

17 ; 1862, July 11, Sept. 9 ; 1864, Apr. 1, 7, 9. 
Plymouth, 1862, Sept. 2, Dec. 10; 1864, Apr. 

14-20, Oct. 31. 
Po. 
Pocahontas, Ark., 1862, Apr. 12; 1863, Aug. 

18, 25. 
Pocahontas, Miss., 1863, June 18, Dec. 2. 
Pocataligo, 1862, May 29, Oct. 22; 1864, Dec. 

6; 1865, Jan. 14. 

POCOMAKE. 

Pohick Church, 1861, Oct. 4. 

Point Isabel, 1863, Nov. 5. 

Point Lick, 1862, Oct. 23. 

Point Lookout, 1861, June 28. 

Point of Rocks, 1861, Aug. 5, Sept. 24, Nov. 14, 

Dec. 19 ; 1863, June 17; 1864, July 4; — . 
Point Pleasant, 1862, Mar. 9, 14 ; 1863, Mar. 25. 
Point Rock River, 1863, Aug. 12. 
Pollard, 1864, Dec. 16; 1865, Mar. 25. 
Pollocksville, 1863, Jan. 17. 
Pomeroy, 1863, July 20. 
Ponchatoula, 1862, Sept. 15; 1863, Mar. 24, 

May 13. 
Pontotoe, 1864, Feb. 13, July 11, 13. 
Poolesville, 1862, Sept. 4, 8, Oct. 12, Nov. 25, 

Dec. 14; 1863, June 11, Aug. 14 ; 1864, Oct. 14. 
Poplar Springs Church, 1864, Sept. 30. 
Poudosin Bay. 
Poralto, 1862, Apr. 15. 
Port Conway, 1S63, Sept. 2. 
Port Gibson, 1863, May 1. 
Port Hudson, 1862, Dec. 12 ; 1863, Mar. 9, 14, 

May 8, 10-27, June 11, 14, July 8; 1864, 

July 5 ; — . 
Port Republic, 1862, June 8, 9. 
Port Royal, 1861, Nov. 7, Dec. 8; 1862, Jan. 

], 5, Dec. 4, 10; 1863, Apr. 22, Sept. 1 ; 1864, 

Mar. 19; — . 
Port Walthal Junction, 1864, May 16. 
Portland, Mo., 1862, Aug. 8. 
Portland Harbor, Me., 1863, June 27. 
Portsmouth, Va., 1861, Apr. 20. 
Potomac River and Shores, — . 
Potosi, 1861, May 15, Oct. 15. 
Pound Gap, 1662, Mar. 16. 
Powder Mill, 1864, Sept. 19. 
Powell's Valley. 
Powhatan, 1862, June 27. 
Prairie de Anna, and Prairie Grove, 1862, 

Dec. 7; 1864, Apr. 17. 
Preble's Farm, 1864, Sept. 30. 
Prentiss, 1862, Sept. 20. 
Prestonburg, 1861, Nov. 5; 1862, Jan. 11. 
Price's Hill, and Landing, 1861, Nov. 18. 
Princeton, Ark., 1863, Dec. 9. 
Princeton, Ky., 1862, Dec. 3; 1864, June 10. 
Princeton, Va., 1862, May 18. 
42 



Pritchard's Mills, 1861, Sept. 15. 

Proctor's Bridge, and Creek. 

Providence Church, 1863, Jan. 9. 

Pulaski, 1862, May 1 ; 1S63, Dec. 25 ; 1864, 

Sept. 26, Dec. 18. 
Pumpkinvine Creek, 1864, May 25, 28. 
Pungo Creek, and River, 1862, Nov. 1 ; 1863, 

July 5 ; — . 
Purdy, 1862, Apr. 27-30. 
Putnam's Ferry, 1862, Apr. 1, Oct. 27. 

Q. 

Quaker Bridge, Q. Church, and Q. Road, 1863, 

July 6; 1864, June 17; 1865, Mar. 29 
Quallatown, 1864, Feb. 7. 
Quantico, 1861, Oct. 11. 
Quitman, 1864, Feb. 14, 21. 

R. 

Raccoon Ford, 1863, Oct. 8, Nov. 15. 

Rainbow Bluff. 

Raleigh, 1865, Apr. 13, 26. 

Randolph, 1862, Sept. 23. 

Rapidan Bluffs, River, and Station, 1862, July 

13 ; 1863, Sept. 14, Nov. 26, Dec. 1 ; — . 
Rappahannock River, and Station, 1861, June 

24; 1862, Aug. 21-23, Nov. 8 ; 1863, Jan. 22, 

June 5, Oct. 24, Aug. 1, 4, Nov. 7 ; — . 
Rattlesnake Mountain. 
Ravenna, 1864, Feb. 28. 
Ravenswood, 1862, Sept. 4. 
Rawle's Mills. 
Raymond, 1863, May 12. 
Ready Creek, 1862, May 13. 
Readyville, 1862, Aug. 28; 1864, Sept. 7. 
Ream's Station, 1864, June 28, 29, Aug. 18, 19, 

25; 1865, Mar. 22. 
Red Mound, 1863, Jan. 1. 
Red River, 1863, Feb. 8, July 14, Oct. 1, Dec. 

23 ; 1864, Apr. 12 ; 1865, June 3 ; — . 
Reelsville, 1862, Aug. 11. 
Reeves' Point, and R. Station, 1863, Apr. 20 ; 

1865, Jan. 16. 
Reisterstown, 1863, June 29; 1864, July 10. 
Relay House 1 , 1861, May 6. 
Renick, 1861, Nov. 1. 
Resaca, 1864, May 13-15, Oct. 12. 
Reynolds' Ford, 1862, Sept. 23. 
Rice's Station. 
Rich Inlet, and R. Mountain, 1861, July 11; 

1863, Sept. 23. 
Richmond, Ky., 1862, July 27, Aug. 29, 30; 

1863, July 28. 
Richmond, La., 1863, June 15. 
Richmond, Miss., 1863, Mar. 30, June 16v 
Richmond, Mo., 1863, May 19. 
Richmond, Va., siege and investment, 1861- 

1865, Apr. 3 ; — . 



676 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



Ridgeville, Va., 1862, Sept. 11, Oct. 29. 
Rienzi, 1862, Aug. 19, Nov. 27 ; 1863, July 11 ; 

1864, June 7. 
Riker's Island. 
Ringgold, 1862, Dec. 14; 1863, Sept. 10, Nov. 

27, 30; 1864, Jan. 31, Feb. 21, 22, Oct. 15. 
Rio Grande, — . 
Rip Raps, — . 

Ripley, Miss., 1862, Nov. 3, Dec. 2 ; 1864, July 1. 
Ripley, Tenn., 1863, Jan. 8, June 18. 
Ripley, Va., 1861, Dec. 19; 1862, Sept. 14. 
Roanoke Island, and River, 1862, Feb. 7, 8; 

1864, May 5; — . 
Robertson's Ford, and River, 1863, Oct. 10, 11. 
Rochefort, 1863, May 30, June 1, 2. 
Rock Creek, and Springs, 1863, July 2. 
Rockford, 1863, Nov. 14. 
Rockville, 1863, June 28, Sept. 22; 1S64, 

July 10. 
Rocky-faced Ridge, 1864, Feb. 24 ; May 8, 14. 
Rocky Crossing, and R. Gap, 1863, June 18, 

Aug. 26, 30. 
Rocky Hill, 1863, July 4. 
Rocky Mount, 1863, July 22. 
Rodman's Point, 1863, Apr. 4. 
Rogersville, Ala., 1862, May 13. 
Rogersville, Ky., 1862, Aug. 29, 30. 
Rogersville, Tenn., 1863, Nov. 6; 1864, Aug. 22. 
Rolla, 1864, Sept. 27. 
Rolling Fork- 
Rome, Ga., 1864, Feb. 8, May 18, 20, Oct. 12. 
Rome, Tenn., 1863, Mar. 26. 
Romnky, 1861, June 11, 26, Sept. 23, Oct. 26; 

1862, Jan. 8, Feb. 7; 1863, Feb. 16; — . 
Rood's Hill, 1864, Nov. 22. 
Rose Hill. 

Rosewell, 1864, July 10. . ; 

Rossville, 1863, Sept. 19-21, Nov. 23-25 ; 1864, 

Apr. 6. 
Rough and Ready, 1864, Aug., Nov. 16. 
Round Top Mountain, 1864, Oct. 9. 
Rover, 1863, Jan. 31, June 28. 
Rowanty, 1865, Feb. 5, Mar. 30. 
Rumsey, 1861, Nov. 17. *• 

Rural Hills, 1S62, Nov. 18. 
Russellville, and Russell's House, 1862, Feb. 

20, May 17, July 29, Sept. 30. 
Rutherford's Creek, 1863, Mar. 10. 
Rutledge, 1864, Nov. 18, 19. 



Sabine City, and Cross Roads, 1862, Oct. 17 ; 

1864, Apr. 8. 
Sabine Pass, 1862, Sept. 25 ; 1863, Jan. 21, Apr. 

3, 18, Sept. 8, 12; 1S64, May 24; 1865, May 

25-27; — . 
Sacramento, 1861, Dec. 28. 
Sailor's Creek, 1865, Apr. 6. 



Saint Alban's. 

Saint Andrew's Bay, and Sound ; — . 

Saint Augustine, 1862, Mar. 12, 21. 

Saint Catherine's, 1863, July 29 ; 1864, Jan. 15. 

Saint Charles, Ark., 1862, June 13, 17. 

Saint Charles, Mo., 1864, June 27. 

Saint Cloud. 

Saint Francis's River, 1862, Nov. 29. 

Saint George. 

Saint John's, Fla., and St. J.'s River, 1862, 

Sept. 17, Oct. 3 ; 1864, Apr. 16, May 23 ; — . 
Saint John's, N. B., 1863, Dec. 6. 
Saint Joseph's, 1861, Sept. 13; 1862, May 5. 
Saint Louis, 1861, Apr. 25, May 11. 
Saint Mark's, 1864, Jan. 18, Feb. 20, 27, Mar. 1. 
Saint Mary's, and St. M. River, 1862, Mar. 6, 

Oct. 26, Nov. 9 ; 1864, June 22 ; — . 
Salatia, 1864, Feb. 5. 
Salem, Ark., 1862, Mar. 16, 18. 
Salem, Ind., 1863, July 10. 
Salem, Miss., 1863, Oct. 8. 
Salem, Mo., 1861, Dec. 3; 1863, Sept. 12, 13. 
Salem, Tenn., 1863, Mar. 2; 1865, Mar. 13. 
Salem, Va., 1862, Nov. 5, 21; 1863, Apr. 29, 

Dec. 15-18; 1865, Mar. 12. 
Salineville, 1863, July. 
Salisbury, N. ft, 1865, Apr. 12; — . (Prison.) 
Salisbury, Tenn., 1862, Aug. 11. 
Salkahatchie, 1865, Jan. 24, Feb. 3. 
Salt Fork, and S. Lick, 1863, Oct. 12, 13. 
Saltpetre Cave, 1864, Feb. 3. 
Saltville, 1864, Oct. 2, Dec. 20. 
Saluria, 1861, Apr. 25. 
Sambro Harbor, N. S., 1863, Dec. 17. 
Sanderson, 1864, Feb. 20, 21. 
Sandersville, 1864, Nov. 26. 
Sandy Hook, and River, 1864, Aug. 11-13. 
Sangster's, 1863, Dec. 17. 
Santa Fe, 1861, Nov. 6; 1862, Apr. 21. 
Santa Rosa Island, 1861, Oct. 9. 
Santee. 

Saratoga, 1861, Oct. 26. 
Sartatia. 

Sartoria, 1863, June 4. 
Saulsbury, 1863, Dec. 2. 
Savage's Station, 1862, June 29. 
Savannah, Ga., 1861, May 28; 1864, Dec. 

10-21 ; — . 
Savannah, Tenn., 1862, Apr. 16. 
Savannah River, 1862, Jan. 28 ; — . 
Scarey Creek, Hill, and Town, 1861, July 17. 
Scattersville, 1862, July 10. 
Scotland, 1863, June 11. 
Scottsville, 1864, Jan. 28. 
Seabrook, and S. Island, 1862, June, 1 ; 1864, 

July 1 ; — . 
Searcey, 1862, May 17. 
Seared Mountain. 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC, 



677 



Secessionville, 1862, June 16. 

Sedalia, 1864, Oct. 15. 

Selina, 1863, Apr. 18. 

Selma, 1865, Apr. 2. 

Semmesport, 1864, Mar. 13, 14. 

Senatobia, 1863, May 25. 

Seneca, and S. Mills, and Station, and Creek, 

1861, June 14, Sept 20; 1863, Mar. 21, June 
11, Sept. 15. 

Seven Pines, 1862, May 29-31. 
Setierville, 1864, Jan. 15, 27. 
Sewall's Point, 1861, May 19, Dec. 29; 1862, 

May 8 ; — . 
Shady Grove, and S. Springs, 1862, Aug. 28 ; 

1864, May 5. 
Shallotte, and S. Inlet, 1862, Oct. 22; 1865, 

Feb. 8. 
Shanghai, 1861, Sept. 27. 
Shannondale. 

Sharpsbcrg, Ky., 1863, Oct. 18. 
Sharpsbcrg, Md., 1861, Dec. 11 ; 1862, Sept. 

14, 15, 17, 29; 1863, July 10. 
Shawnee Mound, and Town, 1861, Dec. 17; 

1862, Oct. 18; 1863, June 6; 1864, Aug. 13. 
Sheff's Mountain, 1862, May 24. 
Shelbina, 1861, Sept. 4. 

Shelburke, 1862, Sept. 15. 

Shelby Farm, 1862, Aug. 25, Oct. 23. 

Shelbyville, Ky., 1862, Oct. 1. 

Shelbyville, Tenn., 1863, Jan. 31, June 4, 24, 

26, Oct. 6. 
Shell Mound, 1863, Aug. 23. 
Shenandoah, (The,) — . 
Shepherdstown, 1861, Sept. 13; 1862, Sept. 23, 

Oct. 1, 16, Nov. 25; 1863, July 16, 17. 
Shepherdsville, 1862, Sept. 7, 21. 
Sherwood, 1863, May 18. 
Shiloh, 1862, Mar. 2, 16, Apr. 6, 7; — . 
Ship Island, 1861, May 22, Sept. 16, Dec. 4 ; — . 
Ship's Gap, 1864, Oct. 16. 
Shippensburg, 1863, June 24. 
Shipping Point, 1861, Dec. 9; 1862, Mar. 24, 28, 

Apr. 6, Sept. 30. 
Shirley's Ford, 1862, Sept. 20. 
Shorter Hill. 

Shreveport, 1864, Mar. 16, Apr. 7-9. 
Shuter's Hill. 

Sibley's Landing, 1862, Oct. 7; 1863, Mar. 28. 
Sikeston, 1862, Feb. 28. 
Silver Creek, 1S62, Jan. 8. 
Simmsport, 1863, June 3, 4; 1864, Mar. 14. 
Simon's Bluff, 1862, June 21. 
Sinking Creek, 1862, Nov. 25. 
Sister's Ferry, 1864, Dec. 7 ; 1865, Jan. 30. 
Six-Mile Station, 1864, Aug. 18, 19. 
Skeet, 1863, Mar. 4. 
Skjdaway Island, 1862, Mar. 25. 
Skipwith Landing, 1865, Jan. 8. 



Slate Creek, 1863, June 11. 

Slater's Mills, and Slaterville, 1862, May 7, 9. 

Slaughtersville, and Slaughter's Mountain, 

1862, Aug. 9, Sept. 3. 
Smith's Island, 1863, Aug. 3; 1865, Jan. 16. 
Smithfield, 1S62, Mar. 6; 1863, Feb. 13, Sept. 

15; 1864, Feb. 1, Apr. 12, Aug. 26-28 ; 1S65, 

Mar. 19; — . 
Smithland, 1861, Sept. 25 ; 1864, Jan. 21. 
Smithsburg, 1863, July 4. 
Smithville, 1862, June 18; 1865, Jan. 16. 
Smyrna, 1863, July 26. 
Snake Creek Gap, 1864, May 9, Oct. 15. 
Snicker's Ferry, and S. Gap, 1862, Oct. 13, 27, 

Nov. 2, 29; 1864, July 17-20, Aug. 13; — . 
Snowhill, 1863, Apr. 2. 
Snyder's Bluff, 1863, May 21. 
Social Circle, 1864, Nov. 18. 
Somerset, 1862, Jan. 19; 1863, Mar. 30, May 28. 
Somerville, 1862, May 7 ; 1863, Mar. 29. 
South Anna, 1863, June 28 ; 1 864, May 19-26; — . 
South Fork, 1862, Nov. 9; 1864, Feb. 4, 13. 
South Mills, 1862, Apr. 15, 19, Sept. 4. 
South Mountain, 1862, Sept. 14; 1863, June 

21 ; -. 
South Quay, and S. Shoal, 1863, Apr. 17, May 

1, June 20. 
Southside Railroad, — . 
Southwest Creek, and So. W. Mountain, 1862, 

Aug. 9, Dec. 13 ; — . 
Southwest Pass, 1861, Oct. 11 ; 1862, Jan. 23;—. 
Spanish Wells, and S. Fort, 1863, Mar. 13; 

1865, Mar. 27, Apr. 8. 
Sparta, 1862, Apr. 19, Aug. 4; 1863, July 19, 

Nov. 26. 
Spoonvii.le, 1864, Apr. 2. 
Sporting Hill, 1863, June 28, 30. 
Spottsylvania, 1863, Apr. 30; 1864, Feb. 28, 

May 7-13, 18 ; — . 
Spring Hill, 1863, Mar. 5; 1864, Nov. 29. 
Springfield, 1861, Aug. 5, 10, Oct. 25; 1862, 

Feb. 12, 13; 1863, Jan. 7, 8, Mar. 4; 1864, 

Feb. 2 ; — . 
Stafford Court House, 1862, Apr. 2. 
Staley's Creek, 1864, Dec. 17. 
Stanford, 1862, Oct. 14 ; 1863, July 81. 
Stannardsville, 1864, Feb. 29. 
Statisborough, 1864, Dec. 4. 
Staunton, 1862, Apr. 26, May 9, June 21 ; 1864, 

June 6-10, 24, Sept. 26; 1865, Mar. 2 ; — . 
Steubenville, 1863, Apr. 28. 
Stevens, and S. Gap, 1862, Apr. 12; 1863, 

Sept. 8. 
Stevensburg, 1863, Nov. 8. 
Stevenson, 1862, Sept. 1 ; 1863, Aug. 30. 
Stewart's Creek, and S. Landing, 1862, Dec. 

29, 30; 1864, Aug. 20. 
Stockton, 1862, Aug. 9. 



678 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



Stone Bridge, and River, 1861, July 21 ; 1862, 

Dec. 30, 31 ; 1S63, Jan. 1, 2, 30, May 9 ; — . 
Stono River, and Inlet, 1863, Dec. 25; — . 
Stone Mountain, 1864, Oct. 26. 
Stony Creek, and Point, 1862, Apr. 2; 1864, 

May 5, June 28, Dec. 1 ; — . 
Strasburg, 1862, Mar. 13, 27, May 21, June 2 ; 

1S63, Feb. 26, Apr. 22; 1864, Oct. 9, 12, 

19; — . 
Straw Hill, 1863, Feb. 23. 
Strawberry Plains, 1864, Jan. 10-18, Feb. 20, 

Aug. 14. 
Sturgeon, 1862, Sept. 22. 
Suffolk, 1862, May 13, 18, Dec. 28; 1863, Jan. 

30, Apr. 13-24, May 15, 16, July 3. 1S64, 

Mar. 10 ; — . 
Sugar Creek, 1862, Feb. 17, Mar. 6. 
Sugar Loaf Mountain, and S. Valley, 1864, 

May 13; 1862, Sept. 10; — . 
Sullivan's Island, — . 
Sulphur Springs, 1862, Aug. 23, 24; 1S63, 

Nov. 8; 1864, Aug. 11. 
Summerset Knob. 
Summersville, Va., 1861, Aug. 10, 26, Sept. 10; 

1862, July 24; 1863, Feb. 9, Nov. 15 ; 1864, 

Apr. 2. 
Summerville, Miss., 1862, Nov. 26; 1863, Dec. 21. 
Summerville, Tenn., 1863, Dec. 25. 
Summit Point, 1864, Aug. 21. 
Sumter, 1865, Apr. 9. 
Surrey Court House, 1864, Sept. 24. 
Sutherland's Station, 1865, Apr. 3. 
Sutton, 1862, Jan. 9, Sept. 23. 
Suwanee River, — . 
Swallow's Bluff, 1863, Sept. 13. 
Swanquarter, 1862, Nov. 1 ; 1863, Nov. 4. 
Swansboro', 1862, Aug. 13. 
Swift Creek. 

Sycamore Church, 1864, Sept. 16. 
Sykesville, 1863, June 29. 



Tah-kah-o-kuty Mountain, 1864, Aug. 7. 
Tallahatchie, 1862, Dec. 1 ; 1863, Mar. 13; — . 
Tampa Bay, 1862, June 30, Nov. 3 ; 1863, May 

8, Oct. 16; — . 
Tangipaiio, 1864, Dec. 1. 
Tappahannock, 1863, Feb. 25, May 30. 
Tarboro', 1862, Nov. 4. 
Tarkeytown, 1864, Oct. 28. 
Taylor's Ford, and T. Ridge, and Bayou, and 

Creek, 1861, Nov. 10; 1862, Oct. 15; 1864, 

Feb. 23; 1865, Mar. 16. 
Taylorsville, 1864, May 24. 
Tazewell, 1862, Aug. 5,6, 9; 1864, Jan. 26, 

May 7. 
Teche, 1863, Nov. 3. 
Tebb's Bf.nd, 1863, July 4. 



Telford, (see Tilford.) 

Tenallytown, 1864, July 11. 

Tennessee River, — . 

Tensas River, — . 

The Hatchie, — . 

The Wilderness, 1863, May 1-5; 1864, May 

3-10; 1865, — . 
Thibodeaux, 1862, Oct. 28; 1863, June 23, 24. 
Thomas's Station, 1864, Nov. 28, Dec. 3. 
Thompson's Hill, and Station, 1863, Mar. 4, 

May 1. 
Thornton's Gap. 
Thoroughfare Gap, and Mountain, 1862, Apr. 

2, Oct. 17, 30, Nov. 3 ; 1863, May 29, Sept. 

22; — . 
Three-Mile Station, 1864, Jan. 14. 
Tickfau 1863, May 10. 
Tiger Creek, 1864, Apr. 29. 
Tilford, 1863, Sept. 9. 
Tilton, 1861, July; 1864, Oct. 12. 
Tiptonsville, 1864, Feb. 17. 
Tono's Tavern, 1S64, May 7, 8. 
Tolanda, 1863, Oct. 29. 
Tolopotomy, 1864, May 31. 
Tom Brook, 1864, Oct. 9. 
Tom Creek, 1865, Feb. 20. 
Tombigbee River, — . 

Tompkinsville, 1862, July 7 ; 1863, Apr. 22. 
Toney's Creek. 
Tortugas. 

Tracy City, 1864, Jan. 20. 
Tranter's Creek, 1862, June 5. 
Trent River, 1863, July 6. 
Trenton, N. C, 1862, May 14. 
Trenton, Tenn., 1862, Aug. 7, Dec. 20; 1863, 

Jan. 30, Sept. 8. 
Trevillian, 1864, June 11, 12. 
Trinity, 1862, July 24. 
Triplett's Bridge, 1863, June 16. 
Triune, 1863, June 4, 9, 11 ; 1864, Sept. 3. 
Tullahoma, 1863, June 25, July 1, Oct. 23. 
Tunica Bend, 1864, June 15. 
Tunisville, 1864, Jan. 14. 
Tunnel Hill, 1863, Nov. 23-25; 1864, Jan. 28, 

Feb. 8, 26, May 7 ; — . 
Tupelo, 1863, May 6 ; 1864, July 13. 
Turkey Bend, and T. Island, and T. Roost, 

1862, July 1, 20; 1864, May 6, Dec. 5. 
Tuscaloosa, 1865, Apr. 4. 
Tuscon, 1862, June 7. 
Tuscumbia, 1862, Dec. 4, 13 ; 1863, Feb. 22, Apr. 

24, Oct. 26. 
Tybee Island, 1S61, Nov. 24; — . 

U. 
Union, and IT. Church, 1862, June 8, Nov. 2. 
Union City, 1862, Mar. 30 ; 1864, Mar. 24. 
Union Mills, 1861, July 21; 1862, Aug. 20. 



; 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



679 



Unionviile, 1863, Mar. 7. 

Upperville, 1863, June 21, Sept. 25, Nov. 3; 

1864, Feb. 26. 
Upton's Hill, 1861, Sept. 28, Oct. 12. 
Urbana, 1861, Nov. ; 1862, Apr. 14, Nov. 26. 



Valverde, 1862, Feb. 21. 

Van Buren, 1862, Oct. 22, Dec. 28 ; 1863, Jan. 28. 

Vandalia, 1863, Aug. 31. 

Vaughan Road, 1865, Mar. 29, 31. 

Vaught's Hill, 1863, Mar. 20. 

Venice, 1863, July 13. 

Venus Point, 1S62, Feb. 15. 

Vkrmillionville, 1863, Apr. 17, Oct. 4, 8, 9, 21, 

Nov. 20. 
Vernon, 1863, July 11. 
Verona, 1864, Dec. 25. 
Versailles, 1862, Sept. 2, Oct. 11. 
Vicksburg, 1862, May 12, June 26-29, July 

1-22, Dec. 27-Jan. 2, 1863; 1863, Jan. 20, 22, 

Feb. 18, Mar. 25, Apr. 16, May 12-27, June 1- 

July 4 ; — . 
Vidalia, 1863, Sept. 15; 1864, Feb. 7 
Vienna, 1861, June 17, Nov. 26, Dec. 3 ; 1863, 

July 11. 
Village Creek, 1862, June 12, 27. 
Violet Station. 

W. 

Wachita, 1863, Feb. 10. 

Waddell Farm, 1862, June 12. 

Wade's Point, 1863, July 5. 

Waldron, 1864, Jan. 29. 

Walker's Ford, 1863, Dec. 2. 

Walkertown, 1863, June 4; 1864, Mar. 1. 

Wallen Creek, 1862, Nov. 19. 

Walndt Creek, and W. Hills, 1863, May 21 ; 

1864, Nov. 19. 
Wapping Heights, (see Manassas,) 1863, July 24. 
Wardensville, 18-62, May 20, 29. 
Ware's Bottom Church. 
Warm Springs. 
Warrensburg, 1861, Nov. 18; 1862, Mar. 26, 

28, Dec. 11. 
Warrenton, Miss., 1863, Mar. 21-27, May 7. 
Warrenton, Va., 1862, Apr. 1, July 29, Aug. 

23, Sept. 26, 28, Oct. 24, Nov. 5-20, Dec. 1 ; 

1863, Feb. 1, May 3, 14, Oct. 21, 31 ; 1864, 

Feb. 22 ; — . 
Warrington, 1861, Nov. 22, 23 ; 1862, Jan. 1. 
Warsaw, 1861, Sept. 24, Oct. 16, Nov. 19; 1832, 

Feb. 16.' 
Warsaw Sound, 1863, June 17; — . 
Wartrace, 1863, June 25. 
Warwick, and W. River, 1861, Nov. 22; 1862, 

Apr. 16; 1863, June 5; — . 
Wash Channel, 1863, Jan. 19. 



Washington, D. C, 1864, July 11, 12. 
Washington, La., 1863, May 4. 
Washington, N. C, 1862, Mar. 21, May 9, Sept. 
6; 1863, Mar. 30; Apr. 5, 15, Nov. 1, 28, 
Dec. 31 ; — . 
Washington, O., 1863, July 24. 
Washita River, — . 
Wassau, — . 

Watauga, 1861, Nov. 10; 1862, Dec. 
Water Lick Creek, 1865, Feb. 15. 
Waterford, 1862, Mar. 8, Aug. 27. 
Waterloo Bridge, 1862, Aug. 24. 
Waterproof, 1864, Feb. 14. 
Watervalley, 1862, Dec. 4. 
Watson's Ford, 1863, Dec. 2. 
Watt's Creek, 1862, Apr. 1. 
Wauhatchie, 1863, Oct. 29; — . 
Waverley, 1862, Oct. 23; 1863, Apr. 10. 
Wayne Court House, 1861, Aug. 25, 27; 1864, 

Feb. 14, Apr. 14. 
Waynesboro', 1864, Nov. 27, Dec. 4; 1865, 

Mar. 3. 
Waynesville, 1863, Nov. 2. 
Webb's Cross Roads. 
Weber Falls, 1863, Apr. 24. 

Weldon, and W. Road, 1864, June 22, 23, Aug. 
21, 23; — . 

West Bay, 1863, Dec. 11, 19; 1864, Feb. 17. 

West Branch, 1863, Apr. 19. 

West Gulf, — . 

West Liberty, 1861, Oct. 23. 

West Licking River, 1862, Sept. 11. 

West Point, 1862, May 7; 1863, June 24; 
1864, Feb. 20, 21, Aug. 14, 15; 1865, Apr. 
16; -. 

Westminster, 1862, Sept. 11; 1863, June 29; 
1864, July 9. 

Westport, 1863, June 17 ; 1864, Oct. 23. 

Wet Glaze, 1861, Oct. 13. 

Wheatland, 1862, Mar. 8. 

Whedon. 

Wheeling, 1861, May. 

Whip-poor-will Bridge, 1861, Dec. 4. 

Whippy Swamp, 1865, Feb. 2. 

Whitaker's Mill, 1863, Oct. 11. 

White House, 1862, May 10, June 27 ; 1863, 
Jan. 8, May 7, July 9; 1864, June 20, 24; — . 

White Oak Creek, Bridge, Road, and Swamp, 

1862, June 28, 30, July 1, Aug. 19; 1863, 
Aug. 5; 1865, Mar. 31. 

White Plains, 1863, Sept. 16. 

White Point, 1864, July 2 

White River, 1862, May 22, June 17, Aug. 4; 

1863, Dec. 9 ; 1864, Apr. 1, June 22, 24, Sept. 
4, 14 ; — . 

White Stone Hill, 1863, Sept. 3, 5. 
White Sulphur Springs, 1863, Aug. 26, 30. 
White Tavern, 1864, Aug. 16. 



680 



BATTLES, ENGAGEMENTS, COLLISIONS, ETC. 



White's Ford, 1862, Oct. 12. 

Whitehall, 1862, Dec. 16. 

Whitemarsh Island, 1862, Apr. 9. 

Wigginston's Mills, 1863, Feb. 5. 

Wilcox's Landing, 1864, June 13 ; — . 

Wild Cat, 1861, Oct. 21. 

Wilderness, 1863, May 1-5; 1864, May 3-10; 

1865; — . 
Wilkinson's Pike, 1864, Dec. 7. 
William's Bridge, 1862, June 27. 
Williamsburg, 1862, May 5, 6, July 11, Sept. 9, 

Nov. 10 ; 1863, Feb. 7, Apr. 12, July 1, 13, 14;—. 
Williamsport, 1861, June 1, July 2, Dec. 8; 

1862, Mar. 13, May 26, July 4, Aug. 11 ; 1863, 

July 6, 13, 14, Dec. 29; 1864, Jan. 28; — . 
Williamstown, 1862, Nov. 2 ; 1863, July 13. 
Willis' Church. 

Willoughbt Point, 1862, May 10. 
Wilmington, and Island, and River, 1861, Dec. 

5 ; 1862, Mar. 25, Apr. 16; 1865, Jan. 20-22, 

Feb. 11-22; — . 
Wilson's Creek, 1861, Aug. 10 ; 1863, June 13. 
Wilson's Farm, and Mill, 1861, Sept. 27. 
Winchester, Ky., 1863, Feb. 23, July 30. 
Winchester, Va., 1861, July 21 ; 1862, Mar. 12, 

23, May 25, Sept. 3, Nov. 24, Dec. 4, 23; 1863, 

May 19, June 14, Oct. 13; 1864. Jan. 6, July 

3, 18-24, Sept. 13, 19; — . 
Windsor, 1864, Jan. 29. 
Winfield, 1861, Oct. 12; 1864, Oct. 26. 
Winsburg, 1863, Mar. 29. 
Winston's Gap, 1863, Sept. 8. 
Winton, 1862, Feb. 20. 
Wireman's Shoals, 1862, Dec. 14. 
Wise's Ford, and Fork, 1865, Mar. 9, 10. 
Wolf River Bridge, 1863, Jan. 11, Dec. 2, 5. 



Wolftown, 1862, Aug. 7. 

Wood's Fork, 1862, Jan. 11. 

Woodbridge Hill. 

Woodburn, 1863, Feb. 26, May 12. 

Woodburt, 1861, Oct. 29 ; 1863, Jan. 26, Apr. 2, 

May 26. 
Woodsonville, 1861, Dec. 17; 1862, Dec. 14. 
Woodstock, 1862, Apr. 1. 
Woodville, 1862, Oct. 21 ; 1S63, Aug. 9; 1864, 

Oct. 8. 
Worthington, 1861, Sept. 2. 
Wrightsville, 1863, June 27-29. 
Wtatt's, 1863, Oct. 13. 
Wttheville, 1863, July 18, 24 ; 1864, May 10, 

Dec. 14, 16 ; 1865, Mar. 14. 



Yazoo City, and Pass, 1863, Feb. 20, May 13, 

24, July 13; 1864, Feb. 5, 9, 28, Mar. 5, 6, 

Apr. 23, May 10 ; — . 
Yellow Bayou, Y. Bluff, Y. Creek, and Y. 

Tavern, 1862, Aug. 13; 1864, May 11, 18. 
Yellow Medicine River, 1862, Sept. 23. 
Yellville, 1862, Nov. 30. 
York, Pa., 1863, June 27, 30. 
York River, — . 
Yorktown, 1862, Apr. 5, 11, 16, 18, 24, 26, 

May 4 ; — . 
Young Squirrel Church. 
Young's Cross Roads, and Mills, 1862, Apr. 7, 

July 26. 
Young's Island, 1865, Feb. 1. 



Zollicoffer's Heights, 1863, Oct. 11. 
Zuni, 1862, Nov. 25, Dec. 12. 



LIST OF THE PUBLIC VESSELS 

TO WHICH THE NAVAL AND SIMILAR ANECDOTES IN THIS WORK RELATE. 



A. 


B. 


Cayuga, 


Courier, 


A. Houghton, 


Bainbridge, 


Ceres, 


Covington, 


A. C. Powell, 


Baltic, 


Champion, 


Cowslip, 


A. 0. Tyler, 


Baltimore, 


Charles Phelps, 


Cricket, 


Abraham, 


Banshee, 


Charlotte, 


Crocus, 


Acacia, 


Baron de Kalb, 


Chattanooga, 


Crusader, 


Adela, 


Barrataria, 


Chenango, 


Cumberland, 


Adirondack, 


Bat, 


Chickasaw, 


Curlew, 


Adolph Hugel, 


Beauregard, 


Chicopee, 


Currituck, 


Agamenticus, 


Belvidere, 


Chicora, 


Cyane. 


Agawam, 


Ben Deford, 


Chillicothe, 




Aiken, 


Ben Morgan, 


Chimo, 


D. 


Alabama, 


Benton, 


Chippewa, 


Dacotah, 


Albatross, 


Bermuda, 


Choctaw, 


Daffodil, 


Albemarle, 


Bienville, 


Chocura, 


Dahlia, 


Alert, 


Blackbird, 


Chotank, 


Dai-Ching, 


Alexandria, 


Black Hawk, 


ClMMARRON, 


Daisy, 


Alfred Robb, 


Bloomer, 


Cincinnati, 


Dale, 


Algonquin, 


Bohio, 


Circassian, 


Dan, 


Alice Dean, 


Bombshell, 


Clara Dolsen, 


Dan Smith, 


Alleghany, 


Boston, 


Clifton, 


Dandelion, 


Amanda, 


Brandywine, 


Clover, 


Darlington, 


America, 


Braziliera, 


Clyde, 


Dart, 


Ammonoosuc, 


Brilliant, 


C(eur de Lion, 


Dawn, 


Anacostia, 


Britannia, 


Cohasset, 


Daylight, 


Anderson, 


Brooklyn. 


Cohoes, 


Decatur, 


Anna, 




Colorado, 


Delaware, 


Annie, 


0. 


Columbia, 


De Soto, 


Antietam, 


C. P. Williams, 


Columbine, 


Diana, 


Antona, 


Cahawba, 


Commodore, 


Dictator, 


Arago, 


Cairo, 


Commodore Barney, 


Dolphin, 


Arapoho, 


Caleb Cushing, 


Commodore Hull, 


Don, 


Argosy, 


Calhoun, 


Commodore Jones, 


Dragon, 


Ariel, 


Calypso, 


Commodore McDonough Dunderberg. 


Aries, 


Camanche, 


Commodore Morris, 




Arizona, 


Cambridge, 


Commodore Perry, 


E. 


Arkansas, 


Camellia, 


Commodore Read, 


E. B. Hale, 


Arletta, 


Canada, 


Conemaugh, 


Eastport, 


Aroostook, 


Canandaigua, 


Conestoga, 


Ella, 


Arthur, 


Canonicus, 


Congress, 


Ellen, 


Ascutney, 


Carmita, 


Connecticut, 


Ellis, 


Ashuelot, 


Carnation, 


Constellation, 


Emma, 


Atlanta, 


Carondelet, 


Constitution, 


Empire City, 


Atlantic, 


Casco, 


CONTOOCOOK, 


Eolus, 


Augusta, 


Catawba, 


CORWIN, 


Era, 


Augusta Dinsmore. 


Catskill, 


CORYPHEUS, 


Essex, 



682 



LIST OF PUBLIC VESSELS, 



EsTRELLA, 

Ethan Allen, 

Etlah, 

Eugenie, 

Eureka, 

Eutaw, 

Exchange. 

F. 

Fahkees, 

Fair Plat, 

Falmouth, 

Fanny, 

Farallones, 

Fawn, 

Fear Not, 

Fern, 

Fernandina, 

Flag, 

Flambeau, 

Florida, 

Forest Rose, 

Fort Donelson, 

Fort Henry, 

Fort Hindman, 

Fort Jackson, 

Fort Morgan, 

Fox, 

Franklin, 

FltEDONIA, 

Fuchsia, 
Fulton. 

G. 

G. L. Brockenborough, 

G. W. Blunt, 

Galatea, 

Galena, 

Gem of the Sea, 

Gkmsbok, 

General Bragg, 

General Howard, 

General Lyon, 

General Pillow, 

General Putnam, 

General Sterling 

Genesee, [Price, 

George Mangham, 

George Peabody, 

Geranium, 

Germantown, 

Gertrude, 

Gettysburg, 

Glaucus, 

Glide, 

Gordon, 

Governor, 

GoyernorBuckingham, 



Grand Duke, 
Grand Gulf, 
Granite, 
Granite City, 
Great Western, 
Guerriere. 

H. 

Harriet Lane, 

Hartford, 

Harvest Moon, 

Hassala, 

Hastings, 

Hatteras, 

Heliotrope, 

Hendrik Hudson, 

Henrietta, 

Henry Andrew, 

Henry Brinker, 

Henry Clay, 

Henry James, 

Hetzel, 

Hibiscus, 

Highlander, 

Hollyhock, 

Home, 

Homer, 

Honduras, 

Honeysuckle, 

Hope, 

Horace Beals, 

Houqua, 

housatonic, 

Hunchback, 

huntsville, 

Huron, 

Huzzar, 

Hyacinth, 

Hydrangea. 



I. N. Seymour, 

Ida, 

Idaho, 

Illinois, 

Independence, 

Indianola. 

Ino, 

Ion, 

Iosco, 

Iris, 

Iron Age, 

Iroquois, 

Isaac Smith, 

Isabel, 

Island Belle, 

Itusca, 

Ivy, 



IZILDA. 



J. C. KUHN, 

J. S. Macomb, 

Jacob Bell, 

James Adger, 

James L. Davis, 

James S. Chambers, 

Jamestown, 

Jasmine, 

Java, 

Jeff. Davis, 

John Adams, 

John Griffith, 

John Hancock, 

John L. Lockwood, 

John P. Jackson, 

Jonquil, 

Josiaii Bell, 

Judah, 

Judge Torrence, 

Julia, 

Juliet, 

Juniata, 

Juniper. 

K. 

Kaka, 

Kanawha, 

Kansas, 

Katahdin, 

Kawanee, 

Kearsarge, 

Kennebec, 

Khnsington, 

Kentucky, 

Kenwood, 

Keokuk, 

Keosauqua, 

Kewanee, 

Kewaydin, 

Key West, 

Keystone State, 

KlCKAFOO, 
KlNEO, 

King Philip, 

Kingfisher, 

Kinsman, 

Kittatinny, 

Klamath, 

Kosciusco, 

Kuhn. 

L. 

Lackawanna, 

Ladona, 

Lafayette, 



Lancaster, 

Larkspur, 

Laurel, 

Lehigh, 

Lenapee, 

Leslie, 

Leviathan, 

Lewis Cass, 

Lexington, 

Lilac, 

Lillian, 

Lily, 

Linden, 

Lioness, 

Little Ada, 

Little Rebel, 

Lockwood, 

Lodona, 

Louisiana, 

Louisville, 

Lupin. 

M. 
M. J. Carlton, 
Macedonian,* 
Mackinaw, 
Madawaska, 
Madgie, 
Magnolia, 
Mahaska, 
Mahopac, 
Manayunk, 
Manhattan, 
' Manitto, 
Maple Leaf, 
Maratanza, 
Marblehead, 
Marcella, 
Maria A. Wood, 
Marietta, 
Marigold, 
Mariner, 
Marion, 
Marmora, 
Mary Sanford, . 
Massachusetts, 
Massasoit, 
Mattabesett, 
Matthew Vassar, 
Maumee, 
McClellan, 
Memphis, 
Mendota, 
Mercedita, 
Mercury, 
Merrimac, 
Metacomet, 
Miami, 



LIST OF PUBLIC VESSELS, 



683 



MlANTONOMAH, 


New York, 


Perry, 


Rhode Island, 


Michigan, 


Newbern, 


Peterhoff, 


Richmond, 


Midnight, 


Niagara, 


Petrel, 


River Queen, 


Mignonette, 


Nightingale, 


Philadelphia, 


Roanoke, 


Milwaukee, 


Niphon, 


Pinola, 


Robert McLelland 


Mingoe, 


Nipsic, 


PlNTA, 


Rocket, 


Minnesota, 


NlTA, 


PlSCATAQUA, 


Roebuck, 


Mississippi, 


Norfolk Packet, 


Pittsburg, 


Roman, 


Mistletoe, 


North Carolina, 


Planter, 


Romeo, 


Mobile, 


Norwich, 


Plymouth, 


Rosalie, 


Moddc, 


Nyack, 


Pocahontas, 


Royal Yacht. 


Mohawk, 


Nyanza. 


Pompanoosuc, 




Mohican, 




Pontiac, 


S. 


Mohongo, 


O. 


PONTOOSUC, 


S. R. Spaulding, 


Molly Martin, 


0. M. Pettit, 


Poppy, 


Sabine, 


Monadnock, 


Octorara, 


Port Royal, 


Sachem, 


Monarch, 


Ohio, 


Portsmouth, 


Saco, 


•Mondamin, 


Oleander, 


Potomac, 


Sacramento, 


Monitor, 


Oliver H. Lee, 


Potomska, 


Sagamore, 


Monocact, 


Oneida, 


Powhatan, 


Saginaw, 


Monongahela, 


Oneota, 


Prairie Bird, 


Saint Clair, 


MoNTAUK. 




Preble, 


Saint Lawrence, 


Monterey, 


Ontario, " 


Frimrose, 


Saint Louis, 


Montgomery, 


Onward, 


Princess Royal, 


Saint Mary's, 


Monticello, 


Osvett^ 


Princeton, 


Sam Houston, 


Moose, 


Osage, 


Proteus, 


Samson, 


Morning Light, 


Osceola, 


Pulaski, 


Samuel Rotan, 


Morse, 


Ossipee, 


Puritan, 


San Jacinto, 


MOSHOLU, 


Otsego, 


Pursuit, 


Sandusky, 


Mound City, 


Ottawa, 


Pushmataha. 


Sangamon, 


Mount Vernon, 


Ouachita^ 




Santee, 


"ount Washington 


Owasco, 


Q. 


Santiago de Cuba, 


MUSCOOTA, 


Ozark. 


Quaker City, 


Sarah Bruen, 


Myrtle, 




Queen, 


Saranac, 


Mystic. 


p 


Queen City, 


Saratoga, 




Pacific, 


Queen of the West, 


Sassacus, 


N. 


Pampero, 


QUINSIGAMOND. 


Satellite, 


Nahant, 


Panola, 




Saugus, 


Nansemond, 


Pansy, 


R. 


Savannah, 


Nantucket, 


Para, 


R. B. Forbes, 


Sciota, 


Napa, 


Passaconawac, 


R. R. Cuyler, 


Sea Bird, 


Narcissus, 


Passaic, 


Racer, 


Sea Foam, 


Narragansett, 


Patapsco, 


Rachel Seaman, 


Sebago, 


Nashville, 


Patroon, 


Raritan, 


Seminole, 


National Guar£ ; 


Paul Jones, 


Rattler, 


Seneca, 


Naumkeag, 


Paw Paw, 


Red Rover, 


Shakamaxon, 


Nausett, 


Pawnee, 


Reindeer, 


Shamokin, 


Nemaha, 


Pawtuxet, 


Release, 


Shamrock, 


Neosho, 


Peerless, 


Reliance, 


Shark, 


Neptune, 


Pembina, 


Relief, 


Shawm ut, 


Nereus, 


Pembroke, 


Remington, 


Shawnee, 


Neshaminy, 


Penguin, 


Renshaw, 


Shawseen, 


Nettle, 


Pennsylvania, ■ 


Republic, 


Shenandoah, 


New Era, 


Penobscot, 


Rescue, 


Shepherd Knapp, 


New Ironsides, 


Pensacola, 


Resolute, 


Shiloh, 


New London, 


Peoria, 


Restless, 


Shokokon, 


New National, 


Pequot, 


Retribution, 


Sidney C. Jones, 


New Orleans, 


Periwinkle, 


Rettimar, 


Signal, 



684 



LIST OP PUBLIC VESSELS. 



Silver Cloud, 


Tacony, 


V. 


Weehawken, 


Silver Lake, 


Tahgayuta, 


Valley City, 


We-no-shepokes-slow, 


Slidkll, 


Tahoma, 


Valparaiso, 


West Point, 


Smith Briggs, 


Tallahoma, 


Vandalia, 


Western World, 


Snowdrop, 


Tallapoosa, 


Vanderbilt, 


Westfield, 


Somerset, 


Tawah, 


Varuna, 


Whitehall, 


Sonoma, 


Teaser, 


Vermont, 


Whitehead, 


Sophronia, 


Tecumseh, 


Vicksburg, 


Wilderness, 


South Carolina, 


Tennessee, 


Victoria, 


William Bacon, 


Southfield, 


Tensas, 


Victory, 


William Badger, 


Sovereign, 


Thistle, 


VlNCENNES, 


William G. Anderson, 


Spirea, 


Thomas Colyer, 


Violet, 


William H. Webb, 


Springfield, 


Thomas Freeborn, 


Virginia, 


WlLLIAMETTE, 


Squando, 


Ticonderoga, 


Vixen. 


Winnebago, 


Star, 


Time, 




Winnipeg, 


Star of the South, 


Tioga, 


W. 


Winona, 


Star of the West, 


Tippecanoe, 


W. G. Putnam, 


Winooski, 


Stars and Stripes, 


Tonawanda, 


W. H. Brown, 


WlSSAHICKON, 


State of Georgia, 


Trefoil, 


W. W. Coit, 


Wyalusing, 


Stepping Stones, 


Tristram Shandy, 


Wabash, 


Wyandank, 


Stettin, 


Tritonia, 


Wachusett, 


Wyandotte, 


Stonewall, 


Tuscarora, 


Wamponoag, 


Wyoming. 


Sultana, 


Tuscumbia, 


Wamsutta, 




Sumter, 


Two Sisters, 


Wanaloset, 


Y. 


Suncook, 


Tyler. 


Wanderer, 


Yankee, 


Sunflower, 




Wando, 


Yantic, 


Supply, 


U. 


Wapping Heights, 


Yazoo, 


Susquehanna, 


Umpqua, 


Warren, 


York, 


Suwanee, 


Unadilla, 


Washington, 


Young America, 


Sweet Brier, 


Uncas, 


Wassuc, 


Young Rover, 


Switzerland. 


Uncle Ben, 


Watauge, 


Yuma. 




Underwriter, 


Water Witch, 




T. 


Union, 


Wateree, 


Z. 


T. A. Ward, 


United States. 


Waxsaw, 


Zouave. 



NAMES OF THE CHIEF LAND AND NAVAL OFFICEKS, 

NORTH -AJS"D SOUTH, 

UNDER WHOSE COMMAND, OR IN WHOSE DEPARTMENTS, THE ANECDOTICAL INCI- 
DENTS, &c, HERE GIVEN, OCCURRED. 



A. 


Bartlett, 


Bradley, 


Canby, 


Abbott, 


Barton, 


Bragg, 


Carleton, 


Abercrombie, 


Bartow, 


Braine, 


Carlin, 


Adams, 


Bassett, 


Branch, 


Carr, 


Albright, 


Bate, 


Brannon, 


Carrington, 


Alden, 


Bates, 


Brasher, 


Carroll, 


Allen, 


Battle, 


Brattan, 


Carson, 


Almt, 


Baxter, 


Brayman, 


Carter, 


Alvord, 


Bayard, 


Breckinridge, 


Case, 


Ames, 


Beal, 


Breese, 


Casement, 


Ammen, 


Beatty, 


Brewster, 


Casey, 


Anderson, 


Beaumont, 


Brice, 


Chalmers, 


Andrews, 


Beauregard, 


Briggs, 


Chamberlain, 


Archer, 


Beayer, 


Brisbin, 


Chambers, 


Armistead, 


Beckwith, 


Brook, 


Chambliss, 


Armstrong, 


Bee, 


Brooks, 


Champlin, 


Arnold, 


Belknap, 


Broome, 


Chapin, 


Asboth, 


Bell, 


Brown, 


Chapman, 


Atchison, 


Benham, 


Bryan, 


Chauncey, 


Atkins, 


Bennett, 


Bryant, 


Cheatham, 


Augur, 


Benning, 


Bryson, 


Chetlain, 


AtTLICK, 


Benton, 


Buchanan, 


Christ, 


Ayerell, 


Berrien, 


Buckingham, 


Chrysler, 


Ayres. 


Berry, 


Buckland, 


Churchill, 




Beveridge, 


Buckner, 


Clanter, 


B. 


Biddle, 


BUEL, 


Clanton, 


Bailey, 


Bidwell, 


BUFORD, 


Clark, 


Baily, 


BlRGE, 


BULLIN, 


Clary, 


Baird, 


BlRNEY, 


Burbridge, 


Clay, 


Baker, 


Bissell, 


Burns, 


Clayton, 


Balch, 


Blackman, 


BURNSIDE, 


Cleburne, 


Baldwin, 


Blair, 


Burr, 


Clingman, 


Ball, 


Blake, 


Bussey, 


Clitz, 


Ballier, 


Blenker, 


BUSTEED, 


Cluseret, 


Bankhead, 


Blunt, 


Butler, 


Cobb, 


Banks, 


Boarman, 


BUTTERFIELD. 


Cochrane, 


Barlow, 


Boggs, 




Cocke, 


Barnard, 


Bohlen, 


0. 


Cockerill, 


Barnes, 


Boss, 


Cabell, 


Cogswell, 


Barnett, 


BOWEN, 


Cadwalladeb, 


Cohen, 


Barnum, 


Bowers, 


Caldwell, 


Coleman, 


Barron, 


Bowl, 


Cameron, 


Colgrave, 


Barry, 


Boyle, 


Campbell, 


COLHOUN, 



686 



NAMES OF GENERALS AND NAVAL COMMANDERS, 



Collier, 


Dennis, 


Fearing, 


GODON, 


Collins, 


Denvir, 


Febiger, 


Goldsboroug 


Collis, 


Detrobriand, 


Fendall, 


Gooding, 


COLOOCOREOSIS, 


Devens, 


Ferguson, 


Gordon,-] 


Colston, 


Devine, 


Ferrero, 


Gorman, 


COMMAGER, 


DlVEN, 


Ferry, 


Govan, 


CoMSTOCK, 


Dix, 


Fessenden, 


Graham, 


Connor, 


Dodge, 


Field, 


Granbury, 


CONOVER, 


Donaldson, 


Finnegan, 


Granger, 


Cook, 


Doolittle, 


Fisk, 


Grant, 


Cooke, 


DoRNIN, 


Fitch, 


Grayson, 


Cooper, 


Dorublezer, 


Floyd, 


Greene, 


Cop eland, 


Doubleday, 


Fontane, 


Greer, 


Corbin, 


Dove, 


Foote, 


Gregg, 


Corby, 


Dow, 


Force, 


Gregory, 


Corcoran, 


DOWNES, 


Ford, 


Gresham, 


Corse, 


Drake, 


Forrest, 


Grierson, 


Couch, 


Draper, 


Forsyth, 


Griffin, 


Coulter, 


Drayton, 


Foster, 


Grose, 


Cowdin, 


Dressy, 


Frailey, 


Grover, 


Cox, 


Dudley, 


Franklin, 


Guest, 


Crabbe, 


Duffie, 


Fremont, 


Gwyn. 


Craft, 


Duffield, 


French, 




Craig, 


Duke, 


Fronen, 


H. 


Crayen, 


Dumont, 


Frost, 


Hackelman, 


Crawford, 


Duncan, 


Fry, 


Haggerty, 


Creighton, 


Dunnovan, 


Fuller, 


Hagood, 


Crittenden, 


DUPONT, 


FURGUSON. 


Hall, 


Crocker, 


DURYEE, 




Halleck, 


Crofton, 


Duval, 


G. 


Hamblin, 


Cuook, 


Dwight. 


Gaines, 


Hamilton, 


Crosby, 




Gamble, 


Hamlin, 


Croxton, 


E. 


Gansevoort, 


Hammond, 


Cruft, 


Eagan, 


Gantt, 


Hampton, 


CULLUM, 


Eagle, 


Gardner, 


Hancock, 


CuMMING, 


Early, 


Garfield, 


Handy, 


CURTIN, 


Easton, 


Garnett, 


Hardee, 


Curtis, 


Eaton, 


Garrard, 


Hardie, 


CUSHING, 


Edwards 


Gartrell, 


Hardin, 


CUSTAR, 


Ekin, 


Gary, 


Harker, 


Cutler. 


Ellet, 


Geary, 


Harland, 




Elliott, 


Gersham, 


Harney, 


D. 


Ellsworth, 


Getty, 


Harrell, 


Daggett, 


Elzey, 


Gholson, 


Harris, 


Dahlgren, 


Emmons, 


Gibbon, 


Harrison, 


Dana, 


Emory, 


Gibbs, 


Harrow, 


Davenport, 


Engle, 


Gibson," 


Hart, 


Davidson 


Eustis, 


Gilbert, 


Hartranft, 


Davies, 


Evans, 


Gillem, 


Hartsuff, 


Davis, 


Ewell, 


Gillespie, 


Hartwell, 


Dawson, 


Ewing. 


Gillis, 


Harwood, 


Dearing, 




GlLLMORE, 


Hascall, 


Deas, 


F. 


Gist, 


Haskin, 


Debray, 


Fagan, 


Glasgow, 


Hatch, 


De Camp, 


Fairfax, 


Glasson, 


Haupt, 


De Courcey, 


Farnsworth, 


Glendy, 


Hawkins, 


Deitzler, 


Farragut, 


Glisson, 


Hawley, 


Denison, 


Farran, 


Glynn, 


Hayes, 



NAMES OP GENERALS AND NAVAL COMMANDERS, 



687 



Haywood, 


Jameson, 


Lippincott, 


McGinnis, 


Hazard, 


Jamessox, 


Littell, 


McGowan, 


Hazen, 


Jarvis, 


Lockwood, 


McIntosh, 


Heath, 


Jenkins, 


Logan, 


McKean, 


Hebb, 


Johnson, 


Lomax, 


McKenzie, 


H EBERT, 


Johnston, 


Long, 


McKibben, 


Heckman, 


Jones, 


Longstreet, 


McKlNSTRY, 


Heintzelman, 


Jourdan, 


LORING, 


McLaughlin, 


Henderson, 


Judah. 


Loye, 


McLaws, 


Henry, 




LOVELL, 


McLean, 


Herbert, 


K. 


Lowe, 


McMillan, 


Herron, 


K^merling, 


Lowell, 


McMullen, 


Hkth, 


Kane, 


Lowndes, ■ 


McNeil, 


HlGGEN, 


Kautz, 


Lucas, 


McPherson, 


Hill, 


Kearny, 


Ludlow, 


McRae, 


HlNDMAN, 


Keifer, 


Lynch, 


Meade, 


HlNKS, 


Keim, 


Lyon, 


Meagher, 


Hitchcock, 


Kelley, 


Lytle. 


Meigs, 


HOBART, 


Kemper, 




Mercer, 


HOBSON, 


Kenly, 


M. 


Meredith, 


HODGE, 


Kershaw, 


Macey, 


Merrill, 


HOFF, 


Ketchum, 


Madill, 


Merritt, 


HOFFAN, 


Keyes, 


Macomb, 


Meryine, 


Hoffman, 


Kilpatrick, 


Maffitt, 


Middleton, 


Hoke, 


Kilty, 


Maggi, 


Miles, 


Hollins, 


Kimball, 


Magruder, 


Miller, 


Holmes, 


King, 


Mahone, 


Milligan, 


HolTZELAW, 


Kingsbury, 


Maltby, 


Milroy, 


Hood, 


Kintzing, 


Maney, 


Missroon, 


Hooker, 


. Kirby, 


Manigalt, 


Mitchel, 


Hopkins, 


Kirk, 


Mansfield, 


Mitchell, 


Horn, 


KlRKLAND, 


Manson, 


Mitchie, 


Hovey, 


Kitching, 


Marchand, 


Molineux, 


Howard, 


Knipe, 


Marcy, 


Monigel, 


Howe, 


Koltes, 


Marin, 


Monroe, 


Howell, 


Krzyzanowski. 


Marmaduke, 


Montgomery, 


HtJBBARD, 




Martindale, 


Moody, 


HliGER, 


L. 


Marshall, 


Moore, 


Hughes, 


Lander 


Marston, 


Morell, 


Hull, 


Lane, 


Mason, 


Morgan, 


Hume, 


Lanier, 


Matthias, 


Morris, 


Humphreys, 


Laman, 


Maury, 


Morse, 


Hunt, 


Lardner, 


Maxcy, 


Morton, 


Hunter, 


Latimer, 


McAllister, 


Mosby, 


Hunton, 


Lauman, 


McArthur, 


Mott, 


Hurlbut. 


Layellette, 


McBride, 


Mouton, 




Lawler, 


McCall, 


Mower, 


L 


Ledlie, 


McCauley, 


Mulford, 


Imboden, 


Lee, 


McCausland, 


Mullany, 


Ingalls, 


Leggett, 


McClellan, 


Mulligan, 


Ingraham, 


Leroy, 


McClernand, 


Murray, 


Inman, 


Lewis, 


VIcCluney, 


Myers. 


Innes, 


LlDDELL, 


McCook, 




Iyerson. 


Lightburn, 


WcCraig, 


N. 




Lincoln, 


HcCrellis, 


Naglee, 


J. 


Linch, 


MCCULLOCH, 


Negley, 


Jackman, 


LlTTLEFIELD, 


McDougall, 


Neill, 


Jackson, 


Livingstone, 


McDowell, 


Nelson, 



688 



NAMES OF GENERALS AND NAVAL COMMANDERS 



Newcomb, 


Pleasanton, 


Rodman, 


Shubrick, 


Newton, 


Plummer, 


Rolando, 


Shufeldt, 


Nicholas, 


Poe, 


Ronckendorff, 


Shunk, 


Nichols, 


Polk, 


Rosecrans, 


Shuttleworth, 


Nicholson, 


Poor, 


Ross, 


Sibley, 


Nickerson 


Pope, 


Rosseau, 


Sickles, 




Porter, 


Rosser, 


Sigel, 


0. 


Potter, 


Rowan, 


Sigfried, 


Ogden, 


Potts, 


Rowley, 


Sill, 


Oglesby, 


Powell, 


Rucker, 


Simonds, 


Oliver, 


Pratt, 


Rudd, 


Singleton, 


Opdyke, 


Preble, 


Ruger, 


Slack, 


Ord, 


Prentiss, 


RUNYON, 


Slaughter, 


Orme, 


Preston, 


Russell, 


Slemmer, 


Osband, 


Price, 


Rcst. 


Sloat, 


Osterhaus, 


Prince, 




Slocum, 


Owens. 


Pritchard, 


S. 


Slough, 




Pryor, 


Salomon, 


Smith, 


P. 


Puryiance, 


Salsmon, 


Smyth, 


Paine, 


Putnam, 


Salter, 


SORRELL, 


Palmer, 


Pyle. 


Sanborn, 


Spears, 


Pardee, 




Sanders, 


Spicer, 


Parker, 


Q- 


Sanford, 


Spinola, 


Parkes, 


Quantrill, 


Sargeant, 


S potts, 


Parrott, 


QUARLES, 


Sartori, 


Sprague, 


Parsons, 


Quinby. 


Satterlee, 


Stock, 


Patrick, 




Saunders, 


Stahel, 


Patterson, 


R. 


Saxton, 


Stanley, 


Patton, 


Radford, 


SCAMMON, 


Stannard, 


Paul, 


Rains, 


SCHEMMELFENNING, 


Starkweather, 


Paulding, 


Ramsay, 


SCHENCK, 


Stedman, 


Paxton, 


Ransom, 


Schermerhorn, 


Steedman, 


Payne, 


Raum, 


SCHOEPF, 


Steele, 


Peabody, 


Rawlings, 


SCHOFIELD, 


Stein, 


Pearce, 


Read, 


Scriber, 


Steinwehr, 


Pearson, 


Reed, 


SCHURZ, 


Stellwagen, 


Peck, 


Reid, 


SCOTT, 


Stembel, 


Peerce, 


Reilly, 


SCRIVER, 


Stemmen, 


Pegram, 


Reno, 


Sears, 


Stevens, 


Pemberton, 


Revere, 


Sedgwick, 


Stephenson, 


Pender, 


Reynolds, 


Selfridge, 


Stewart, 


Pendergrast, 


Rhind, 


Semmes, 


Stiles, 


Pennock, 


Rhoddy, 


Seward, 


Stolbraud, 


Pennypacker, 


Rhodes, 


Seymour, 


Stone, 


Penrose, 


Rice, 


Shackelford, 


Stoneman, 


Pering, 


Richardson, 


Shaler, 


Storer, 


Perry, 


Ricketts, 


Shanks, 


Stoughton, 


Pettigrew, 


Ridgeley, 


Sharp, 


Stovall, 


Phelps, 


Ring, 


Shaw, 


Strahl, 


Phillips, 


Ringgold 


Shelby, 


Stralbrand, 


Piatt, 


Ripley, 


Shepard, 


Stribling, 


Pickering, 


Ritchie, 


Shepley, 


Stringham, 


Pierce, 


Rives, 


Sheridan, 


Strong, 


Pike, 


Robbins, 


Sherman, 


Strophel, 


Pile, 


Roberts, 


Sherwood, 


Stuart, 


Pillow, 


Robertson, 


Shields, 


Sturgis, 


Pitcher, 


Robinson, 


Shiras, 


Sullivan, 


Plaisted, 


Rodgers, 


Shirley, 


Sully, 



NAMES OF GENERALS AND NAVAL COMMANDERS 



689 



Sumner, 


Trobriand, 


w. 


Whipple, 


Swain, 


True, 


Wade, 


White, 


Swayne, 


Tucker, 


Wadsworth, 


Whiting, 


SWARTWOUT, 


Turchin, 


Wagner, 


Whittaker, 


Sweeny, 


Turner, 


Wainwright, 


WlGFALL, 


Sweet, 


TUTTLE, 


Walcutt, 


Wilde, 


Sykes. 


Twiggs, 


Walke, 


Wilkes, 




Tyler, 


Walker, 


Wilcox, 


T. 


Tyndale. 


Wallace, 


Williams, 


Taliaferro, 




Wallen, 


Williamson, 


Tatnall, 


U. 


Walthall, 


Willich, 


Taylor, 


TJlhman, 


Ward, 


Winslow, 


Tebbetts, 


Underwood. 


Warner, 


Winthrop, 


Terrill, 




Washburne, 


WlSTAR, 


Terry, 


V. 


Warren, 


Woher, 


Thatcher, 


Van Alen, 


Weaver, 


WOLCOT, 


Thayer, 


Van Brunt, 


Webb, 


Wood, 


Thomas, 


Van Cleve, 


Weber, 


Woodbury, 


Thompson, 


Van Dorn, 


Webster, 


Woodhull, 


Thurston, 


Van Vleit, 


Weed, 


Woods, 


Tibbitts, 


Van Wyck, 


Weisigner, 


Woodworth, 


Tidball, 


Vanderyer, 


Weitzel, 


Wool, 


Tilghman, 


Vaughn, 


Welles, 


Worden, 


TlLLSON, 


Veatch, 


Wells, 


Wright, 


TlLTON, 


Viele, 


Welsh, 


Wyman. 


Thompkins, 


VlLLEPIGUE, 


Werden, 




Toombs, 


Vincent, 


Wessells, 


Y. 


Torbert, 


Vinton, 


West, 


Young. 


Tower, 


Vogdes, 


Wharton, 




Townsend, 


Von Steinwehr, 


Wheaton, 


Z. 


Tracy, 


VORIS. 


Wheeler, 


ZOLLICOFFER, 


Tbenchard, 




Wheelock, 


Zoos. 



INDEX 



TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES, INCIDENTS, ETC. 



fjgf" Those in Italics relate to Woman's Record in the Scenes and Events of the War. 



A. PAOB. 

A " Long " Portrait 146 

A Pass that would'nt Pass 434 

Abe and Andy 422 

Absence of Col. J. from C't M.,— and Why. 436 

Accidents will-Happen 61 

Accommodating himself to Circumstances. . .152 

Admiral Farragut, Tete-a-Tete with 390 

Admiral Farragut's Final Answer to the Emis- 
saries of Treason 354 

Admiral Farragut's Gallantry to Miss Victor. 37 9 

" Foote — Farewell Scene 378 

" Foote's Terms to Gen. Tilghman ..367 

" Porter's Big Scare 361 

Advantage qf Military Firmness 439 

Advice from the Disbanded Volunteer 33 

Advised to Stick to his Business. 46 

Affecting Appeal to a Union Commissary 473 

Affecting Mementoes of Gettysburg 627 

Afraid of the Girl's Eye ! 26 

After the Firing on Old Sumter 176 

Agreeable Inducements to Travelers 462 

Agreeable Reciprocity of Union Sentiment. . . .566 
Ah, Mother, Mother I I knew you would come 1.534 

Ahead of his Troops 346 

" Aint no business wid a gun," 490 

Alabama and Kearsarge, Combat between . . . 365 
Alabama Planter and the Anti-Slavery Lead- 
ers together 37 

Albemarle Ram, Sinking the 371 



PAGE. 

Alas ! the Poor Soldier 608 

Albert, the Drummer Boy of the Mass. 23d.. 267 

All a Mother Can Do 161 

All for her Lover 577 

All for Nothing C 1 4 

All for the Whiskey 47'J 

All through a Mistake 298 

American Soldiers Then and Now 142 

Ammunition sent by the Enemy Just in Time. oil 

Amours and Fancies of the Camp 536 

" of a New Orleans Judge 552 

An Hibernian's Tusflc with a Miss. " Tiger ".333 

An Honor to her Sex 473 

"And a little child shall lead them." 587 

" And the brother shall deliver up the brother 

to death" 59 

Anderson and his brave little Company leav- 
ing Fort Sumter 254 

Andrew Jackson's Famous " Union " Toast. . . 23 

Andy Johnson and the Clerical Secessionist. . .89 

" " 's (Gov.) Supplement to one of 

Lorenzo Dow's Stories 48 

Anglo-African Daughter of the Regiment 193 

Anna Manley, the Baltimore Heroine 528 

Annie Lillybridge and Lieutenant W. 621 

Another Cassabianca 373 

" of the Uncle Toms 104 

Answering the Secretary and the General. . . .647 
Anxious for a Trade 4G8 



Note — It has been made a point to present, in this Index, the names of noted persons and places as fully as possi- 
ble in the headings, in order to facilitate the reader's reference, through that means, to anecdotes pertaining to partic- 
ular scenes and their actors. In the nature of the case, however, this mode of specific designation was practicable 
only to a very limited extent, without enlarging the list almost indefinitely ; and, therefore, the names of the multitude 
of localities, commanders, divisions, corps, regiments, vessels, etc., to which these anecdotes relate, are, in the great 
majority of instances, to be found embodied in the reading matter itself, rather than in the indexed titles or textual 
captions. It may also be remarked, that nearly five-sixths of the anecdotes which came under notice in the preparation 
of this work, were rejected as ivorthless for preservation ; only the best were retained, — thus enabling the volume to 
appear in convenient size and handsome and readable type. 

43 



692 INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



Appeal for a Furlough — with an Appendage.. .435 
Application of the term "Contraband" by 

Gen. Butler 102 

Appointment of Burnside as a Cadet 565 

" of Mrs. Reynolds as a Major in 

the Army 268 

Arkansas, Front-Door Confabulations in 43 

Armstrong, the Eebel Dominie, before Gen'l 

Butler 145 

Army Matrimonial Advertisements — Hint to 

Romantic Young Ladies 575 

Arrest of Joe Guild by Col. Myers 64 

" of one of Gen. Grant's Aids by a Col- 
ored Guard 429 

As good as a Captured Gun 343 

Astonishing Ignorance on board a Gunboat. .391 
Atlanta Young Lady, Conversation with an. . . 607 

Attending to Business in Kegular Order 643 

Aunt Charlotte, the old Cook at Newbern 507 

Availing himself of a Joke 58 



Backing the Commander-in-Chief 150 

Bad Atmosphere for a Patriot's Lungs 140 

" for the Cow 46 

" Habit amongst Mules 458 

Badge of Treason in a New York Ball Room .111 
Bailey's Dam for saving the Miss. Squadron.. 376 

Baker, Ellsworth, Lyon — a Brave Trio 520 

Balance of Power Maintained between Tur- 
keys and Chickens 475 

Baltimore Heroine — Anna Manic y 528 

Baltimore Unconquerables , Examin'g one ofthe.135 
Bankhcad (Com.), Expensive Joke on, by a 

Southern Dame 384 

Banking Operations of Gen. Schoepf in Ky..469 
Banks' (Gen.) Morning Call at Marshal 

Kane's Door 53 

Banks' ( Gen.) Reply to a Boston Lady 143 

Baptism for the Dead , 588 

Bates, Bcception of the Bebel Commissioners 

in London by Mr 25 

Battle with Snow-balls at Chattanooga 275 

Bearing the Standard through Baltimore 309 

Beauties of Rebel Conscripting 181 

Beautiful but Dead on the Field of Honor. . .518 
Beauty of Nullification and of the Guillotine. 149 

Became a Soldier after all 606 

Beechcr's Case of Muskets for the South 405 

Beef Steak and Hot Bolls every Morning 483 

Behind the Trees : Maine and Georgia 244 

Bell's (John) Tennessee Iron Works 103 

Ben Butler in Council with the Secession Con- 
spirators .32 

Ben McCulloch and Joe Baxter 590 

Ben Phillips, the Hoary Old Bloodhound. . . .265 

Benefit of Clergy 71 

Beware of a Soldie?-'s Wife ! 629 

Bibles on Shipboard — Touching Scene 393 



Big Job in Prospect .150 

Billiards on board the Ironsides 371 

Billy Shelton, the Martyr Patriot Boy 148 

Billy Wilson's Zouaves : Extraordin'y Scene. 184 

Birney (Gen. ), Startling Adventure of. 234 

Births of Boys and Girls in War Times. .... 566 

Bishops Meade and Polk in Consultation 260 

Black, the Scotch Deserter at Leesburg 177 

Bleeding, but had his Colors with him 287 

" to Death, but Sound as a Trout.. . .302 

Blenker scorniDg to Retreat 310 

Blondin's Art serving a Good Figure 69 

Bloody Sabre Charge by Col. Minty 304 

Bloody (The) Flag of Fort Pillow 570 

Blue-Jacket on the Quarter-Deck of his Mule.368 

Bob, the Spunky Drummer Boy 339 

Bogus Yankee Legislature in Georgia. ...... 117 

Bold Female Smuggler and Highwayman,. . . .487 

Bounty-Jumper Captured by a Dog 200 

Bowie Knife Conflict at Battle of Pea Ridge. 31 8 

Boy Soldiers at the Old One's Trade 316 

Boy (ThejFather to the Man 80 

" Boys, I'm for the Union still ! " 281 

Branding Deserters at Castle Thunder 203 

Brandy at Fort Sumter : Poor Pryor 491 

" for a Sick Lieutenant 451 

" " All Hands 514 

Brave and Good but must be Shot .409 

Bravo for Pea Ridge 328 

Bread Cast upon the Waters 555 

Breckinridge's Son 327 

Bridegroom and Volunteer the Same Night. . . .213 

Brief but Eventful History 153 

Bright Girls in Missouri 604 

Brilliant Strategy of Gen. Smith at Red Rivcr.312 

Broadbrim's Method with Secessionists .110 

Brownell (Mrs.), the Heroine of Newbern. 268 

Brownlow, a Point for- Helping a Soldier. . .469 
" expressing his Sentiments in Jail.. 67 

" prefers the 'Direct' Route to Hell. 125 

Buchanan's Cabinet. Dramatic Scene in 26 

Buchanan's (Admiral) Sword Yielded with a 

Bad Grace 380 

Buckner hung his Head 415 

Buford's Method of Stirring-up Teamsters. . .509 

Bull Run Battlefield, Horrors of 323 

" " , Horse Incidents at 499 

Buried with his Sister's Picture 628 

Burlesque on Peace Propositions. 47 

Burnside, Appointment of, as a Cadet 565 

" Directing a Retreat 336 

" , Mose Bryan jaying his Respects to. 578 
Bushwhackers Kept at Bay by a Brave Girl. ..619 

Butler (Gen.) as a Young Lawyer 607 

" in Council with the Secessionist Con- 
spirators "32 

Butler's Laconic Hint to a Pilot 374 

" 's "Shameful Tyranny" in N. Orleans. .495 
" 's Style of Clearing off a Table 482 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



693 



Buzzard's Roost, Reading the Amnesty Proc- 
lamation at 124 

By-Scene at the Battle of Leesburg 286 

C. 

Cabinet Pictures Before and After the Election.69 

Calhoun, Garrison at the Grave of 151 

" John Quincy Adams foretelling the 

Future to 123 

Calhoun's Escape from the Gallows 128 

California Joe and his Telescopic Rifle 236 

Calumnious Charge of Loyalty against John 

Hawkins ". 28 

Canadian Editor's Interview with President 

Lincoln 489 

Canine Patriotism, Sufferings, and Honors. . . 504 

Capital Ruse to save Springfield 267 

C'apt . Dickson's Ride with the Pretty Secesh . . . 524 

" Strong delivering his Revolvers 259 

* " Tilden's Lucky Escape 342 

" 's Trade for a Kiss 605 

Career of Frank Henderson 1 73 

Carolinian Unionist Showing the Track 52 

Carter's Polite Mode of giving Information. .259 

Carving his own Headboard 595 

Cass's Backbone 139 

Castle Thunder, Branding Deserters at 233 

Caught in his Own Trap 424 

Cause for Rejecting a Recruit 194 

Cavender, the Martyr Preacher 139 

Challenging the Sentinel 401 

Chance for a "Lady of Character" 548 

Change of Tune and Position 261 

Changed his Mind 199 

Characteristic Lady's Joke 593 

" Pluck of a Western Soldier. ... 296 

" Charge ! Chester, Charge ! " 356 

Charleston Women under Fire 585 

Chase, Joke of the President on Secretary. . .465 

Chase of the " Sovereign " 388 

Chattanooga, Battle with Snow-balls at 275 

Cheers and a " Tiger " for Harry Bumm 192 

" instead of a Speech 56 

Chiekamauga and Chattanooga 503 

Childhood's Prayer in the Last Hour 548 

Chronicles of a Railway Trip 147 

Circulation of Union Proclamations in South 

Carolina 109 

Circumstances Alter Principles 108 

Cities Built and in Embryo : Schaeffer and 

Ould at a Joke 69 

Clerical Prisoners of State 130 

Clerks of the President 135 

Clever Dogs, but both Sucked Eggs 620 

" Use of the Countersign 212 

Clinging to the Guns 365 

Close of McPherson's Noble Career 253 

Cluster of little Courtesies 484 

Coffee for Jack 383 



Colonel Farrar Winding-up a Dance 517 

Colonel Gazley doing a little Guard-Duty. . . .418 

" Owen's Squad Drill 407 

" Polk, and Sanders the Refugee 100 

Combat between the Kearsarge and Alabama.365 

" Come from 'Ginny, sure," 116 

Comedy of Cabinet Errors 54 

Coming Events cast their Shadows before 143 

Command of the Virginia Porces tendered to 

Gen. Scott : .71 

Comment on Mr. Sloanaker's " Beautiful 

Portrait." 643 

Commission of Major conferred on a Lady. . . .558 
Commissioner deciding a Question of Age. . .184 
Complimentary Responses of a Soldier to his 

General 432 

Complimentary Salutations to his General. . .195 

Compliments of the Season 330 

Compromising the Capitol Flag 73 

Conciliatory Mesmerism 108 

Conditional Offer of his Autograph by General 

Grant 564 

Confederate Brooches not to Gen. Viele's Taste.620 

" Notes in Maryland 68 

Confession of a Rebel Officer to Gen. Grant.. .60 
Congressman Ely at the Confederate Passport 

Office 424 

Connecticut Tenth, Corporal of the 205 

" Twelfth, Weitzel satisfied with the.41 5 

Constructive Parole Rights 94 

Consul and General matched against each 

other in Savannah 511 

Contempt for Confederate Lines, Paroles, etc. ..536 
" Contraband," Application of the Term by 

Gen. Butler 102 

Contra'd News : an Editor before the Cabinet.492 

Contrast between the Two 641 

Conundrums at the Wrong Time 502 

Conversation with an Atlanta Young Lady. . . .607 
on his Threatened Assassination. 640 

Converting Lady Rebels 595 

Cord for Cord — Secession Currency 474 

Corinth, Gould the Hero of 103 

Cost of a Canteen of Water 317 

Cotton Burners in Louisiana 453 

Could not Wait for Death 510 

Could'nt Pass with his Cigar 406 

Courage of Woman during Battle 594 

Court-Martialing a Whole Division 312 

Crossing Pox River 85 

Culpepper, Maiden Loveliness at 571 

Cumberland, Last Gun of the Ship 352 

Curiosity of Rebel Soldiers to hear President 

Lincoln's Message 131 

Customer for Grant's Biography 51 1 



Dalliance and Treachery — Lt. II. and Mrs. C.531 
Dam (Bailey's) for saving the Miss. Squad'n.376 



694 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS, 



Danger of Freedmen Voting 69 

Daring Attack upon a Paymaster's Boat 397 

Davis (Gen. J, C), Tragical Encounter be- 
tween Gen. Nelson and 413 

Davis, Jefferson, and Elizabeth Self. 134 

Davis's Chairs in Eeadiness for Ulysses 114 

Davis's Trap for Grant 274 

Deaf and Dumb Soldier 196 

Dealing with a Kebel Trader 504 

Death Preferred to the Southern Oath 127 

" Smiling in Victory's Embrace 370 

Death-bed Scene of the*Murdered President. .635 
Deathly Encounter between Hunt and Lough- 
borough 227 

Delirious Bravery of a Southern Hotspur 334 

Delivered at the Eleventh Hour 580 

Delivering up their Swords at Fort Pulaski. .334 
Delivery of their Ammunition before Surren- 
dering 294 

Dcm Eotten Shell 370 

Description of So. Carolina by Judge Pettigru.74 

Deserting a Bad Cause 192 

Determined Capture of a Texan Battle Flag. .342 

Devotion of a Private to Gen. McP-herson. . .330 

" of Farragut's Men to their Admiral. 374 

" to the Stars and Stripes 64 

Dick Bowles parting with his Eevolver 231 

Dick, the Four-footed Orderly 559 

Dickson's (Capt.) Bide with the Pretty Secesh. 524 

Didn't like A r allandigham's Defeat 70 

Disappointed Expectations 642 

Discussion between Majer Downing and Mr. 

Linkin 44 

Diseases of the Brain and Heart 92 

Disguised as a Bell- Wether 260 

Dissensions in " the Happy Family," 659 

Distribution of his Bounty 216 

Disturbing an Orator 61 

Divide is the Word, or you are a Dead Johnny.484 

"Divil a Macarthy drawn at-all-at-all" 203 

Dixie, On the Road to 105 

" Do they miss me at Home 1 " 324 

Doctor - 's Dismissal for Drunkenness and 

Kissing 437 

Doctor 's Loyalty rather Coppery 63 

Donelson, Frankie Bragg the little Patriot at. .613 

Donning the Breeches 196 

'Don't shoot there any more — that's Father ! '.241 
Doubtful Loyalty, Political and Matrimonial. .570 

"Doughnation "from the Maine Ladies 492 

Douglas (Senator) and Gen. Stewart on "the 

Situation," 57 

L)ouglas' s last Message to his Sons 127 

Douglas's (Mrs.) Noble Resistance to Southern 

Persuasion 536 

Down upon the Table Waiters 421 

Dr. Cottman in Butler's Hands 60 

Dr. Rucker — his Case and Escape 75 

Dramatic Scene in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet.. .26 



Duel on Horseback in one of the Peninsula 
Battles 224 

Dutch Landlord's use of Grayback Twenties . 445 

E. 

Eager to be a Soldier : Handsome Lizzie 204 

Eagle at the Mast Head .390 

Easy Way of Cutting Red Tape, by Grant. .428 

Eating tip the Stars and Bars 623 

Effect of Crinoline on "Union" Sentiments. . .182 

Eighth Ohio Blazing Away 294 

Eleven- Year-Old Warrior Picking-off the 

Enemy 241 

Elizabeth Comstock and the Dying Soldier . . . .526 

Ellsworth, Baker, Lyon — a Brave Trio 520 

Ellsworth's Assassination 321 

Ely (Congressman) at the Confederate Pass- 
port Office 421 

Emphatically a Bootless Undertaking 281 

Emptying a Hawk's Nest . 344 

Encounter of Picket Wits 271 

Enlistment of " Stonewall Jackson " in the 

Union Army . 183 

Entombment of a Virginia Loyalist 106 

Equal to the Emergency 192 

Escape from Libby Prison through a Young 

Lady's Intervention 585 

Escape of Gen. Tyler and his Staff. 251 

Estimate of Confederate " Promises to Pay," 

Down South 481 

Examining one of the Baltim'e Unconquerables. 135 

Executive Favor well Bestowed 548 

Expensive Joke on Commander Bankhead by a 

Southern Dame 384 

Explaining the Initials " O. V. M." 224 

Exploits of " the French Lady." 367 

F. 

Failed to Hold his Position : Gen. Palmer to 

Gen. Pope 270 

Faith and its Reward 546 

Falling Back at the Wrong Moment 605 

Falsta/f in the. Cavalry Service 313 

Familiar Chat about Generals 112 

" Talk with Mr. Lincoln on the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation 651 

Family Quarrel settled on the Battle-field. . . .245 

Family Swords not to be Exempted 550 

Fanny and Nellie of the 24th New Jersey 170 

Farewell Scene among the Tars 378 

Farragut, Gallantry of to Miss Victor 379 

" when a Midshipman 369 

Farragut's Final Answer to the Emissaries of 

Treason 354 

Farragut's Men, Devotion of, to their Adm'l. .374 

Farrar ( Col.) Winding up a Dance 527 

Fatal Fulfilment of a Jest 586 

Fate of a Coward 168 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS, 



695 



Fate of two German Brothers 309 

" Father, I will never Surrender to a Rebel !".239 

Fearful Ordeal for a Deserter 1 74 

Female Government Contractor 483 

" Loveliness at Fort Henry 545 

" Traitors making Ashes of the Glorious 

Flag 59 

Fiction left in the Shade : the Corporal o. the 

Tenth Connecticut 205 

Field Carnages and Millinery Dispensed with.485 

Fiendish Deeds of a Western Amazon 296 

Fierce Artillery Duel 278 

Fight for the Flag at Petersburg 330 

" with the Iron Monster " Tennessee,". . .385 

Fightin' ober a Bone 194 

Fighting, Dying, and Buried " with his Nig- 
gers." 249 

Final Answer of Farragut to the Emissaries of 

Treason 354 

Final Scene on board of the " Mississippi,". .357 

Fine Trap but no Game 571 

Firing 22 Rounds with a Ball in his Thigh.. .201 
Firm Devotion of a Loyal Southern Woman to 

the Colors 40 

First Oath and Testimony of a Slave in Va.. . .90 
First "Union Demonstration" in Old Virginia. 602 
Five Hundred Dollars for a Plate of Cream. .527 

Flight, Capture, and Death of Booth 637 

Flight from the Shenandoah 505 

Florence Nightingale's Contribution 601 

Flowers from Lowly Hands for the Fallen Brave530 

Following their Leader 294 

Footc's Terms to Gen. Tilghman 367 

" For Life, if the Nation will take me," 163 

Foreshadowings of their Fate — Ellsworth, Ba- 
ker, Lyon 520 

Forgetting his Usual Courtesy 55 

Fort Donelson, Western Regiments at 266 

" " Young America at 227 

Fort Henry, Woman's Tongue betraying the 

Rebel Torpedoes at 589 

Fort McAllister, Sherman watching the Cap- 
ture of 295 

Fort Pickens Reinforced 395 

" Pillow, Remember 305 

" Pillow's Bloody Flag 570 

" Pulaski,— Delivery of Swords at 334 

, " Sumter, Anderson and his brave little 

Company leaving 254 

Fort Sumter, Brandy at : Poor Pry or. 491 

" " Hail Columbia and the Star 

Spangled Banner at 68 

Fort Sumter, Unfortunate Absence at the 

Seige of 101 

Fort Warren— Exit of Mason and Slidell 133 

" Forward ! March ! " — Last Words of a Fed- 
eral Lieutenant at Newbem 257 

Four-Legged Messenger proving Disloyal. . . .510 
Four-Legged Pets iu the Army 583 



Four Confederates bagged by a Union Soldicr.256 

Fox River, Crossing 85 

Frank, the Pretty Bugler of the Eighth Mich.. 022 

Frank Henderson, Career of. 1 73 

Frankie Bragg, the little Patriot at Donelson. .613 
Fredericksb'g, Humphrey's Deadly Charge at.288 

" Incident in the Battle of. 547 

Fremont's whole Body-Guard charged upon 

by one Rebel 239 

French Sensibility 86 

Fresh Pork for the Eighth Illinois « 466 

Friendly Advice to a Doubtful Unionist 62 

From a Palace to the Attic 474 

From Deck to Camp 174 

Front-Door Confabulations in Arkansas 43 

Fruit in Old Age 251 

Fulfillment of the Sergeant's Prophecy 547 

G. 

Gallant Vindication of the Flag Abroad 30 

Gallantry of Farragut to Miss Victor 379 

Garrison at the Grave of Calhoun 1 51 

Gathering Violets on the Battle-field 236 

Gazley (Col.) doing a little Guard Duty 418 

General Baker, Foreshadowing of his Fate. .520 

" Baker's Tragical Death 319 

" Banks, No Passes to Official Specula- 
tors by 425 

General Banks's Morning Call at Marshal 

Kane's Door 53 

General Banks's Reply to a Boston Lady 143 

" Birney's Startling Adventure .234 

" Blenker scorning to Retreat 310 

" Bragg and his Supposed Army 232 

" Bragg's Prompt Settlement of a Claim4S2 

" Burnside Directing a Retreat 336 

'• Butler as a Young Lawyer 607 

" Butler's application of the term "Con- 
traband," 1 02 

General Butler's Glorious Success in saving 

the " Old Ironsides," 360 

General Carter's Polite Mode of Giving In- 
formation 259 

General Cheatham whipped by Peggie McHue.420 

" Dumont's Rebuke of a Secessionist 60 

" Grant and the Pumpkin Pie Story. . . .463 
" Grant, Confess'n of a Reb. Officer to. 60 

" Jeff. Davis's Trap for 274 

" " No Calculation of that sort by321 

" " Unacquainted with Politics.. . .97 

" Grant's Biography, Customer for 511 

" " Conditioned Offer of his Auto- 
graph 564 

General Grant's Easy Way of cut'g Red Tapc428 
" " Idea — Worse to Lose Five 

than One 41 1 

General Grant's Shotted Salute at Midnight.. 324 

" Halleck and the Teamster 420 

" Hallcck's use of a Bad Report 457 



696 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



General Holt's Dinner 470 

" Hooker and the Newspaper Correspon- 
dents 477 

General Hooker's Battle above the Clouds. . .311 
" " Magnificent "War Horse 

" Lookout," 465 

General Hovey's Brilliant Charge 346 

General Howard on the "Wrong Side of the 

Battle-field 338 

General Howard, the Havelock of the War . . 629 
General Humphreys' Deadly Charge at Fred- 
ericksburg 288 

General Hunter's Special Aid 567 

" Jenkins's Mode of Parolling Deserters. 159 
" " Visit at a Penn. Editor's. . . .461 

" Johnston, Last Talk of, with his 

Generals 300 

General Johnston's Whipping at Resaca 326 

" Keamy, the " One-arm Devil," 318 

" Kilpatrick's Battle-Flag at Hagerst'n.247 

" Lander and the Bible '." 557 

" Lee's Great Army Surrendered 346 

" Longstreet's Instant Detect'n of a Spy283 
" Lyon leading his Chargeat Springfi'd.5S5 

" Gyon's Bravery and Sacrifice 224 

" Magmder's Table '. 478 

McClellan and Darkey John 439 

' " Dismounting to the Guard. 410 

" McCook's Pass for Old Buz 417 

" McCulloch and Joe Baxter 590 

" McPherson, Devotion of a Private to.330 
" McPherson's Noble Career, Close of.. 253 

" Meade and " Ale," 594 

General Mower's Successful Trick upon the 

Rebel Dispatch Bearer 325 

General Nelson in a Fix 402 

" Nelson's Half-Hour with a Pedler. . . .459 
" " Tragical Encounter with Gen. 

Davis 413 

General O.'s Stei'n Particularity as to his Night 

Wardrobe . 523 

General Paine' s Conversation with the Wife of 

a Secessionist 122 

General Palmer to Gen. Pope 270 

" Palmer's Spy Glass 591 

" Pemberton's Question about Grant 

answered 344 

General Phelps's Insanity Investigated by 

Gen. Butler 142 

General Polk in the Tightest Place 345 

" Price, and Van Dorn, pitted against 

Rosecrans 289 

" Rice to his Mother 615 

" Rosecrans and Pat's Furlo' . 411 

" " and Vallandigham coming 

to an Understanding 138 

General Rosecrans' Orderly Sergeant Delivered 

of a Baby in Camp 554 

General Rosseau's First Step towards making 
Loval Men of Rebels 63 



General Schoepf's Banking Operations in Ky.469 
" Scott, Comm'd of the Virginia Rebel 

Forces tendered to 71 

General Scott, Official Farewell to 124 

" Scott's Plan of the War 232 

" Sedgwick's Present of a Turkey 474 

" Sheridan and the Moonlight Picture. 280 

" " at Stone River 293 

" " riding to the Front 315 

" Sherman, Signaling for : Meeting of 

the Warriors 392 

General Sherman's Absence of Mind 589 

" Sherman's Courage before the Enemy. 274 
" " Heroism on the Battle-field 

of Shiloh 253 

General Smith's Brill't Strategy at Red River312 

" Steedman taking the Flag 317 

" Stewart and Senator Douglas on "the 

Situation," 57 

General Stewart Too Late to Dinner 464 

" Terry's Colored Cook and his Shell.. 456 
" Tilghman, Adm'l Foote's Terms to.. 367 

" ' and his Loyal Mother 556 

" Tyler's Escape with his Staff 251 

" Wads worth — Refusal to Receive Pay 

for Fighting for his Country 468 

General Wadsworth's Shoe Raid 458 

" Weitzel Satisfied with the 12th Conn.415 
" Zollicoffcr's Death at the Hands of 

Col. Fry 237 

Generals among the Bullets .331 

Generals Grant and Meade in Consultation 

before Richmond 256 

Gens. Nelson and Davis's Tragical Encounter413 

Generosity of Poor Jack 360 

George Peabody Repudiating the Rebel Com- 
missioners. 126 

Georgia Girls and Federal Lieutenants 496 

Georgia, Northern Schoolma'ams in 611 

Gettysburg, Affecting Mementoes of. 627 

Gettysburg, Mrs. Wade the Loyal Bread Ba- 
iter at 568 

Girl-Boy Drummer 206 

Girl-Boy Soldier in the Ninetieth Lllinois 567 

Girl Recruit for the Cavalry .168 

Giving 'em Fits 407 

Glad for Burnside 318 

Glorious Effect of National Music upon the 

Troops .287 

Glorious Success of Gen. Butler in saving 

" Old Ironsides," 360 

Glorious to Die for One's Country 272 

" God bless the old fla— ," 243 

God's Flag 140 

Going in Quest of Satisfaction 241 

Going over his Battles Again. 479 

Going to see the Rebel Ram 353 

Good Charlie, the Union Guide 105 

Good Humor towards a Journalist 655 

" Luck for an Iowau Soldier 469 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



697 



Good Samaritan in an Unexpected Hour and 

Place 250 

Good-Natured Jerry 386 

Got the Point twisted around Wrong 162 

Gottlieb Klobberyoss on the Draft 189 

Gould, the Hero of Corinth 103 

Governor Andy Johnson's Supplement to one 

of Lorenzo Dow's Stories 48 

Gov. Todd and the Applicant for Exemption. .185 
Gov. Yates giving Grant a Desk in his Office.405 
Grant and Meade in Consultation before Rich- 
mond 256 

Grant, Confession of a Rebel Officer to 60 

Grant's Biography, Customer for 511 

Grant's Easy Way of Cutting Red Tape 428 

" Objection to having any Trade Partner- 
ship 475 

Great Act for a little Girl 584 

Great Day's Work for a Scout : the Misses 

Scott 563 

Grim War and the Innocents 626 

H. 

Had no White Flag on Board 382 

Had to Acknowledge the Breed 204 

Hail Columbia and the Star Spangled-Banner 

at Fort Sumter 68 

Hail Columbia in a New Version 418 

Half-Hour's Experience of a Pedler with Gen. 

Nelson 459 

Halleck and the Teamster 420 

Halleck's Use of a Bad Report 457 

Halting Effect of " the Ardent," 404 

Hamlin (Vice-President), a Private in Co. A.100 

Handsome Rebuke from an Alabamian 132 

Happy Ending to a Sad Mistake 185 

Happy to make Gen. Gordon's Acquaintance.203 

Hard on Negley 431 

Hard-Shell Brethren dealing with a Contuma- 
cious Member 65 

Hard Tack for the Fifth Excelsior 575 

Hard to tell Pork from Tomatoes 468 

Hard-up for a Blacksmith 123 

Hard Work for a Drafting Col. in Savannah. 165 

Hardee's Tactics with a Point left out 427 

Harp and Shamrock, Stars and Stripes 322 

Harper's Ferry Flag, Quite a Safe Place for the588 
Harry Bumm, Cheers and a " Tiger" for. ... 192 
Hatred of Southern Unionists to Southern 

Rebels 93 

He was Too Big not to be a Soldier 258 

Heart- Rending Scene , 579 

Hearts and Swords 599 

Heavy Firing — No Casualties ; and Why ? . . .340 
Helping a Soldier : a Point for Brownlow. . . .409 

Hercules- A fricanus going to the War 202 

Heroism of a Naval Engineer 387 

" of Sherman, on the Battlefield of 
Shiloh 253 



Hiding their Infant Moses 538 

Hiding the Flag : Female Artifice 36 

His Discharge Confirmed by Heaven 482 

His Favorite Flag for a Winding Sheet 578 

His Knapsack told the Tale 223 

History of a Sword 509 

Hoax upon Rebel Sharpshooters 255 

Hoisting the Flag on Independence Hall, by 

President Lincoln 37 

Holding the Hill — Valor of Burnside 290 

Homage to the Flag by an Eagle 39 

Home and the Battle-field 577 

Home Scene in the Cradle of Rebellion 555 

Honesty on the Battle-field 480 

Honorable Commendation instead of Ignomin- 
ious Death 425 

Hooker and the Newspaper Correspondents. .477 

Hooker's Battle above the Clouds 311 

" Magnificent War-Horse "Lookout,". 465 

Hoosier Straightforwardness 271 

Hopeful Tackett — his Mark 177 

Hopeless Cases 612 

Horrors of the Bull Run Battle-field .323 

Horse Incidents at Bull Run 499 

Hostage Wanted for his Wife and Family. . . .623 
Hovey's brill' t Charge — the Preacher's Regt..346 

"How are you, Conscript ? " 211 

" How does he grow 'em ? " 157 

How the Flag was planted at Vicksburg 306 

How to Spike a Gun 470 

How to take the Oath G 1 5 

Howard (Gen.) on the Wrong Side of the 

Battle-field 338 

Howard (Gen.), the Havelock of the War. . .629 
Howe, the little Drummer-Boy in the Fifty- 
ninth Illinois 235 

Humphrey's Deadly Charge at Fredericksb'g.288 

Hurrah for the Gunspiker 314 

Hurrahs for Jeff. Davis in the Wrong Place. ..34 

I. 

" I am proud to Die for my Country." 540 

"Hikes de Job."..* 169 

" I told you I would do it," 288 

Ignoble end of a Washington 341 

" I'll do it, tell Gen. Grant ! " 248 

Illinois Eighth Regiment, Fresh Pork for the.466 

" Fifty-ninth's little Drummer Boy 235 

" Ninetieth, Girl-Boy Soldier in the 567 

" Sixteenth's Regim'tal Clothes- Washer. 205 
" Twenty-seventh's Happy Burial Occas'n506 

Important Witness on the Stand 1 53 

Impositions upon Furloughed Men 432 

Impressive Sight aboard Ship on Sunday 381 

Improving on Acquaintance 554 

Impromptu Enforcement of Discipline 423 

In and out of the Vicksburg Caves 606 

In Bed with a Shell— Lively Times 499 

Inability to furnish Supplies to both Armies.. 477 



G98 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 



Incident of the Battle of Fredericksburg 547 

Incident of the 119th New York Regiment. ..280 

Independent Southern Girls 567 

Indiana 16th — Capture of the Texas Flag. . .312 

Indiana Volunteer Ninety-two Years Old 196 

Ingenuity of a Yankee Wife in getting a Pass. 41 9 

Instance of Loyalty in Virginia 551 

Interceding for her Father : Elizabeth Self and 

Jeff. Davis 134 

Interesting Contribution to a Sanitary Fair. ..620 
" Historical Episode, Civil and Mili- 
tary 79 

Interesting Scrap of History 144 

Interview at the Libby, between Morgan and 

Neal Dow 551 

Interview of a Canadian Editor with Presi- 
dent Lincoln 489 

Intrepid Conduct of Two Drummer Boys . . ..338 
Investigation by General Butler into General 

Phelps's Insanity 142 

Iowa and Texas — Terrible Encounter 239 

Iowa Cavalry : Swearing-in a Cook 447 

Iowan Soldier's Good Luck 469 

Ira's Wife and his Breeches 165 

Irish Logic concerning " Shmall Arms." 430 

Irish ililltary Imagination 125 

" Ironsides," Billiards on board the 371 

Island No. 10, Roberts's Half-Hour at 358 

Is the Colonel at Home ? 230 

It teas the baby that did it ! 217 

I've Enlisted, Sir 191 

J. 

Jackson's Famous " Union " Toast 23 

Jeb Stuart playing Orderly to Gen. Buford. . . 543 
Jeff. Davis's Fellow Citizens in Mississippi, 

Loyalty of one of 82 

Jeff. Davis's Northern Present 133 

" " Trap for Grant 274 

Jenkins's (Gen.) Mode of Parolling Deserters.! 59 

" " Visit at a Penn. Editor's 461 

Jerry the Genius looking through General 

Palmer's Spy-Glass 591 

Jim Morgan and the New Recruit 169 

Joe Guild, Arrest of, by Col. Myers 64 

Joe Johnston's Whipping at Resaca 326 

Joe Parsons's " little favor " from a Rebel . . . 242 

John Bell's Tennessee Iron Works 103 

John Letcher's Views on a Personal Subject. 138 

John Minor Botts between Two Fires 132 

John Morgan and Mr. Clay's Horses 48S 

John Quiucy Adams Foretelling the Future to 

Mr. Calhoun 123 

John Wells's " Idee" as to Splitt'g the Uuionll5 

Johnnie and Yank at a Trade 485 

Johnson (Andy) and the Clerical Secessionist.. 89 
" (Gov.) and his Supplement to one of 

Lorenzo Dow's Stories 48 

Joke of Pres. Lincoln on Secretary Chase. . .465 



Judge Baldwin Soliciting a Pass 431 

" G.'s Idea of the Rebellion 64 

Just like Jack 368 

Just the kind of Arms a Quaker could bear. . . . 206 

Justice surviving Clemency G46 

Juvenile Political Sentiments 137 

K. 

Kane's Door, Banks's Morn. Call at Marshal.. 53 

Kearny, the " One-Arm Devil," 318 

Kearsarge and Alabama Combat 365 

Kentucky, Gen. Schoepf's Bank'g Operat's in.469 

Kentucky Girl's Spirit 538 

" Provisional Gov't on an Excursion. .41 

Kentucky's Joan d' Arc 525 

Kilpatrick's Battle-Flag at Hagerstown 247 

Kind o' wanted to be in the Front 332 

Knotty Argument for Secession Ladies 116 

L. 

Laconic Hint to a Pilot by Gen. Butler 374 

Lander (Gen.) and the Bible 557 

Lane ("Senator) and the Stage Driver Ill 

Last Day's Incidents in the President's Life. .633 

Last Gun of the Cumberland 352 

Last Message to his Father 444 

Last Thoughts of the Dying Boy-Soldier 562 

Laughable Arrest of Colonel H. by two Young 

Ladies 538 

" Lcatherbrecehes " in the Federal Service. . .322 

Leave of Absence for a Novel Reason 436 

Leave-Taking at the Station 604 

Lee's Great Army Surrendered and the Rebel- 
lion in its Final Gasp 346 

" Lee's Miserables," 561 

Lcesburg, Black — the Scotch Deserter at. ... 177 

Leesburg, By-Seene at the Battle of. 286 

Left to Dine Alone 108 

Legislative Scene for a Painter 125 

Lending to the Government 462 

Length of the War according to Floridan 

Chronology 143 

Letcher's (John) Views on a Personal Subjectl38 
Letter of Sympathy from a Union Soldier to a 

Confederate Officer's Betrothed 626 

Letter to Eight Young Ladies from a Soldier. .503 

Letting them judge by the Tunes 109 

Libby Prison, Escape from, through a Young 

Lady's Intervention 585 

Lieutenant Davis's Delicate Little Task 263 

" 's Perfumed Breath 478 

Life of Lincoln written by himself 654 

Lillybrldge (Annie) and Lieut. W 621 

Lincoln, Conversation with, on his Threatened 

Assassination 640 

Lincoln, Deathbed Scene of 635 

Lincoln's Message, Curiosity of Reb. Soldiers 

to hear 131 

Lincoln's Moderate Ideas of a Competency. .513 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



699 



Literal Interpretation of North 'n Sympathy by 

a Rebel General 32 

Literal " Stump" Speech of a Soldier 116 

Little overweighted with Cold Lead 546 

Lizzie's Mark on the Handkerchief. 566 

Logic of Sugar and Coffee 501 

Long Table-Cloths for Southern Cavalrymen. 308 

Longstrect's Instant Detection of a Spy 283 

Looking after a Soldier's Wife 603 

Looking out for Hospital Accommodations 556 

Lost Mountain, Waving the Stars and Stripes 

from the Summit of. 303 

Louisiana Cotton Burners 453 

Love and Treason 529 

Love-Greetings to the Soldiers 567 

Loved the Old Flag still 296 

Loyal Breeze from Port Hudson 112 

" Demonstration with a Crutch 90 

Loyalty and Abolitionism supposed Synonymous 579 
Loyalty of one of Jeff. Davis's Fellow Citizens 

in Mississippi 82 

Lucky Moment on board the Pirate Sumter. .373 

Lyon, Baker, Ellsworth — a Brave Trio 520 

Lyon (Gen.) leading his Charge at Springfi'd585 
Lyon's Bravery and Sacrifice 224 

M. 

Magic of Washington's Name 120 

Magruder Sharing his Liquor 449 

Maiden Loveliness at Culpepper 571 

Maiden, Wife, Volunteer, and Widow — Love 

and Patriotism 161 

Maine and Georgia : Behind the Trees 244 

Maine and Maryland : Nuptials in Camp 535 

Maine. Ladies' " Loughnation." 492 

Majer Downing on the " Merrymac," 355 

Major Anderson and his Brave Little Compa- 
ny leaving Fort Sumter 254 

Major B. en route with the Spanish Widow . . 623 

Making a Family Matter of it 164 

Man of Experience — Sure 363 

Manley (Anna), the Baltimore Heroine 528 

Marian and her Brave Boy in Blue 159 

" Mark Time !•" — Gen. Nelson in a Fix 402 

Marriage Scene in the Army of the Potomac. .592 

Married Applicants for Exemption 183 

Marshall's Demijohn Drill 424 

Mary Birkitt and her 2,000,000 Percuss'n Caps<l97 

Maryland, Confederate Notes in 68 

" Queer Drafting Scene in 195 

Maryland Slaveholder driving his Slaves to 

the Recruiting Officer 206 

Massachusetts and So. Carolina pitted against 

each other in Battle 322 

Massachusetts Minute Men 72 

23d Regiment's Drummer Boy267 
Master and Servant meeting in a Strange Placel49 

Material for the Novelist's Pen 524 

Material of which " Mudsill " Regiments are 
made up 466 



Maternal Love and Patriotic Duty 215 

Matrimonial Army Advertisements: Hint to 

Romantic Young Ladies 575 

Matronly Opinion of " Corduroy," 420 

McClellan and Darkey John 439 

" Dismounting to the Guard 410 

McCook's Pass for Old Buz 417 

McCulloch and Joe Baxter 590 

McPherson(GenJ, Devotion of a Private to. .330 

McPherson's Noble Career, Close of 253 

Meade and " Ale," 594 

Meade and Grant in Consultation before 

Richmond 256 

Meade and Polk (Bishops) in Consultation. .260 
Medicinal Properties of Blankets glorious! tj 

Illustrated 530 

Melancholy End of Johnson the Deserter 214 

Memorable Interview at the White House. . .148 

Mending a Faulty Pass 437 

Merited Rebuke of a Secessionist by General 

Dumont 60 

Merriment in the Wrong Place 544 

Michigan 8th — Frank, the Pretty Bugler of </ie622 

Midnight Charge of the Mule Brigade 279 

Mighty Big Risk 333 

Milesian's (A) Plucky Defence of the Flag. .343 

Military Etiquette 435 

Military Monomania of a Brooklyn Girl 520 

Military Notation according to Pres. Lincoln. 258 

Milk with Accompaniments 450 

Minister Cameron and his German-Africanus . . 42 
" Faulkner and the Emperor Napoleon 

on Secession 129 

Minnesota Regiment, Wilkinson's Veteran. ... 58 

Minty's Bloody Sabre Charge 304 

Minute Men of Mass. : 1775 and 1861 72 

Misfortunes of a Cotton Speculator 471 

Miss Captain Taylor of the First Tennessee. ..544 

Miss Clemmie's Album 630 

Miss Lee and the Yankee Corporal 582 

Miss Major Cushman among her Captors 549 

Miss 's copy of Byron, and the Reb. Sergt.5\9 

Missing their Booty 254 

Mission Ridge Crest, Planting the Flag at. . . . 221 
" Mississippi," Scenes on board the Steamer.357 
Mississippi, Witnessing and Dying for the 

Truth in 120 

Miss. Squadron saved by Bailey's Dam 376 

Missouri, Bright Girls in 604 

Missouri, One of Bill Myers's Capers in 306 

Mistook the Genus 561 

Mistook his Man 88 

Moderate Ideas of a Competency 513 

Mohican, Sailing into the Jaws of the 370 

Money Could Not Buy his Vote 132 

Montgomery's Ride into the Hampton Le- 
gion's Nest 262 

" More Brains, Lord ! " 31 

More than a Match against Six 284 

Morgan, John, and Mr. Clay's Horses 488 



700 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS 



Morgan ! Morgan ! 244 

Morning Call at Marshal Kane's Door 53 

Morris Island— Very Obliging Picket 280 

Mose Bryan paying his Respects to General 

Burnside 578 

Mother {A) puts out the eyes of her own son, to 

keep him from the War 188 

Mother-Corporal on a Ten Days' Furlough 411 

Mower's Successful Trick upon the Rebel 

Despatch-Bearer 325 

" Mr. and Mrs. Grant." 554 

Mr. Beecher's Case of Muskets for the South. 405 

Mr. Cass's Backbone 139 

" Mr. Lincoln Forgot It" 135 

Mr. Lincoln, Original Cons'acy to Assassinate. 95 

Mr. Richardson Initiating his Escape 584 

Mr. S., the Countryman, and his Substitute. .193 
Mrs. Belmont's Concert for the Sanitary Com. .587 

Mrs. Browncll, the Heroine of Newbern •. .268 

Mrs. Douglas's Noble Resistance to Southern 

Persuasion 536 

'Mrs. Partington on the New Military Crop. . .461 

Mrs. Polk defining her Political Position 144 

Mrs. Reynolds' App't as a Major in the Army. 268 

Mrs. Smith's Husband to be Exchanged 187 

Mrs. Wade, the Loyal Bread-Baker at Gettysb.568 

" Mudsills" on the Sacred Soil 114 

Music in the Hospital 527 

" Mustered In," 71 

Mutability of Public Reputation : Banks's Re- 
ply to a Boston Lady 143 

My Bold Soldier Boy 597 

My Gift to my Country 188 

My Mary Ann 604 

My Mother's Hand 627 

My Son ! Has he Come ? 539 

N. 
Napoleon on "French Youngsters" in the 

Federal Army 49 

Nasby's Reasons why he should not be Draft'd211 

Nashville Ladies working the Card 557 

National Oath of Allegiance according to 

Southern Honor 74 

Nature in Council upon the Union 127 

Negley (Gen.), Hard on 431 

Negro Rifleman brought down at Yorktown..319 

" Nellie," the brave Battle-Horse 500 

Nelson's (Gen. J Half-Hour's Experience with 

a Pcdler 459 

Nelson's (Gen.) Tragical Encounter with Gen. 

Davis 413 

Nerving his Hand One Instant More 243 

Nervous Customer in the Red-Tape Dep't 172 

Neutral Cornfield before Petersburg 325 

New Jersey Twenty- fourth: Fannie and Nellie.170 

Neiu Orleans Flag Presentation 94 

New Orleans Judge, Amours of a 552 

New Orleans, Shameful Tvrannv of Butler in495 



New York Ball-room Badge of Treason Ill 

" " 119th Regt, Incident of the 280 

New York Scene in the Park Barracks 596 

Newbern, "Aunt Charlotte" — the Old Cook at 507 

Newbern, Mrs. Brownell — the Heroine of. 2*68 

New-comer into Camp 408 

" Newport News," 102 

Newspaporial Forestalling of Dying Senti- 
ments, etc 467 

No Appeal Left 183 

No Calculation of that Sort by Grant 321 

No Dead Cavalry Men 280 

No Fancy for Salt Pork, Hard Tack and 

Minie Bullets r . . .162 

No Heart in the Cause 154 

No Letter from his Siveetheart for nearly a Year495 

No Passes to Official Speculators 425 

No Quarter — the Black Flag 293 

No Respect for the Tender Passion 278 

No Title of " Soldier" given to the Devil... .209 
No Wickedn's like the Wickedn's of a Wotnan597 
Noble Greeting by a Loyal Southerner to a 

Green Mountain Boy 67 

Noble Words and Acts of a Slavernaster 175 

Non-Combatant — but a Tough One 78 

Northern Instructors of Southern Teachers 81 

" Muscle and Southern Chivalry 283 

" Present to Jefferson Davis 133 

" Schoolma'ms in Georgia Gil 

Not a single General on the Battle-field 2^3 

Not a Star Obscured 352 

Not " Jeff." but " Geoffrey " Davis 24 

Not Yankees but Wolford's Cavalry 308 

Nothing agin the Old Flag 128 

" lost by True Courage 248 

Nuptials in Camp: Maine and Maryland. . . .533 



Oath-Taking in St. Louis 115 

Obeying Orders in his Own Way 412 

Object of the War on the Rebel Side 141 

Object of the War on the Union Side 141 

Official Farewell to Gen. Scott 124 

Official Likeness of President Lincoln 514 

Off-hand Eloquence of a Rough Cavalryman . . 598 

" Oh, for Four Regiments ! " 265 

Ohio Battle-Flag in the hands of a Bishop. . . .81 

Ohio Eighth Blazing Away 294 

Ohio Toll-gate Keeper's Talk with Val'dig'm.48 

Old Abe fixing the Responsibility 592 

Old Abe hard-up for a Joke for once 43 

Old " Cotton Beard" and his Girls 108 

Old Hannah and the Restored Soldier 574 

Old Hickory's Three Swords and Three In- 
junctions 110 

" Old Ironsides," Glorious Success of General 

Butler in Saving 360 

Old Magruder Sharing his Liquor 449 

Old Men Turning-out when Eng. Pitches-in..l58 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS, 



701 



Old Rosy, and not Old Pap 333 

" Old Sortie," the Rebel General 502 

Old Zack and his Son-in-Law 119 

" O'Meara is Dead ! " 298 

On the Road to Dixie 105 

One Day before the Battle : Last Talk of 

Johnston with his Generals 300 

One Man's Service to his Country 486 

One Obscure Patriot Baffling a Whole Rebel 

Army 231 

One of Bill Myers's Capers in Missouri 306 

One of the Best 443 

One of the Most Brilliant Achievements 269 

One of the Tilings to be Done 62 

Orders on the Battle-field 438 

Original Conspiracy to Assassinate Lincoln ... 95 

Other Side of the Case 104 

Our dear old Flag never touched the Ground. 240 

Our Generals among the Bullets 331 

Out of Ammunition for a Time 243 

Outflanked for Once 438 

Overtaken at Last 494 

Owen's (Col.) Squad Drill 407 

Owning-up „ 314 

P. 

Paid his Assessment on the Spot 456 

Paine' s ( Gen.) Conversation with the Wife of a 

Secessionist 122 

Palmer to Pope : Failed to Hold his Position.270 
Pamphlet of Jokes in the corner of Mr. Lin- 
coln's Desk 645 

Parson Brownlow Expressing his Sentiments 

in Jail 67 

Parson Brownlow prefers the 'Direct' Route to 

Hell 125 

Parting and Singular Meeting of Two War 

Correspondents 499 

Password as unders'd by the German Guard. 423 

Pat's Compliments to "Desarters," 197 

Patience of Mr. Lincoln tried too Far 640 

Pathetic Offering of Genius to the Dead 629 

Patriotism of the Rarest Kind. . • 72 

Pay-Day in the Future 498 

Paying his Penalty — Cash Down 404 

Paying to have a hand in the Fight 341 

Pea-Ridge, Bowie-Knife Conflict at Battle of. .318 

Pea Ridge, Bravo for 328 

Peculiar Question of Bounty 201 

Peabody, George, Repudiating the Rebel 

Commissioner.. , 126 

Peggie McHue who whipped Gen. Cheatham426 

Pelicans vs. Eagles 88 

Pemberton's Question about Grant answered. 344 
Pen with which the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion was Signed 113 

Peninsula Battles — Duel on Horseback 224 

Penn. Editor's, Visit of Gen. Jenkins at a. . .461 
Pensacola Wedding-Table Flag 566 



Perils of Correspondents 488 

Petersburg, Fight for the Flag at 330 

" Neutral Cornfield 325 

Pettigru's Description of South Carolina . . . . 74 

Phil. Sheridan at Stone River 293 

Phillips, the Hoary Old Bloodhound 265 

" Physical Disability" exempting from the Draft 

and Something Else 593 

Picket Repartee at Vicksburg 335 

Pickets, Shaken down among the 412 

Pictorial Humors of the War 375 

Pictures of Mrs. Major P. and her Boy 610 

Pittsburg Landing — Skulking and Fourth of 

July Speeches 250 

Place for the Watch in Battle 384 

Planting the Flag on Mission Ridge Crest. . .221 

Pleasant little Trade 369 

Pleasant Hoax all Round 363 

Pocket-full of Coin ready for Delivery 646 

Pointed Rebuke from a Soldier's Death-bed. .568 

Political Courtesies at the White House 55 

Political Dialogue in Camp 132 

Political Rendering of Hamlet 56 

Polk (Col.), and Sanders the Refugee 100 

Polk (Mrs.) Defining her Political Position. . .144 
Polk, the Rev. Gen., in the Tightest Place.. .345 

Polly's Baby 646 

Poor Bragg and his Supposed Army 232 

Poor Pat's Idea of the Thing 1 37 

Poorer Pay but Better Business 175 

Port Hudson — Loyal Breeze 112 

Port Royal Welcome to the Troops 94 

Portable Iron-Clad Breastworks 236 

Porter's Big Scare 361 

Potomac Army Marriage-Scene 592 

Power of the Tender Passion on a Union Lieut.G02 

Prayer-Books and Scalping Knives 494 

Prayers for the Pres. by a Dying Soldier 257 

Preaching the Sword and Using It. 1 24 

Predict'n of Beckerdite, the South'n 'Prophet,'83 

Preferred to Die in the Field 292 

Present of a Turkey to Gen. Sedgwick 474 

Presentation to a Brave Woman 373 

Pres. Lincoln at the Play of Macbeth 134 

Pres. Lincoln Forgetting his Usual Courtesy. ... 55 
Pres. Lincoln Hoisting the American Flag at 

Independence Hall 37 

President Lincoln, Last Day's Incidents in the 

Life of 633 

Pres. Lincoln Mending a Faulty Pass 437 

President Lincoln treating the Richmond 

Commissioners to a little Story 25 

Pres. Lincoln, Widow Shultz's Appeal, to 434 

Pres. Lincoln's Conversation on his Threaten- 
ed Assassination 640 

President Lincoln's Deathbed Scene 635 

President Lincoln's First Dollar 658 

President Lincoln's Interview with a Canadian 

Editor 489 



702 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



President Lincoln's Joke on Sec'y Chase 465 

Pres. Lincoln's Life, written by himself. 654 

Pres. Lincoln's Message, Curiosity of Rebel 

Soldiers to hear 131 

President Lincoln's Military Notation 258 

President Lincoln's Official Likeness 514 

President Lincoln's Presidential Prospects . . . 42 
President Lincoln's Representative Recruit. . .191 
President Washington's Summary Dealing 

with Rebellion ' 118 

Presidential Favor at last for Everybody 85 

Pretty Widows and Imprisoned Lovers 628 

Price and Van Dorn pitted against Rosecrans289 

Price of Chivalry in Hard Cash 50 

Private Notions and Public Laws 202 

Private W. in Love and Luck 610 

" Pro Patria" Pictures at the Soldiers' Fair. .548 

Pro-Southern Dominie Delineated 65 

Promises of Bravery in Advance 264 

Prompt Administration of the Law 71 

Prompt Settlement of a Claim 482 

Proof Against Federal Gallantry. 569 

Prospective Value of the War 54 

Protection under the Constitution 96 

Provisional Gov't of Ky. on an Excursion. . . .41 

Public Opinion Baths 644 

Pumpkin Pie Story of Lieut. Wickfield and 

Gen. Grant 463 

Purging the Prayer Book 121 

Putting 'em through a Course of Sprouts 52 

Putting him through the Discipline 403 

Putting his Hand to the Roll 181 

Puzzling a Draft Commissioner 194 

a. 

Quality of Secessionist Oaths 150 

Queer Drafting Scene in Maryland 195 

Question in Infantry Practice 488 

Questions and Replies : " Nothing agin the 

Old Flag," 76 

Quid Pro Quo 190 

Quite a Safe Place for the Harper's Ferry Flag5S8 
Quite the Youngest Recruit for Uncle Sam. . . .185 

B. 

Racy Conversation between Mrs. Polk and Gen. 

Mitchell on " the Situation," 544 

Ragged Texans : Boots and Booty 302 

Raising the Flag 63 

Rallying again for the Battle 247 

Rare Page in Woman's History 543 

Rare Trick upon a War Correspondent 476 

Rather be a Soldier's Widow than a Coward's 

Wife 620 

Rather Doubtful Allegiance 1 54 

Rather too Spunky for them 390 

Ratifying the Ordinance — Startling Scene. . . .78 

Raw Captains 408 

Raw Recruits on Camp Guard 273 



Reading the Amnesty Proclamation at Buz- 
zard's Roost 124 

Ready Mode of meeting Difficulties by Gen. 

Butler 429 

Real and Artificial Cock-Tails 486 

Rebuff to a Trafficker in Exemption Papers. .194 
Reception of the Rebel Commissioner in 

London by Mr. Bates 25 

Record of a Loyal Family : Five Martyr So?is576 

Recruiting Extraordinary 196 

Red River, Brilliant Strategy of General 

Smith at 312 

Red, Wliite and Blue, — God's Flag 545 

Redfield's Stolen March 233 

Re-enlisting, but on a Different Side 201 

Refusal to Receive Pay for Fighting for his 

Country 468 

Refusing to Volunteer in the Rebel Army 106 

Regimental Clothes-Washer for the \f>th Illin's.205 
Reinforcement of Fort Pickens — How it was 

Done 395 

Reliable Information 465 

Relieved through the Mercy of Death 581 

Remember Fort Pillow ! 305 

Reporters on a Bender 480 

Reporting at the Front 300 

Representative Recruit for Pres. Lincoln,. . . .191 

Resaca, Joe Johnston's Whipping at 326 

Retort Courteous from an American in Paris 

to M. Thouvenel 73 

Revenge upon a Goose for Hissing at the Na- 
tional Air 447 

Reward of a Speech after Fifteen Years from 

its Delivery 643 

Reynolds' (Mrs.) Ap't as a Major in the Army268 

Rice (Gen.) to his Mother 615 

Rich by Shoddy Contracts 490 

Richardson Initiating his Escape 584 

Richmond, Genls. Grant and Meade in Con- 
sultation before 256 

Richmond War News Wanted 465 

Rigging up a ' Long Tom' out of Billy Luly.386 
Right kind of Gov't to be established Down 

South 87 

Right Word in the Right Place 539 

River Devils for carrying on the War 383 

River Steamers and Yankee Pilots 369 

Robbery by Mistake 594 

Roberts's Half-Hour's Visit at Island No. 10.358 

Rockafellow's Right Arm left still 285 

Roiled because he could not Fight 187 

Romantic Adventure of a Tenn. Loyalist 98 

"Root Hog or Die" — Music hath Charms. . . .242 

Rosecrans, and Pat's Furlo' 411 

Rosecrans and Vallandigham coming to an 

Understanding 138 

Rosecrans— Price and Van Dora pitted ag'st.289 
Rosecrans's Orderly Sergeant Delivered of a 
Baby in Camp 554 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 703 



Rosseau's First Step towards making Loyal 

Men of Rebels 63 

Rubbing it in — Scene in the Park Barr'ks, N. Y.596 
Running an Engine in the Confed. Service.. .454 
Ruse to obtain a Furlough ' 406 

S. 

Sad Result of Patriotic Courage in a Youth. 169 

Saddling to Suit the Route 513 

Safe Across the River 255 

Sailing into the Jaws of the Mohican 370 

Sailors and Sweethearts on the Ohio 387 

Samaritanism of the Genuine Type 534 

Same old Planter's Crochet 119 

Saved a Comrade's Life but Lost his Own. . .297 

Scarcely Seventeen Years but a Heroine 582 

Scared before being Hurt 364 

Scene at Fort Warren : Exit of Mason and 

Slidell 133 

Scene in the President's Room, the Evening 

preceding the First Proclamation for Troops. 29 
Scene of Domestic Sadn's : Woman's Firmn's.200 
Schaeffer and Ould at a Joke — Cities Built 

and in Embryo 69 

Schoepf's (Gen.) Blinking Operations in Ky.469 
Scott (General), Command of the Virginia 

Forces Tendered to 71 

Scott's Plan of the War 232 

Scouting the Doctrine that Majorities are to 

Rule 84 

Secesh Taming 97 

Secession Damsels and Federal Foragers 460 

Second Reflection in the Looking Glass 648 

Secret of the Unanimous Vote in the Senate. .49 
Sec'y Stanton and Gen. Butler on an Official 

Point 436 

Sedgwick's Present of a Turkey 474 

Seeking a Naval Appointment 375 

Semmes outwitting the Vanderbilt 379 

Senator Douglas's Last Message to his Sons.. 127 

Senator Lane and the Stage Driver Ill 

Senor B. and the Confed. Brigadier's DaughterG09 

Sentiments of a Dying Soldier 53 

Sentry Encounter with a " Regular," 402 

Sergeant Davis's Tender Beef 453 

Serious Indisposition of Two Uncles 431 

Settling an Irish Volunteer Case 166 

Seven Rebels captured by One Fed 314 

" Shackasses " just at the Right Moment. . . .244 

Shaken-Down among the Pickets 412 

Shaking Hands in the Middle of tha River.. .283 

Shaky Abutments 74 

"Shameful Tyranny" of Butler in N. Orleans.495 

Sharing Gen. Magruder's Table 478 

Sharp Practice among Volunteers 210 

Sharp Practice of Confederate Cruisers in 

English Waters 381 

She Loved a Soldier Lad 580 

Shenandoah, Flight from the 505 



Sheridan and the Moonlight Picture 2S0 

Sheridan at Stone River 289 

Sheridan Riding to the Front 315 

Sherman Outflanked for Once 438 

Sherman Watching the Capture of Fort Mc- 
Allister 295 

Sherman's Absence of Mind 589 

Sherman's Courage before the Enemy 274 

Sherman's Heroism on Battle-field of Shiloh.253 

Shoe-Raid by Gen. Wadsworth 458 

Shotted Salute at Midnight from Grant to Lee324 

Shultz's Timely Discovery 512 

Sickness after Furlough 427 

Signaling for Sherman 392 

Silence of a Drummer-Boy before the Flag . . 240 

Silk-Petticoats — Southern Fashion 497 

Simple but Effective Point taken by Mr. Lin- 
coln in a Capital Case 654 

Sinking the Albemarle Ram in the bottom of 

the Roanoke 371 

Sir Frederick's Question Answered 651 

Six Generals waiting to Receive Battle 335 

Sixteen Brothers in One Regiment 205 

Sixth Massachusetts Regiment's Daughter 535 

Skull-bone Memento kept by a Lady 619 

Slave Insurrection Foiled by Union Generals.. 76 

Sleeper's Saucy Battery 311 

Slidell's Consolation 131 

Smith's Brilliant Strategy at Red River 312 

Smuggling "the critter" into Camp 483 

Snake-Hunter's Style of Drill 406 

Snaked Away and Drummed In 213 

Sold ! 404 

Sold by his Intended Victim 218 

Soldier Mechanics 509 

Soldiers' Offering at the Grave of Washington 

Irving 556 

Sole Condition for Re-enlisting 176 

Solemn Scene at Midnight 31 

Solitary and Alone in Favor of Grant 655 

Solution of a Problem Peculiarly Southern 569 

Some Mistake in the Card 24 

Something to Cogitate Upon 1 64 

Song of Patriotism in the Forest 288 

Sources of Merriment 269 

South Carolina, Circulation of Union Procla- 
mations in 109 

South Carolina Described by Judge Pettigru...74 
South Carolina Union Men Safe in Jackson's 

Day 121 

Southern Black-Horse Guards and Yankee 

Fire-Zouaves 238 

Southern Female Chivalry 571 

Southern War Widows 603 

Special Aid to General Hunter 567 

Specimen of Ninth Corps Discipline 470 

Speedy Realization of an Angiy Wish 525 

Spirit of a Kentucky Girl 538 

Spirited Fight between Two Girls at Church. . . 593 



704 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



' Spiritual' Revelations on the Conduct of the 

War 50 

Splendid Service in a Bad Cause 276 

Springfield, Capital Ruse to Save 267 

Sprinkling Blood in the Face of the Nation. . .88 

St. Louis Oath-Taking 115 

Stanton and the " Old General," 149 

Stanton's First Meeting with Cabinet Traitors34 

Startling Adventure of Gen. Birney 234 

Stating it Just Right 286 

Stating the Exact Alternative 126 

Steedman taking the Flag 317 

Stewart (Gen.) too Late to Dinner 464 

Sticking to the Original Order 426 

Stone River, Phil. Sheridan at 293 

Stonewall Jackson's Enl't in the Union Armyl 83 

Strange Blotch on Calhoun's Right Hand 39 

Stray Leaf in the Vicksburg Campaign 225 

" Strictly Confidential," 502 

Strong (Capt.) Delivering his Revolvers 259 

Strong Case of Conscience 175 

Strong Professional Illustration 271 

Style of Clearing off a Table by Gen. Butler.482 
Substit'e Broker Sold: Indians for the Armyl 80 

Such a Sight as Thrills the Nerves 130 

Sue Mundajj, the Female Guerrilla 596 

Sumter, Unfortunate Absence at the Siege of.101 
Sumter (Pirate), Lucky Moment on board the373 
Sunk with the Stars and Stripes still Waving362 

Supper for All — Woman's Goodness 578 

" Swamp Angel " Incident 480 

Swear him in and let him go ! 114 

Swearing-in a Cook for the 1st Iowa Cavalry .447 
Sweet Seventeen Overhaxding the Secessionists . .541 
Sweet Sixteen on the Male side, and a 'Darling' 

too 209 

Sweetness of Secession Female Temper 599 

T. 

Table-Turning at the Recruiting Office 171 

Tableau Political 117 

Taken in and done for 160 

Taking a Hint 380 

Taking his Choice 140 

Talk with a Pretty Secession Miss 522 

Tapping the Telegraph Wires 477 

Tarpaulin Raking a Traitor Fore and Aft. . .351 
Tender Burial of a Union Drummer-Boy by 

Two Girls 522 

Tender in Years but strong in Devotion to his 

Country 207 

Tenderness of the President towards the Lowly. 217 

Tennessee, Fight with the Iron Monster 385 

Tennessee Loyalist's Romantic Adventure 98 

Tenth of May at Irwinville 648 

Terrible Encounter — Texas and Iowa 239 

Terry's Colored Cook and his Shell 456 

Tete-a-Tete with the Old Admiral 390 

Texas Flag captured by the \&th Indiana 312 

That Card from Willard's Hotel 49 



That Dinner at Gen. Holt's 470 

That Flag is Doubly' Dear to me this Morning .'588 

That Flag Presentation in New Orleans 94 

That is my Brother ! 519 

The Day and the Event 394 

The Last Battery in Lee's Army 659 

Them and Theirs — not Us 99 

They had heard of him 73 

Thirteen Battles and Three Flags 246 

Thirty Tremendous Minutes 357 

"Thpit on It," 228 

Three German Flank Movements 486 

Three Hundred Ladies with their Union Flags. 85 

Three Noble Union Girls 626 

Three Soldiers captured by a Boy with a Cof- 
fee Pot 337 

Tigers and Treason 103 

Tilden's Lucky Escape 342 

Tilghman, the Rebel General, and his Mother. .556 

To the Manor Born 93 

Tod (Gov.), and the Applicant for Exempt' n. . 185 

Told the Truth at the Right Time 331 

Tom Taylor's Flag of Truce 416 

Too Brave a Man to Disarm 264 

Too Fond of Chestnuts 320 

Toombs's Idea of Passports 426 

Tough Time with a Mule 452 

Tracing his Political Pedigree 87 

Tracts vs. Pound Cake 521 

Tragedy of Ellsworth's Assassination 321 

Tragical Death of General Baker 319 

Tragical Encounter between Generals Nelson 

and Davis 413 

Traitor Generals conferring over the "Last 

Ditch," 229 

Transfer of 'President Davis's' Table Service657 

Treason in an Unexpected Quarter 92 

Treason's Badge in a New York Ball Room ... 1 1 1 

Treating his Guests to a Good Drink 659 

Treating them according to their Sympathies. .27 

Tricks and Tactics in the Ranks 433 

Tricks to Avoid Duty 428 

Troubles of a Feminine "Secesh" 431 

Two College-Mates Cols, in Opposing Armies229 

Two Desertions — a Double Tragedy 158 

Two Kings at the South 91 

Two Made One : the Sergeant and the Daughter 

of the Regiment 527 

Two Noble Women Saving a Regiment 245 

Two Things that Sounded Alike 387 

Tyler (Gen.), and his Staff, Escape of. 251 



Umbrellas in Military Service 368 

Unacquainted with Politics 97 

Uncle Sam's Mule Cleaners 445 

Uncomfortably Warm Place for a Soldier 286 

Unconsciously a Hero 496 

Under Lock and Key 655 

Under the Star Spangled Banner 73 



\ 



INDEX TO THE LEADING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS. 



70; 



Unexpected Rebuff 142 

Unfortunate Absence at the Siege of Fort 

Sumter 101 

Unintentional Trick taught by an Examining 

Physician 1 S6 

Union Men safe in South Carolina in General 

Jackson's Day 121 

Unknown Lady Visitor at the N. 0. Fleet 354 

Unquestionably a Hard Case 204 

Unrequited Gallantry in a N. 0. Street Car... 564 
Unsuccessful Search for Information at Head- 
quarters 471 

Unuttered Thought of a Dying Sold'ur 537 

Unwilling to Forfeit his Right to Escape 107 

Up the Cumberland — Grit of the Old Major.. .394 

V. 

Vallandigham's Talk with the Ohio Toll-Gate 

Keeper 48 

Vanderbilt (Steamer) Outwitted by Semmes.379 
Van Dorn and Price pitted against Rosecrans289 

Vanity of Patriotism and Honor 70 

Verbal Sharpshooting 537 

Very Obliging Picket at Morris Island 280 

Very Pleasant Surprise for Tivo 580 

Vice President Breckinridge's Son 327 

Vice President Hamlin a Private in Co. A. . . 100 

Vicksburg Campaign, Stray Leaf in the 225 

Vicksburg Caves, In and Out of the 606 

Vicksburg, How the Flag was Planted at 306 

Vicksburg Picket Repartee 335 

Virginia, Entombment of a Loyalist in 106 

Virginia, First Oath and Testim'y of a Slave in90 
Virginia, First "Union" Demonstration in O!d602 
Virginia Forces, Command Tendered to Gen- 
eral Scott 71 

Virginia — Instance of Loyalty 551 

Visit of Gen. Jenkins at a Penn. Editor's.. . .461 
Voting for a Candidate on Principle 28 

W. 

Wadsworth's (Gen.) Shoe Raid 458 

Wanted a Furlough. 429 

Wanted to draw on the Blue Clothes 170 

War Dispatches in Church 151 

War News from Richmond Wanted 465 

War's Doings to One Family 202 

Wash. Litchtiter, one of Morgan's Converts. .154 

Washington's (John A.), Ignoble End 341 

Watch kept by a Dog over Lieut. Pfiejf's Grave587 
Waving the Stars and Stripes from the Sum- 
mit of Lost Mountain 303 

Wedding-Table Flag at Pensacola 566 

Wcitzel Satisfied with the Twelfth Conn 415 

Welcome to the Troops at Port Royal 94 

Well Done for a Youth 246 



Western Regiments on a Charge at Fort Don- 

elson 266 

Western Soldier's Characteristic Pluck 296 

Western Steamboat Saved by a Woman 359 

Western Zeal in Volunteering 1S6 

"Where's dat Nigger ? " 430 

What Mr. Lincoln said to a N. Orleans Editor449 

What One Noble Woman Did 450 

When Gen. Buckner hung his Head 415 

When will the War end ? 113 

Where arc they 1 138 

Where is your Heart 1 75 

Which Side ? go 

Whisper Good-Night, Love ! 559 

Whiz-z-z and Whist 266 

Why John Rawley became a Substitute 197 

Widow Shultz's Appeal to the President 434 

Wigs on Rebel Majors 258 

Wilkinson's Veteran Minnesota Regiment. . . .58 

Willing to part with his other Leg 397 

Wilson's (Billy) Zouaves — Extraordinary 

Scene 1 84 

Wine and Sentiment for the Hospital Soldiers.598 
Wisconsin Body-Guard for the President. . . . 1S7 
Witnessing and Dying for the Truth in Miss. 120 

Wolford's Cavalry — not Yankees 308 

Woman as a Dernier Resort 616 

Woman's Tongue betraying the Rob$l Torpedoes 

at Fort Henry 589 

Woman's Trials and Triumph 472 

Won his Wager 279 

Wooed and Wedded — with Embellishments. . . .600 

Work of a Second 301 

Working the Monster Parrott Gun 508 

Worse than being Drafted 198 

Worse to lose Five than One — Gen. Grant's 
Philosophy 41 1 



Yankee Doodle in the Storm of Shot 356 

Yankee Forever ! 1 93 

Yankee Pris'ner 'scaped from Richmon' 612 

Yates (Gov.) Giving Grant a Desk in his 

Office 405 

Yielding only when he Lost his Head 261 

York town Negro Rifleman brought down 319 

Young America at Fort Donelson 227 

Young Feminine Spoiling for a Fight 605 

Young Woman (A) Shoots a Guerrilla to 

Avenge the Murder of her Lover 617 



Zealous for the Cause but not for the Scrip.. .460 
Zollicoffer's Death at the Hands of Col. Fry. 237 

"Zou! Zou! Zou!" 310 

Zouaves on Picket Duty 237 






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